Our focus at Idealistics is on poverty reduction, not the environment. However, there is a clear intersection between environmentalism and poverty issues. In honor of Blog Action Day, an effort coordinated by Change.org to get multiple bloggers blogging about the same issue on the same day (this year's issue is climate change) I want to explore how climate change and poverty are linked.The poor are greatly sensitive to changes in the price of food. Climate change can adversely affect food production, and therefore prices. Environmental advocates and researchers have explored how climate change may impact the poor, as was the case with a recent study
...by Purdue University researchers [that] examined the potential economic influence of adverse climate events, such as heat waves, drought and heavy rains, on those in 16 developing countries. Urban workers in Bangladesh, Mexico and Zambia were found to be the most at risk.While my issue is poverty, if we don't take care of our environment, the poor will be at even greater risk. Therefore by virtue of being a poverty advocate, I must be an environmentalist as well.
"Extreme weather affects agricultural productivity and can raise the price of staple foods, such as grains, that are important to poor households in developing countries," said Noah Diffenbaugh, the associate professor of earth and atmospheric sciences and interim director of Purdue's Climate Change Research Center who co-led the study. "Studies have shown global warming will likely increase the frequency and intensity of heat waves, drought and floods in many areas. It is important to understand which socioeconomic groups and countries could see changes in poverty rates in order to make informed policy decisions."
(Photo by lourdes272)
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