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Written by Jonathan Maslow
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Thursday, 29 March 2007 |
I started looking this morning at a new study by Columbia University’s Center for International Earth Science Information Network that locates the low-elevation places on Earth expected to be most severely affected by sea level rises and severe cyclones from global warming. For the first time, the study puts together climate science, geography and demographics.
It says that some 634 million people live in the most vulnerable coastal zones. Among those countries, in addition to affluent countries like the United States, Japan and the Netherlands, are the poorest countries like China, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Egypt and the Philippines.
The study emphasizes a crucial point in the debate over climate change: the poorest countries most vulnerable to weather catastrophes are also the countries least able to finance adaptive measures to protect themselves, even though they have contributed little to causing the problem.
Isn’t there a moral obligation here for the global community to help protect the world’s poor from global warming?
Gandhi said, when you make policy, keep in front of you the face of the world’s poorest man, and let it be your guide.
More later on this important new study.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 30 March 2007 )
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