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The Human Face of Climate Change

- I have contributed the least to it, yet I am paying the highest price

Photo: Tine Harden

- Our crops are failing

Mos t o f t h e wo r l d ’s p oo r e s t p e op l e a r e f a r me r s . H i ghe r temperatures and changing rainfal l pat terns, as wel l as worsening f loods and droughts, are k il ling their crops. Rainfal l in some Sub-Saharan countr ies has declined by 25 percent in the last 30 years, and the number of food emergenc ies has tr ipled since the mid-1980s. In some of the poorest Af r ican countr ies, climate change may reduce har vest s by as much as 50% by 2020.


Photo: Brendan Bannon

- We must walk even further for water

Water is l i fe. Peasant farmers depend on rain-fed agr iculture and water holes for themselves and their l ivestock. The number of Afr icans l iv ing with water scarcity is projected to double f rom 300 mil l ion in 1990 to 600 mil l ion by 2025. C l imate change wi l l be responsible for up to 250 mil l ion of this total .


Photo: Tine Harden


- I only get one meal a day

Climate change threatens to ravage both nat ional and household economies around the wor ld. It could knock a s much a s 20 percent of f the global GDP, with average consumpt ion level s dropping an equal amount . While this would hur t ever yone, i t would hur t poor people the most. Climate change could make it impossible for hundreds of mil lions of parents to meet their children’s basic nutr it ional needs.

Photo: Tine Harden

Photo: Ami Vitale


- Our health will decline

Cl imate change is increasing the natural range and vi rulence of insect-transmitted diseases l ike malar ia. It is a lso tr igger ing diseases associated with droughts and f loods, such as typhoid and cholera. This threatens to overwhelm exist ing health care faci l i t ies. Worsening hurr icanes and cyclones are also damaging health care faci l i t ies in many poor countr ies that cannot afford to rebui ld them.


- We fled from a conflict

Cl imate change is t r igger ing smal l-scale conf l icts in Afr ica, Asia and Latin America – most ly as a result of greater water scarcity. C l imate change is apparently playing an important role in larger conf l icts as wel l , including the humanitar ian disaster in Darfur that has caused approximately 200,000 deaths and led 2.5 mil l ion people to f lee their homes.

Photo: Evelyn Hockstein


- We had to leave our homes

Pack up or per ish. Forced migrat ion is the harsh real i ty await ing many peop le a f fec ted by c l imate change. Reduced ra in fa l l , lengthening droughts, r is ing sea- levels and re lated phenomena are expected to cause between 200 mil l ion and one bi l l ion people – most of whom are poor, uneducated and unwelcome elsewhere – to evacuate their homes by 2050.

Photo: Tine Harden

- You need to care Photo: Tine Harden

The c it izens and governments of industr ialized countr ies have to lead the way in reduc ing global greenhouse gas emissions. Only then w il l others do their par t . At the same t ime, we have to dramat ical ly expand access to f inanc ial resources, informat ion and technical suppor t that fac ilitates poor nat ion’s adaptat ion to a more rough and changing climate.
