Cut off from the world, these villagers watch helplessly as the dam breaks and waters rise in the upazila (sub-district) of Raomari, in Bangladesh. "It all happened in half an hour," recalls Bangladeshi photographer Rasel Chowdhury.
Desmond Tutu, the South African Nobel Peace Prize winner, once said, for example, that rich countries can adapt to the rising temperature "just by clicking the thermostat", while developing countries are obviously facing more severe challenges. So, what role can international solidarity play in it? The following is the author’s thinking on unity from the perspective of moral conscience.
If rich countries can adapt to rising temperatures "with the flick of a thermostat"– to use the metaphor of the South African Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu – developing countries face far more dramatic challenges. A reflection on a shared solidarity informed by an ethical consciousness.
John harting
Johan Hattingh
Facing the challenges of climate change, today’s world needs a moral framework more than ever, and it also needs to achieve international solidarity on the basis of obeying moral concepts.
Facing the challenges of climate change, the world today is more in need of a framework of ethics and an ethically informed practice of international solidarity than ever before.
Multiple reasons have contributed to this demand. The first is the reality in sharp contrast: on the one hand, today’s era is facing global challenges and major trends that are increasingly intertwined with climate change, population mobility, geopolitical tensions, security issues and international terrorism; On the other hand, our measures to deal with these challenges and major trends are becoming more and more disorganized. This is the central idea conveyed by UN Secretary-General António Guterres in his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2019.
This need arises, in the first place, from the stark reality that the global challenges and mega-trends of our time – climate change, the movement of people, geopolitical tensions, security, and international terrorism – become more and more integrated, but our responses to them are more and more fragmented. This was the core message of António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General, in his speech to the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, in January 2019.
Second, and perhaps more importantly, the need to strengthen international solidarity stems from the causes and effects of climate change itself. Climate change is the product of a severely divided world, and its role and influence have deepened and aggravated the already existing phenomenon of division and social fragility.
In the second place, and perhaps more importantly, the need for international solidarity also springs from the causes and effects of climate change itself. Climate change is the product of a world that is already deeply divided, and in its effects and impacts, intensifies and multiplies divisions and vulnerabilities that already exist.
The same is true of marginalized social groups and groups at the subnational level. Undeniably, political and social reality shows that many people have been treated unfairly. For example, poorer countries and groups bear more risks and consequences of climate change, and even if they are responsible for climate change, their responsibilities are much smaller than those of other groups.
This also applies on a subnational level to marginalized social groups and communities. These are undeniable political and social facts, experienced by many as injustices. Poorer nations and groups, for example, are much more vulnerable to the risks and burdens of climate change, while they have contributed much less, if anything at all, to its causes.
Similarly, poorer countries and groups also need to survive in climate change, but they have the least resources to deal with climate change. Therefore, developing countries and groups have to rely on assistance to adapt to the impact of climate change, while the demand for such assistance in more affluent areas of the world is not very urgent. At present, climate change does not directly cause difficulties to rich countries, and even if it does, they can easily overcome it.
Similarly, poorer nations and groups already need to adapt to climate change, while they have the least resources to do so. Developing nations and groups are thus dependent on assistance for adaptation, while the urgency for such assistance is not very high in more affluent parts of the world. The rich are not directly affected by climate change for n ow, or if they are, they can adapt to it fairly easily.
Desmond tutu, the former Archbishop of Cape Town, pointed out this asymmetry simply and clearly. In the Human Development Report 2007/2008 of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) (page 166), he pointed out that at least for now, people in richer areas of the world can adapt to the rising temperature by "clicking on the thermostat" to adjust the air conditioner. But for countless women in developing countries, adapting to climate change means they have to go a long way to get clean drinking water for a family.
This asymmetry has been captured neatly by Desmond Tutu, former Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa, when he pointed out in the United Nations Development Programme ( UNDP) Human Development Report 2007/2008 (p. 166) that those in more affluent parts of the world can – at least for now – adapt to rising temperatures by merely adjusting their air conditioning “with the flick of a thermostat”. But for countless women in developing nations, adaptation would entail walking ever-longer distances to fetch clean drinking water for their households.
Obviously, people must unite and cooperate with each other to cope with climate change, but the whole world is divided and there is little hope of bridging these differences.
The need for standing together and cooperating with one another in response to climate change is clearly there, but the world is divided, and the prospects for overcoming these divisions are very dim.
So, if possible, what can we do?
So, what, if anything, can we do about this?
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