When one pollutes and others pay the price

Greenhouse gases, due to burning of fossil fuels, have a very long residence time in the atmosphere and produce severe changes in natural system and therefore to biological and human activities that are sensitive to the climate. This in turn leads to global warming. Though the exact future pace of warming is uncertain, there can be little scientific doubt that the world has embarked on a major series of geophysical changes. Scientists have detected various symptoms of this change clearly in several areas. The emissions and atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases are rising, there are signs of rapidly increasing average surface temperatures, and scientists have detected diagnostic signals such as greater high-latitude warming that are distinguishing predictions of this particular type of warming. Be that as it may, the average emissions per Bangladeshi citizen are much less than the global average, the developed countries - the richest - are already well above the level which is considered to be sustainable. In actuality, poor countries, like Bangladesh, are subsidising the rich, allowing them to reach their today's developed status. The root cause of global warming problems lies in the heavily industrialised world, yet, as climate changes, the poor and under-developed countries will pay heavy price. While the poor are the least to blame for climate change, they will be the worst affected, a stark contrast indeed. Their dependence on nature is much higher than that of the rich, and their ability to cope with disaster is much weaker. Scientists and researchers have shown what is causing global warming or global climate change. Believe it or not, developed countries have been polluting for years and as such they should take responsibility in solving the problem. Regrettably, to do anything in today's world requires money, a commodity that many poor countries do not have or have little. So, developed countries have a bigger responsibility towards fighting climate change. It is nothing but the process of their development that has resulted in the present global situation. What is worse, when they were progressing towards development, they did not even think what the serious consequences of such development could be. They continued to improve their living conditions at the cost of climate risks. Again, the history shows that many developing countries were ruled by the developed countries who allowed selective facilities and improvements to be introduced in the countries during their rule. Many developing countries were left in total ruins when they earned their freedom. Furthermore, the US is historically responsible for the lion's share of global greenhouse gas emissions; the US military is the largest single emitter of carbon on the planet; and the historic role of the US in climate negotiations has been far from satisfactory. With globalisation, people of developing countries have become aware of development and their aspirations have changed. They also want to improve and want to improve soon as enough time and opportunity have been wasted by them. But the developing world, once again, is not in a favourable condition and this time climate change is playing the odd. The world's poorest ones who are likely to feel the effects of climate change the most and are likely to be able to deal with them the least and many have treated this as "climate injustice" and the effect of this climate change could be severe. As a consequence of global warming, significant per cent of world population will face water shortages. Plenty of environmental refugees will be created by 2050, as a direct result of rising sea levels, erosion and agricultural damage. Around 17 million Bangladeshis could find themselves without homes by 2030 due to flooding, cyclones and tornadoes. Elsewhere in Africa, more than 60 million more Africans will be exposed to malaria if temperatures rise by 2.0 degrees Celsius. Another 182 million sub-Saharan Africans could die of disease "directly attributable" to climate change by the end of the century. In Asia, the homes of 94 million people could be flooded by the end of the century. The writer can be reached at email: shafiqul0032@yahoo.com