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The human face of climate change (Image © Christian Aid/Caroline Waterman)
Dangerous weather threatens world's poor
The twin forces of climate change and crippling poverty are fusing in the lives of the world’s poorest people – a deadly combination, warns a new report from Christian Aid. The realities of our rapidly evolving environment – from more frequent drought in Africa to increasingly severe flooding in Asia – are putting unprecedented pressure on dwindling resources across the globe, pushing already precarious lives ever closer to the edge.
The report – entitled ‘The human face of climate change’ – calls for urgent action, a redoubling of efforts to fight poverty and international payments to meet the costs of the new challenge, estimated to be US$100 billion each year. To emphasise the effects of climate change, it focuses not on scientific generalisations, but the human face of the phenomenon: individual experiences that reveal the devastating impact our increasingly dangerous weather is having on people’s daily lives.
The resulting tales of personal suffering, gathered from some of the most impoverished corners of the planet, not only confirm broader scientific trends, but illustrate changes that cannot be captured by remote weather monitoring stations and satellites.
“The air is currently thick with climate change rhetoric, but thicker still with an increasing concentration of greenhouse gases,” the report states. “Simply talking about climate change is no longer enough: it risks confounding the fight against poverty and condemning millions to further upheaval, unrest, disease and life-threatening disaster.” To find out more about how climate change is imperilling the world’s poor, click on the thumbnails in the gallery below.
by Laura Snook, MSN Environment Editor

In pictures: the people affected by the global warming phenomenon

The human face of climate change (click to enlarge)The human face of climate change (click to enlarge)The human face of climate change (click to enlarge)The human face of climate change (click to enlarge)The human face of climate change (click to enlarge)
The human face of climate change (click to enlarge)The human face of climate change (click to enlarge)The human face of climate change (click to enlarge)The human face of climate change (click to enlarge)The human face of climate change (click to enlarge)
The human face of climate change (click to enlarge)The human face of climate change (click to enlarge)The human face of climate change (click to enlarge)The human face of climate change (click to enlarge)The human face of climate change (click to enlarge)
The human face of climate change (click to enlarge)The human face of climate change (click to enlarge)The human face of climate change (click to enlarge)The human face of climate change (click to enlarge)The human face of climate change (click to enlarge)

More on how our changing climate is impacting the world's poor

Mapped: the human face of climate change (Image © MSN)
Mapped: the human face of climate change

The effects of climate change are testing the resilience of some of the world’s poorest communities, pushing already precarious lives closer to the edge. Meet some of the people most profoundly affected courtesy of Windows Live Maps.

Christian Aid: official website (Image © Christian Aid/Jenny Matthews)
Christian Aid: official website

"Christian Aid has committed itself to placing climate change at the top of its agenda because we know it poses a clear and present danger to our development work." Find out more here.

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