'poor people are the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change'
But is it the state of being poor that makes people vulnerable to climate change, or the processes that lead to their impoverishment?
if you have access to a clean and healthy environment that provides for your needs - meaning you don't need two dollars a day (or perhaps even one) - then you aren't living in poverty!
most of those who are poor and face the biggest threat from climate change are descended from people who had indigenous adaptation strategies to climatic and other environmental hazards which would - if they hadn't been colonised - have made them far less vulnerable than the 'rich' to the impacts of climate change.
If some of the worst-case climate change scenarios do come to pass, then the rich are also going to be extremely vulnerable and, if push comes to shove, I'd prefer to have knowledge of my land and how to grow food in inhospitable environments
the very wisdom that could help make us all less vulnerable to climate change is being lost as more and more people are sucked into a global economy that values only certain types of knowledge and beliefs.
these underlying environmental factors that inevitably prompted societal
collapse
societal
collapse is often avoidable – a message that is painfully pertinent given the
ecologically unsustainable nature of many modern societies
there are many reasons why societies make disastrous
decisions, including a lack of foresight; poor governance that ensures people
can get away with doing things that are in their personal interest but not in
the interest of the society; a lack of flexibility that leaves societies that no
longer work in a changing environment; and perhaps most importantly a refusal to
acknowledge a problem even exists
state of psychological denial that characterises many people's refusal to
accept the hazards posed by climate change and other environmental threats
numerous commercial reasons for responsible behaviour, including mitigating the
risk of high profile and costly accidents, future regulations, and opposition
from local communities, and increasing the chance of winning contracts from
increasingly environmentally conscious customers