Climate Change & Low Income
Why are the damages of climate change more devastating and difficult to repair in low-income areas than in wealthy, resourceful communities?
“The problems caused by the lifestyles of the wealthy and high social classes slip over to the low-class areas where they have less experience and materials to cope with.”
How do disasters affect the low income and social class people in different ways than the wealthy? The people of low income and social class are having to risk their homes, food, family and heritage due to the disasters and damages that are caused by others. People in low middle income countries are about five times more likely to be hit by the disasters of climate change rather than high and wealthy income areas. According to the Social Science Research Center, “Katrina’s devastation is of course linked to specific environmental, economic, social, and political circumstances in the region. For New Orleans, its position below sea level, its high poverty rate, the racial dimensions of that poverty, funding cuts for levee maintenance, among other factors, have all helped shape the effects of the storm.” After almost ⅓(28%) of New Orleans’ population suffered from poverty before Katrina hit the coast, nearly 40% of the population had dropped to low income. Climate change mostly affected the poor and low social class in more devastating conditions than the wealthy.
Climate change affects people in low social class levels more devastatingly than the areas of wealthy conditions. Low income countries, people of color, indigenous people with disabilities are more exposed to effects of climate change than the wealthy. Ghiwa Nakat, the executive director of Greenpeace says, “This global majority – marginalized and made more vulnerable by powerful systems of oppression – don’t have access to the financial resources and institutional capacity to adapt to climate change nor to recover from the losses and damage that it causes.”
Climate justice matters because it constantly forces everyone who bears the most responsibility for the climate havoc to work with and support those who are suffering from it. Some groups of social economy are greatly disadvantaged more than others putting them in the greatest risks. “The world’s poor did not cause climate change, but face its worst consequences,” states the Global Center of Adoption, an international organization which works as a solution broker to accelerate actions.
The difficult lives of the poor are made infinitely more difficult by climate change and the poor also have way less to cope with the consequences caused by others. Economic inequality is rising between countries and groups that are being affected by climate change and those who aren’t. “In 4 Ways Climate Change Undermines Social Justice and What We Can Do About It”, Anju Sharma recounts the ways that climate change and social justice go together to lead to the transformation of overcoming barriers and unleashing opportunities for social justice. “Climate change is increasing competition for scarce resources,” Anju observes. Access to common property and resources are shrinking for the poor and marginalized which restricts the access to cheaper sources of food, livelihood, energy and housing. The problems caused by the lifestyles of the wealthy and high social classes slip over to the low-class areas where they have less experience and materials to cope with.
Flooding affects areas of low income people in various and unpredictable ways such as food and shelter loss. Lives are being lost, homes destroyed, crops are failing, livelihoods are jeopardized, and cultural heritage is being wiped out. “Climate justice constantly forces everyone who owns the most responsibility for the climate havoc to cooperate with the rest of the world and support those who are suffering from changes.” A big cause of climate change is all the wealthy people that have more than enough resources craving for more. Then, that greediness causes people to start using more and more technology that releases carbon dioxide into the air. Everyone can work together and think about other people suffering because of their avaricious actions. Every time a flood occurs, a greater portion of exposed economic activity becomes lost in the low income community. Low income and social class communities risk their lives and all their resources with the interactions of flooding caused by climate change.
Since the communities affected by the disasters are low income and social class humans many people blatantly ignore the other portion of their world suffering. When an area is flooded the community deals with productivity loss, reduced hours of workers and incoming resources from other places in addition to damage costs. When a flood happens, stakes are high to replace everything that was lost and needs to be repaired and when a devastating flood hits a low income area, it becomes very difficult for the damage to be fixed. When low income and social class people are affected by floods, they need to be helped by someone who can provide the money and support to repair damage. Millions of people are facing risks of high floods that could wash away their whole entire community.
The majority of people affected by Hurricane Katrina were people of low income and social class. Many poor individuals and families were unable to evacuate in time and the ones that were fortunately able to evacuate were mostly not able to afford the trip back after the hurricane had ended. The low income populations experienced a greater impact due to less resources to prepare for and cope with as well as the impacts of the hurricane as infrastructure service disruptions. “Resourcefulness depends also on other factors, such as the access to facilities.
So, if a community has only one grocery store in—within two miles of five-mile radius, and if that grocery store runs out of supply or their access is disrupted, and if they don’t have a substitute, that affects their resourcefulness.” Another feature of resourcefulness was the social networks that people can rely on individuals and households in their social networks. That way when their infrastructure service factors are disrupted again, they can gain resources from their social networks. Hurricane Katrina had various impacts on the populations however some populations had higher and more costly impacts than others. For example, the storms of hurricane Katrina heavily impacted the poor, low income and social class people.
Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, Louisiana, on the morning of August 29, 2005. The magnitude of the displacement that resulted was immense: the city's entire population of 455,000 was forced to leave the city and resettle, which some did temporarily and others permanently. During the first 10 months after the hurricane had ended, New Orleans suffered an over-the-year average loss of about 95,00 jobs! With all the job losses and employment was 105,300 below the previous year’s November record. One year later the over-the-year job loss continues to decrease with 92,900 jobs.
Overall Hurricane Katrina was the most costly hurricane ever in the United States. It also left widespread economic impacts which meant that oil and gas industry operations were crippled after the storm. Communities that were near the coast who rely on tourism suffered from loss of infrastructure and business erosion. Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, Louisiana, on the morning of August 29, 2005. The magnitude of the displacement that resulted was immense: the city's entire population of 455,000 was forced to leave the city and resettle, which some did temporarily and others permanently. A storm of Hurricane Katrina’s strength and intensity is expected to cause major flooding and damage. Hurricane Katrina’s destruction lasted between August 29-31. All in all, Hurricane Katrina is well known for one of the U.S.’s most costly natural disasters and deadliest destruction to the low income and social class people.
Professional climate activist Bill McKibben says “Climate change is not just an ecological crisis, It is a question of justice and intergenerational equity” Many natural disasters resulting from climate change affect the less resourceful and poor people over the high social class people than what they can handle. The results and disasters of climate change mostly hit the poor areas harder than the wealthy that had more goods to survive with. Floods caused the low income and social class to lose many resources that they already had a few of such as food and shelter. Poor individuals and families were sadly unable to evacuate before the hurricane hit and those who were fortunately able to evacuate were mostly not able to afford a trip back home after Hurricane Katrina had come to an end. All in all, why do humans have to know about climate justice and why is it such an important topic that every citizen should know about? Climate justice is a topic of how different humans in different areas are affected in unforgettable and unequal ways and how we can create a world of equity.
