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Introduction
Climate change has been put forth largely as a technological problem: it is the coal plants, gas-guzzling vehicles and energy-intensive buildings that are the issue. The solutions being proposed are largely technological as well: carbon capture, resurgence of nuclear plants, clean coal and genetically modified cows. While useful to a point, purely technological solutions are inadequate to fully address the historical and justice-related issues of climate change.
Instead of a strictly technological orientation toward climate change, we posit a more robust understanding that envelopes climate change as not only an environmental problem but one of social equity as well. Climate change is the symptom of a larger crisis that has been in the making for a long period of time and has resulted in extreme social and economic inequality—both domestically and internationally.
A Brief History: Creating Climate Change
The wealthiest nations, according to the Human Development Report, are responsible for “about 7 out of every 10 tonnes of CO2 that have been emitted since the start of the industrial era.”1 Today, in the U.S., the average person is responsible for more than 20 metric tons (1 metric ton = 1 tonne) of CO2 per year.2 In contrast, those countries on the bottom of the U.N. Human Development Index emit less than .1 metric ton per year.3 This is directly attributable to the energy and economic infrastructure across societies. [See figure 1.] The human side of the climate calculus is equally stark. It is estimated that more than one-quarter of the population of developing countries, or 1.4 billion people, are living in extreme poverty (“a dollar a day”).4 World Development Indicators (2008) indicate that 2.5 billion of the world’s population lives on less than $2.00 per day.5 Clearly, Anil Agarwal and Sunita Narain, two leading researchers/activists from India, were correct when they stated that global warming occurs in an unequal world.6
For some in the international policy arena, the solution to these vast inequities has been to promote globalization and market liberalization (that is, the industrialized country model), to nearly every region in the world. Even as the issue of rising CO2 is dominant on the international climate agenda, the World Bank’s International Financial Corporation (IFC) increased its lending for fossil fuel projects 165 percent in FY2008. On the whole, “the World Bank Group increased its fossil-fuel lending by 60 percent in the same period.”7 Yet, these solutions and the condition of extreme inequity continue to be obfuscated as many in the industrial world dare not ask the critical question: emissions for whom and what? Can we really regard GHGs emitted from subsistence farmer’s livestock equivalent in nature to GHGs emitted for sports cars and 10,000 square foot single family homes? By focusing the conversation strictly on the global quantity of GHGs without regard for social realities, we reinforce inequity.
Moreover, the same destruction results as this model of development is transferred to other regions: degradation of air and water; commodification of resources; removal of Indigenous peoples from their homelands; and exploitation of low-wage workers. This will inevitably lead to a similar upward trajectory in greenhouse gas emissions.
