Climate Change and Marginalized Populations

Climate change has only recently been a big deal to people around the world, and by some, it is still not taken seriously. Climate change is responsible for things such as animal extinction, temperature change, droughts, flash floods, and whole ecosystems collapsing like those in coral reefs. These problems are not small, they affect drinking water, habitats for animals and humans, and can not be reversed easily.


One of the most affected populations from climate change are marginalized people. Climate change affects everyones area differently but when some people do not have the options for aid that others do, that becomes a social justice issue. For some people there is not a problem of avoiding the environmental impacts that climate change causes, it is easy to get to a hospital, you can call the police if something goes wrong with your home, you can go to the store to buy food if you run out. The resources for some people are endless, but for marginalized populations that is not true.


The largest climate issues for this group of people is usually temperature changes. Temperature changes can cause a wide variety of issues but mostly it can affect drinking water, flash floods, and deforestation. Not only do these issues affect humans directly but also affect animals which leads to problems in farming and industry. Although these problems would not affect most, it can be a huge concern for marginalized populations. In a situation where desertification is taking place, that means water shortages and crop failures, in richer nations this does take awhile to affect people but for pooper nations this could mean loss of clean drinking water and loss of food and economy.


The Human Impact Report published in 2009 said that 300,000 people a year are already dying from the effects of climate change and another four billion are vulnerable to negative side effects such as spread of diseases, crop failure, food insecurity and floods and other extreme weather. Although these issues are not exclusive to marginalized populations, people do have a limited ability to cope with these issues. Health, livelihood, housing, and security are disproportionately affecting individuals in an already fragile ecosystem which includes elderly people, women, less fortunate people, and any individual that does not get the resources some other people do.