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- How does your footprint reflect the economy of your country, including its colonial relations?
My footprint, which is around 7 tonnes per year, is more than that of the country's average, which is way lower (1.9 tonnes per year) This number '1.9' tells us about the poorness of our country (when measured in per capita). USA's average carbon footprint is 18.3, which is a lot more than our countries, which indicates the richness of such countries.
Comparing to the richness of a country, the carbon footprint roughly increases with richness (exceptions include Russia, where most of the carbon footprint comes from natural sources like volcanoes.) Here's some examples:
Country Luxembourg UAE USA UK Russia India Somalia Zimbabwe
GDP per capita $102,000 $68,000 $56,000 $39,000 $8750 $1700 $434 $1000
Carbon footprint (per capita) 22.8 20 28.3 15.4 3.3 1.9 0.013 3.9
India is a country which is still developing, which means the carbon footprint is increasing rapidly. It is soon going to surpass that of developed countries like UK or USA. If we look at the other end of the spectrum, at Luxembourg, which has one of the highest Carbon footprint, we could really see the rich the people are, and how developed the country is.
Footprint map (source : wikipedia):-
- How are the effects of climate change related with power imbalances among countries or within countries?
Power imbalances are created due to climate change among almost all countries. In countries with more Carbon Dioxide emissions, there is more power imbalances.
Particularly, in India, even the Carbon footprint per capita is quite low, the emissions are high due to high population (In fact, it it higher than that of China, Australia, Russia and the UK which have relatively lower population). And the effects are quite bad. There are a lot of power imbalances between 2 neighboring countries.Take the countries USA and Mexico (See the map above) where the difference is huge. When one crosses the border between USA and goes to Mexico, one can really see the difference in Climate and power.
Or even, close to my homeland India, if one goes from a city (i.e Hyderabad) to a nearby small town (e.g. Nellore), one could see the difference. In Hyderabad, power cuts are common, atleast 5 hours a day in Summer and 15 minutes a day in winter, and one could hardly bear 10 minutes without current supply. While in Nellore, even though power cuts are quite common, trees are everywhere. So, it is never too hot, and there is rarely a need of even a fan.
In the town of Nellore, one could see the trees and greenery. It has a clean air and environment, So there is very low amount of Carbon Footprint
Hyderabad, outside our house. One could see the lack of trees and polluted air, and the unclean environment. (This is actually the cleanest part of Hyderabad, which is still considered unclean)
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1 Comment(s)
You have used some really old pictures and the text that you have written below the pictures make no sense:
Nellore, near our old house. You could really see the trees.
Hyderabad, outside our house. One could see the lack of trees and polluted air.
Tharunimm Jamal
Sep 20, 2017