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How does your footprint reflect the economy of your country, including its colonial relations?
The size of my footprint is proportional to the size of my country’s economy because if we look at the factors that impact one’s footprint it is things like food, methods of transportation, services, size of housing and the amount of energy we use. I have a fairly large footprint because I live in Canada where I have the luxury of having multiple cars, a home with access to electricity, water and natural gas as well as food, clothes and products that are imported from other countries. With all these things that I have it is expected that I use an excessive amount of energy heat my home or cool my home. Even more to transport myself from place to place. On top of that electricity to power all my unnecessary gadgets. The more we own tends to result in more greenhouse gas emissions to either make the product, ship the product or power the product.
Greenhouse gases are emitted when farming, producing shipping the foods that I eat. Shipping and trade is a reason why my country’s colonial relations reflect my carbon footprint because according to a study made by the European Parliament ,”global CO2 emissions may rise substantially to 22 % for international aviation and 17 % for maritime transport by 2050.” If we look at Alberta, the natural resource we sell is oil.. Extracting oil from the oil sands requires energy therefore contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. It also requires land to be cleared which affects ecosystems and habitats of animals. Maybe if we only produced enough oil for Canadians to use our carbon footprint might be smaller but the reason why it is so large is because of colonial relations; our economy depends on it.
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2015/569964/IPOL_STU(2015)569964_EN.pdf
How are the effects of climate change related with power imbalances among countries or within countries?
The effects of climates change tends is related to power imbalances because climate change tends to have a greater impact on the communities with less power. For example, climate change been an adversity to the indigenous people all over the world. It has been difficult for indigenous people because the push to use more renewable resources has caused many to lose their home. As mentioned in the article, the use of biofuel has costed the indigenous people of Indonesia and Malaysia their forests and hydroelectric dams resulted in flooding. In most places indigenous people lack power and legal protection of their land. This allows the government or other companies to take the land for climate change initiatives, leaving communities displaced and vulnerable.
