By Sofia Ferrera
It is no news that ignorance is one of the biggest contributing factors to global warming and the state our planet finds itself in today — ignorance of the needs of our flora and fauna. But does this ignorance not go beyond basic ideas of global warming? Are our concerns so selective that ignorance has infiltrated our thoughts and priorities, that we forget that populations, even countries, exist?
We should ask ourselves how our perception of global warming can be self-centred and narrow-minded, where we close our eyes and cover our ears. The lack of awareness of global interconnectivity and codependency exacerbates inequalities, both in terms of who is suffering from the consequences and who is responsible for them. We ignore the fact that while some nations can adapt more easily to climate change, others are already facing existential challenges, making ignorance an even more destructive force.
Over the past three to five years, global warming has become a hot topic in the media. Every week in the New York Times we read about heavy rains in the United States or how the heat has become unbearable in Europe. A sense of panic has taken hold of us, as we worry about whether we will still be alive in 2050. However, is this concern new to everyone? Has the greenhouse effect taken everyone by surprise? or is it just a new topic for us, those who live in first-world countries?
It is interesting to note how panic about the future of the planet has only intensified as the effects have started to impact more developed nations. This concern is new to those of us who live in said developed nations, protected from the “natural disasters” that accompany the greenhouse effect. However, for other populations, such as in third-world countries, the realities have been causing panic for over a decade. This raises questions about climate justice and how the voices of those who have been historically affected are often marginalised in the global discourse. The differential impact of climate change between developed and developing nations is a reflection of a world order where crises only become visible when they affect global powers.
We worry about how unbearable the heat is affecting our Euro Summer and we think “Wow, it’s impossible to live like this”; And indeed! The heat is getting worse, the rains are getting more acidic, heavy and flooding, food is more expensive, and clothes are lasting less.
We have finally reached the same mindset that populations in third-world countries have had for at least a decade. We have been warned for years by those who were just beginning to see the impacts and were unable to protect themselves. This belated awareness in rich nations is a brutal reminder of how the effects of climate change have been ignored or minimised until they become impossible to avoid. The suffering of vulnerable populations has long served as a neglected prelude to what we are all now facing.
On March 29th of this year (2024), a series of floods hit almost 95% of southern Brazil, leaving hundreds of people and animals homeless and hundreds dead. Almost 6 months later, in some cities, the water has not yet completely receded, bodies are still being found, children and animals are still without their caretakers, and the South of Brazil is still underwater. But all this was just considered another natural disaster.
In Ghana, the country has been a fast fashion clothing scrapyard since 1990. According to BBC News, Every week 15 million pieces of clothes for “recycling” arrive from China. Our damaged and recycled clothes from H&M, Zara, etc., are thrown into third world countries, officially to be reused, unofficially to ruin countries. 40% of the clothes are sent to landfills and are burned or carried away by the sea. Is the sand in Ghana nowadays composed more of minerals or polyester?
Every year we are moved by the droughts, famines and “natural disasters” that hit third-world countries. We travel “there”, volunteer, think “poor them”, go back to our lives, think “I can’t deal with this heat without air conditioning”, and they are still “there”.
In a few days we forget the news about the slave labour conditions in Bangladesh, about how 40% of the Amazon has been deforested, about the floods that increase hunger in the Congo, the prolonged drought in the Philippines, …
“India holds 17% of the world’s population, and it is slowly becoming one of the world’s largest climate catastrophes. The monsoon season gets worse every year, and being from Kerala, I have seen thousands of people die yearly from flooding, houses destroyed and businesses ruined, and we get no justice. India, specifically its poorest, have been the unfortunate victims of exploitation from its own government and first world countries, and the people bear the consequences.”
- Ex CIS student
The news cycle and our own inertia contribute to the perpetuation of these global crises. As the headlines disappear, so does the pressure for change, allowing the devastating conditions to continue unabated. This selective forgetting reflects a lack of commitment to collective memory and a willingness to continue with practices that perpetuate suffering, as long as they do not affect us directly.
For years we have been worried about Venice being underwater, about how its culture and history will be lost; but we have forgotten the speech by the Minister of Tuvalu in 2021, warning about the rise in sea levels and the risk of Tuvalu being submerged. How often does the main Western media talk about Tuvalu, Ghana, Brazil, Indonesia, the Philippines, etc? The New York Times, as an example, is quick to report politics from third-world countries, particularly on the chaos they find themselves in. The Western media chooses to frame third-world countries as chaotic and disorganised, inviting us to think less of them as civilised people, making it easy to ignore their sufferings as human beings.
Don’t get me wrong, we all suffer from global warming. We are all to blame. We don’t need to change the world alone, but we can start caring about it one by one.
What is so different about us from them? Is there even a “us” and them”?
Why does it seem that our suffering and panic are more urgent than those who bear our consequences?
Isn’t this concern about global warming and whether we will be alive until 2050 something that has been happening for decades in third-world countries?
Did these people imagine that they would reach almost 2025 or did they not think they would even reach this point?
There are so many questions that can only be answered by giving people voices, voices that are never truly heard. The urgency to listen and act should not be reserved for when these crises reach wealthier shores; it should have started when the vulnerable began sounding the alarm, as they are the ones that sustain our economies with their resources and suffering.