Global Warming and the Global Citizen

by Kim, September 10, 2009 at 6:00am

The UN's Copenhagen climate change blog had an interesting post, Climate Change enhances global Poverty and Inequity, that pointed out just how much global warming will challenge our assumptions about the way the world works.

Since climate change will disproportionately affect people in developing nations, there is a growing movement pushing for some type of reparations. African representatives are threatening to veto any Copenhagen climate deal that doesn't include monetary compensation for the continent.

"Any adaptation related funds should be considered as a compensation rather that an endowment. Similarly, a displaced population should have the right to choose where they want to find their new homes as a matter of right and not a favor by the GHG emitters who has caused the problem in the first place."

It has already proven difficult to legislate national responsibility for toxins that spread freely across territories and the atmosphere and water of the planet. Dealing with our common fate as earth-residents is hard to reconcile with the interests of one country's residents. The whole concept of a nation is an us-vs.-them idea; this is our land with our resources, these are the borders that define who we are. What if everyone were able to choose where they wished to migrate to escape the swath of climate change? Will we see the nation-state become outmoded as a step towards planetary survival?