Climate Change, a global problem or a localised problem?

The question of climate change is becoming quite a puzzle to most citizens globally. The issues that are being discussed range from offering solutions to cynicism.

Those who have been working on the science are split between how the climate scenario will evolve within the next decade. One camp is convinced that there will be a warming with devastating impact to the global ecosystems. The other are convinced there will be a cooling. The third force is looking at a period of cooling followed by a rapid warming.

While projections show that there are huge losses to be encountered by industry, the same losses could be translated to tidy profit especially within the renewable energy technology sector. Already, companies listed in the stock market in this sector are working against gravity based on the trend of their share prices.

In terms of the differences in impact between the North South, climate change is projected to be very severe to communities who have limited adaptive capacity, which has been argued to be those living in the South. This poor picture is being painted by those who choose to ignore certain facts. Those living within mainstream economies are the most exposed to the immediate climate change impacts as witnessed by the “looping feedback mechanism” fueled by the global fuel prices. Those outside the mainstream economies are very well “protected” and cushioned from these petrol shocks. However, those engaged in modernised agriculture and export oriented subsistence are exposed to this emerging crisis just like those in the North. Majority of these “other world dwellers” do not need to adjust to the world market prices as determined by the global market cartels, but the mainstream media would like us to believe that when one third of the world population is sick, the whole of the world is at risk.