Beyond the effects of climate change

Carolyne César Lima discusses why poor people are being hit hardest by climate change

people in developing countries are often unable to chose the materials and structures which will best protect their homes from natural disasters. Photo: Ian Bray/Oxfam poor people often don't have access to affordable and effective medicines in the aftermath of a natural disaster. Photo: Howard Davies/Oxfam

Over the past few years, the effects of climate change have dominated news bulletins around the world. We’ve seen extreme flooding in the UK, hurricanes in the US and Central America and forest fires in Greece, to name but a few. There’s no doubt that climate change is seriously affecting the developed as well as the developing world, however, there is a difference in the way that the effects are felt.

On average, for every nineteen people living in a developing country, one is a victim of some kind of natural disaster. In developed countries, the statistic stands at one in every 1500. There is more than one reason for this. People living in poverty are unable to make decisions about where they live and are often forced to stay in areas which are more likely to be affected by of natural disasters. Immediately then, they are much more exposed to the effects of climate change. But location isn’t the only problem. Poor people in developing countries are often left to build their homes using the limited resources available to them, so they are unable to choose the materials and structures which will best protect their homes from the natural disasters which they are exposed to.

Not only are poor communities in developing countries more likely to be directly exposed to the natural disasters brought on by climate change, but their indirect effects can be much more devastating to these people. Poor people are more vulnerable to infections because they often lack good balanced diets, making their immune systems more fragile and they often don’t have access to affordable and effective medicines to prevent the spread of diseases in the aftermath of a natural disaster. Besides this, developing countries are often not financially prepared to deal with catastrophes. Fragile economies make people vulnerable because they mean that individuals don’t have the resources to face and recover from these events, and that governmental aid is limited.

The impact of natural disasters is determined by the poverty of the community it affects rather than the nature of the disaster itself. Poor people are more vulnerable, not only to the effects of the climate change, but also to all its indirect consequences. The impact for these people is much greater: sometimes because they lose everything but sometimes because they lose even more; the ability to restart.