Welcome to the United Nations
The emergence of the novel coronavirus thathas been wreaking havoc on the world hasresulted in over 160 millions lives lost over ayear and blatantly exposed social andeconomic injustices in all countries. But if theconsequences of this disease are now painfullyvisible, little is said in policy fora about thecauses of this global crisis - that is, the growthof human activities and the exploitative andunsustainable nature of our current socio-economic systems.
Since the beginning of the IndustrialRevolution, natural resources have beenplundered and polluted in the race foreconomic growth, without sufficientconsideration for the impact of economicdevelopment strategies on the planet as well ason all sectors of the population, and withoutthose who plunder and pollute assuming theirresponsibilities.
Similarly, our societies treat their poorestmembers as they treat the planet. People livingin poverty have been exploited for generationsand too often abandoned when their ability towork is exhausted. Around the world,struggling families and communities are oftenblamed and criminalized for their livingpractices and their impact on the environment.People in poverty are forced to rely onunsustainable practices such as logging,poaching, burning coal or trash, overusinglimited natural materials etc. Instead ofconsidering these practices as consequences ofprecarity, exploitation, displacement,imperialism and various other harmful socio-political dynamics that maintain people inpoverty, marginalized communities arecriminalized while root causes remain ignored.
Climate change constitutes yet anotherviolence against the planet and against thepoorest. Their situation, wherever they are inthe globe, is the result of the same process ofeconomic and political domination by anoligarchic elite, social exclusion and violenceof ill-designed policies that have intentionallyput aside and violated the political, economic,social and cultural rights of people living inpoverty, whose lack of political power andagency add into the cycle of disempowerment.
For example, clean energy programmes thatare ill-designed have adverse consequences onpeople and communities living in poverty. Inmany countries, the construction of large-scalehydroelectric dams has entailed forcedeviction and relocation, unfair and insufficientcompensation, sometimes marred bycorruption and discrimination to the detrimentof the poorest. This raises serious humanrights concerns with respect to the loss of land and means of livelihood by local people, andthe severance of the cultural connection andhistory that are particularly important toIndigenous communities.
When not designedwith the participation of local communities,conservation efforts can also harm and displacelocal communities, pushing them further intopoverty and then criminalising them forencroaching into conservation areas. These aresome of the many examples showcasing thataddressing environmental issues in isolationfrom their social contexts is counterproductive.Too often, poor people and the environmentare put up against one another, in competition.In fact, poverty eradication and climate changemust be addressed simultaneously andtogether.
The poorest also bear the heaviest brunt ofglobal warming. People living in extremepoverty are amongst those hardest hit by theeffects of climate change, yet they are the leastresponsible for its causes and have the leastmeans to adapt to and protect themselves fromits adverse impacts. The increase in frequencyand intensity of extreme weather and climateevents, including droughts, floods, and sea-level rise, all exacerbate the daily struggles ofcommunities living in persistent poverty.Climate change impacts can be a matter of lifeor death for communities that rely onsubsistence agriculture, natural resources, orthe informal economy more generally tosurvive.
Communities who were already struggling tosurvive and make a living in the context of achanging climate and environmentaldegradation have also suffered the most fromthe global pandemic, with the accumulation ofcrisis combined with a lack of access tohealthcare, personal protective equipment andnow experiencing the "vaccine apartheid".
