The opportunity that can prevent climate change from happening has passed. Mankind once had a possibility to prevent things from happening but failed due to insurmountable difficulties and lack of trust. But In any case, humans will still need, and will sure live on this planet. When the earth’s temperature rises, some areas will be devastatingly affected, while some areas will be less affected, even positively affected by global warming. The problem is that the different impacts of global warming on different countries will lead to inconsistent interests between countries, which makes it impossible to face the challenge together.
Polar countries, such as Northern Europe, Canada, Russia, these countries may be positively affected by global warming. One of the big problems these countries face is that parts of their areas are too cold, and people need to use a lot of energy to withstand the low temperatures. Global climate change has increased the temperature in these countries, which has greatly reduced their heating costs. The permafrost thawing caused by climate change can even bring benefits. One example is the mammoth ivory trade in Russia. The thawing of the permafrost has allowed people to dig out mammoth ivory from millions of years ago. This ivory brought additional benefits to the locals. At the same time, this ivory is also a substitute for the modern African ivory trade. In a sense, people’s demand for African ivory is reduced.
Some countries have received both positive and negative effects to offset each other. For example, in China, the southern part of China will become hotter and endure more extreme weather due to climate change, but the shift of the precipitation line caused by climate change has a great effect on reduce the desertification in northwestern China. At the same time, China also has sufficient technology and resources to cope with secondary disasters brought about by global warming.
And for some countries almost only negatively affected by global warming. Many tropical countries, especially poor tropical countries, will be hit hard by the extreme weather caused by climate change. Such blows are relatively rare in developed countries, or in other words, developed countries have a greater capacity to withstand such blows. For example, for the same degree of drought, American farmers can use advanced irrigation technology, genetically modified seeds, and groundwater extraction measures to alleviate the problem. In California’s seasonal drought, which occurs almost every year, although the government often urges people to save water, people still have enough water to water the lawn in the backyard. Americans have never starved due to drought, and California oranges have not even increased in price.
But developing countries, especially countries in the equatorial region, face more extreme environments and lack the ability to deal with problems. Africa has a huge population and huge population growth, as well as relatively fragile food production (even if it is insufficient compared to the current population), and in the face of climate change, the fragility of their food industry may trigger a global humanitarian disaster.
The core question is, how do the countries on the planet distribute these impacts due to climate change? Those countries that have benefited from climate change have a moral obligation to help countries that have been severely affected by climate change?
Rich countries can rely on economic and technological levels to avoid and mitigate the negative effects of climate change, while poor countries can only eat it all. Most of the emissions are created by rich countries, and morally poor African countries do Should receive some kind of compensation, but their poverty makes them unable to ask for this supplement (the rich countries have enough power to refuse their ask)
However, what is certain is that this is just a question of “want and don’t want”, not a question of “can or can’t”. Although the Industrial Revolution has created the inevitable consequences of global warming, the industrial revolution has also made mankind have an unprecedented ability to confront climate change and overcome the limitations of the natural environment.
I believe that mankind will not fail because of climate change (or at least we should fail by higher level event such as asteroids or nuclear war ), as long as the world can be more united, climate change can be adapt
Mammoth ivory trade in Russia
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/mammoth-tusk-hunters-russia-china
The benefits of global warming for cold area
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-climate-change-is-good-for-the-world
California’s response to drought
https://calmatters.org/newsletters/whatmatters/2021/09/california-drought-water-conservation/
Underdeveloped areas are affected by climate change
https://time.com/5687470/cities-countries-most-affected-by-climate-change/
