Will the effects of global climate change widen the chasm betwen the world's haves and have nots?

Question

The spread and advancement of information and communication technologies will enable the public to follow the crisis. But will society become increasingly inured to stories of conflict, famine, and death in some areas and, to an extent, desensitized?

Answer 1

That seems like a really bizarre premise to propose while the world through the Kyoto Protocol and its successors has implemented strong financial incentives to move industry, the related jobs, and the related supporting services and commerce to third world countries.  Their economies are booming (10% annual growth in China), so living standards are rising rapidly in areas where they've gotten their population growth under control (such as China).  

In areas where couples have 7 childen however (the developing world average) you can double the economy every 20 years and not raise the per capita income at all.  If you're raising a family of 9 in poverty, you all have less to eat.  The people having those 7 children have the most control over that equation, although Kyoto could help them tremendously if all of its cash flow and job benefits do not go to a few rich families in those countries.  (Local income tax policies could at least partially address that of course, it's not our job to tell them how to invest or distribute the money.)

For thousands of years people have lamented that the past was some more ideal state to make a point that things are getting worse.  The ancient Greeks complained about declining morals, etc, just like we hear today.  We think the world changes, but our perspective does as we grow older (including noticing that the world is a chaotic place and personal survival involves a certain amount of self-centered focus).

Resource shortages cause famine, conflict and death. so at what point in the past were resources so well balanced with population that conflict, famine, and death were less of a problem?  According to aid agencies, recently the world finally started producing enough food to feed everyone, it's simply not distributed efficiently.  In other words, the highest birth rates are not occurring where the food is most abundant.  Cut the reproduction rate, and resourses become abundant; there's no reason to compete with your neighbor in order to live.  That applies to all life on the planet, from algae to fruit flies to wildebeasts to humans.  Fortuantely humans have the capacity to affect the resource to population balance, through a collection of local educational and policy affairs, coupled with personal decisions.  We have no right to multiply like fruit flies, and no immunity from the consequences when we do (including on a global scale, as we're seeing with global warming).

Specifically to address the influence of climate change on resource distribution, the Kyoto Protocol asks the average to poor people in developed nations to pay a lot more for food and housing, to struggle to survive so we can implement those economic cash flows towards developing nations.  Whether or not the cash goes all the way to the "have nots" is out of our control.  

For most people our capacity for charity just got sucked up into gas and food costs.  As we increasingly recognize through climate effects that we really are an integral part of nature, our interest in theoretical discussions on abstract concepts such as "fairness" may wane.  Like most people I learned to say "no fair" somewhere around age 2, but shortly after that I realized that the world isn't fair, so I'd better move on to a more practical and workable world view.

The "haves" represent maybe 2% of developed world population, and until I live in a place called Sherwood Forest, wishing things were different is an exercise that can bring me frustration but not different results.  The U.S. military is will be conducting war games next month to practice putting down unrest in the streets of U.S. cities due to global warming.  The ultra rich of course have all of the tanks protecting them.  Whether or not you are in the neighborhood protected by the tanks may soon come to be the only chasm that is of immediate importance.

Answer 2

The rich could just move to safer grounds while the poor goes homeless.

Answer 3

If the sea levels continue to rise it will be predominantly poor low-lieing nations that are most affected by flooding in the 2060s-2080s.  Wealthy nations will have problems for sure, but poor nations will have it worse.

Answer 4

No. The effects of government reaction in the name of global warming will definitely widen the chasm and one world government will erase the checks and balances that limit their power.

That is the true crisis.

Answer 5

In my opinion, the reaction to global warming will have more affect then the actual warming.  The perception will be worse then the reality, however since perception is reality for most people fear will be the internal driver, thus causing selfish behavior, resulting in shortages.  As far as being desensitized to conflict, famine, and death, I would suggest most already are because it has always been with us.  In the words of Jesus  (the poor you shall always have).

Answer 6

Well of course it will as it has in the past

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The great depression in the United States shows proof of that

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The rest of the world also has proof of it look at most of Africa and how many poor countries there are there

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So the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer

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That is life and it sucks I know but the down fall for the rich is

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If they loose what they have they have to commit suicide  

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Where us poor people keep on living and make it with what we have

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So who wins in the end do you think the rich who have to worry of loosing their prestige or the poor who don't have enough to pay the months mortgage

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Answer 7

So far the effects of tax cuts and free trade has given the have nots more than they had.  

It's misleading to focus on "gaps" - - - if a starving person gets a job and a roof over his head while Bill Gates comes out with X-Box 3, the "gap" between the two will grow, but clearly the formerly starving person is better off than he had been.

As for pantagruel's comments about the tornadoes, they're totally off base.     It's been an unusually cool Spring.    If global warming caused tornadoes, then we'd have had a record tornado season when it was actually warm, not when it was cooler than average - which it has been in the Southeastern US this Spring.

Answer 8

Your comments about being desensitized do not necessarily follow your questions..

However, the answer to your  question is probably.  whenever there are social upheavals the spread between the haves and have nots seem to spread.

Answer 9

Yes that is how they have planed it .

Answer 10

Self preservation and panic are two different things. Sometimes however, they produce the same results of pandemonium. Especially when it encompasses the unknown.

Answer 11

Besides severe food shortages,there will be migrations of people away from the storm ravaged areas!  Look for that to start this year because of the rapid increase of tornadoes and severe storms in the mid-west!