Climate Injustice
By: William Moomaw, Professor Emeritus, Tufts University and Visiting Scientist at Woodwell Climate Research Center in Massachusetts
Climate injustice is a particularly severe barrier to achieving Climate Justice. Natural disasters have been called, "Acts of God" by the legal system. This assures that no person is responsible for the damages caused by extreme weather events or other disasters such as earthquakes. I suspect God does not willingly accept the blame! During the last 50 years, we have observed ever more intense hurricanes, tornadoes, torrential downpours and more severe flooding droughts and fires. Science has made it clear that this change in intensity and frequency is caused by specific human actions. This means that the intense damage the World is experiencing can no longer be blamed on God - if ever it could. Human caused severe weather damage and the actions that led to them raise important questions. Who is responsible for the doubling of heat trapping gases added to the atmosphere in the past 30 years? And who is suffering the consequences?
resulting alteration in the climate and weather is caused by adding heat trapping carbon dioxide from burning coal, wood, and natural gas to make electricity and provide heat for industry and many of our homes, and by fueling our vehicles with oil-based gasoline and diesel. Atmospheric carbon dioxide is also increasing because our forests are losing their capacity to accumulate carbon dioxide from the atmosphere because of frequent harvesting. With few alternatives, all of us bear some responsibility. But many people have little choice. Furthermore, there are clear inequities between those who add little and suffer the greatest damage to themselves and their families, and those individuals and corporations that supply these fuels and vehicles that add large quantities of heat trapping gases to the atmosphere This is Climate Injustice! Climate Injustice occurs both globally and locally. Globally, the wealthier industrial countries have caused the most global heating. Africa, South America and Asia have added the least, but their inhabitants, who often are subsistence farmers or live at the margins in urban
Most of the atmospheric heating and the
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