Blogs
Example Blog from 2019 - Isabella Jancso, Brazil
Isabella Jancso, Brazil
Environment Nov 1, 2019 by Isabella Jancso Edit | Remove
Link to what the brazilian youth is doing:
It is clear that the countries who have benefitted the most from using fossil fuels are the countries who have the biggest economies in the planet, such as the United States, China, European Union, India and Japan. Even though these countries didn’t industrialize at the same time, they are responsible for the biggest economies in the world, which involves a lot of industries which translates into bigger levels of carbon emissions and contribution to the climate change crisis. Although they are the biggest contributors, they are not the ones who will be most impacted, since they are large economies, which means that they have the resources to deal with this problem. The countries that will suffer the most are smaller countries and 3rd world countries. Their economies revolve mostly around agriculture, which will be most certainly affected by climate change. Smaller countries in Africa, South America and Asia will face food and resource shortages, which is what we call climate injustice.
The places and populations that are most vulnerable to climate change is directly related to how big the countries are, economically speaking. The bigger the country, the smaller the damage. Cities like Karachi, the largest Pakistan which I had never heard about, is already facing water shortages. Dhaka, Bangladesh’s largest city, in addition to this, is already facing problems related to sea-level rise. Manila, one of the largest cities of the island nation of the Philippines, is facing extreme heat stress and precipitation.
I believe that Global North countries have a moral obligation to reduce their emissions. This group includes the G8 countries, the United States, Canada, all member states of the European Union, Israel, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, as well as Australia and New Zealand and four of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, excluding China. As I’ve mentioned before, some of these countries are considered the biggest economies in the world and biggest contributors to carbon emissions. Since they play such a large role in this problem and have the resources to help, I believe they should take responsibility and help. There are so many thing that could be done, simple things that some of these countries are not doing even though they should.
Some of the systemic changes that Brazil could make moving towards climate justice is replacing the country's machinery with sustainable options, such as solar and eolic energy. And the same applies to smaller institutions such as my school. In addition to this, there smaller things that my school could do, such as reducing single use plastic, recycling materials and food, which can be turned into fertilizer to the school’s vegetable garden, and also reducing the consumption of meat on school grounds.
