Originally at ItsGettingHotinHere.org
As the planet heats up, disasters are becoming more frequent and severe. When they hit, the most vulnerable among us often bear the brunt of the impact. Haiti is a country with a long history of slavery and struggle. In recent years their people have been ravaged by hurricanes, corruption, and severe poverty. Add Tuesday’s magnitude 7.0 earthquake with aftershocks in a city of 2 million to that picture and imagine what people are going through.
As I write this, people are still trapped underneath broken buildings waiting to be rescued. For hours, days, and weeks ahead people will need medical care, food, water, and support. For years to come, Port-au-Prince will need people who are invested in their recovery emotionally, physically, and economically.
Planet Green has a list of 10 ways you can help to get blankets, medical supplies, water, and relief to the people of Haiti right now. At the least, please take 10 seconds to text “Yele” to 501501. This will automatically donate $5 to the relief efforts of the Yele Haiti Foundation through your cell phone bill. If you have other good actions people can take, please share them in the comments of this post.
In this time of distress, climate change is probably the last thing on many peoples’ minds. However, as someone whose life is centered on the issue, every time a natural disaster hits, I think about fossil fuels. Most people associate climate change with sea level rise, droughts, floods, and storms. In recent years researchers have uncovered evidence that as sea levels rise and water or ice is displaced, pressure on the underlying rock can trigger seismic or volcanic activity.
We don’t know whether or not there is a link between climate change and Tuesday’s earthquake. As a global phenomenon, it is inherently difficult to map changes in the Earth’s climate to any specific event. What we know is that burning fossil fuels is altering the climate, increasing the likelihood that disasters like this one will occur.
Our actions matter. As people concerned about climate change, it is on us to demonstrate what accountability for burning fossil fuels looks like. We should stand with people impacted by disasters because we know that tomorrow, next year, or in ten years, it could be our family trapped underneath the building, driving away from a wildfire, or looking for dry land in a flood.
We’ve created an unstable climate by burning fossil fuels without accounting for the impact. If I spend time and money supporting the people of Haiti, that is a choice to invest in the health and security of others. In a warming world, strong policy and better technology are urgently needed. However, what is needed the most is for humanity to get connected to the impact of our actions before and after we take them.
There are three basic ways we can account for the impact of burning fossil fuels:
1. Mitigation – Stop burning fossil fuels.
2. Adaptation – Help communities to build levees and other infrastructure to brace for inevitable disasters.
3. Compassion – Be there with volunteers, water, medical supplies, and relief whenever a catastrophic event occurs.
Climate change has taught us that we are all connected on this planet. The fate of a banker in Taipei, a plumber in Mexico City, and a climate activist in Boston, is bound to the fate of the doctor in Port-au-Prince who is searching for medical supplies and a generator after her hospital has collapsed.
Today, we are all Haitians.
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