The 21st Century climate challenge

CHAPTER2Climateshocks: risk andvulnerability in an unequal worldIt is easy to lose sight of thehuman face of the peoplewho are most vulnerableto climate change“Hurricane Jeanne took all that I had…my job and my home are gone. I used to havefood. Now I beg in the market.”Rosy-Claire Zepherin, Gonaives, Haiti, 2005 1“We are eating only a little once a day to make the maize last longer, but even then itwill last only a short time. Then we are in trouble.”Margaret Mpondi, Mphako, Malawi, 2002 2“If the rains fail like they did last year we will go hungry. The rich have savings. Theyhave stocks of food. They can sell their oxen for cash. But what do I have? If I sell myox how will I plant next year? If my crop fails we have nothing. It is always like that.Everything depends on rain.”Kaseyitu Agumas, Lat Gayin, southern Gonda, Ethiopia, 2007 3“We had never seen such floods before. Lots of houses were destroyed, lots of people died,our agricultural land was submerged, crops stored in houses were lost. Many livestockwere lost too. We were just not prepared to face such big flooding. So we didn’t have anysavings of money or food.”Pulnima Ghosh Mahishura Gram Panchayat, Nadia District, West Bengal, India, 2007 4“There are more floods now and the river banks are being washed away faster. There’snowhere to go. My land is in the river, I have nothing now.”Intsar Husain, Antar Para, north-western Bangladesh, 2007. 52Climate shocks: risk and vulnerability in an unequal worldClimate science deals in measurement.Emissions of carbon dioxide (CO 2) are weighedin tonnes and gigatonnes. Concentrations ofgreenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphereare monitored in parts per million (ppm).Confronted with the data, it is easy to losesight of the human face of the people who aremost vulnerable to climate change—peoplesuch as those quoted above.The human face of climate change cannotbe captured and packaged in statistics. Many ofthe current impacts are impossible to separatefrom wider pressures. Others will happen in thefuture. There is uncertainty about the location,HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2007/2008 73