Whilst the devastation wrecked by cyclone Idai barely registers in British news cycles, we should remember that climate change was responsible for around 5000 deaths and millions displaced in 2018. It exacerbated food crises in Ethiopia, Haiti, and Madagascar; civil disaster in Sudan, Chad, and the Philippines, and flash floods in eastern Indonesia.
The destruction caused by climate change is inseparable from the plundering of resources by the global north that makes life in the global south unsustainable. Apart from China, countries whose wealth and power was established by Empire continue to fund fossil-fuel extraction and contribute to carbon emissions the most. But their effects are most felt by countries with the lowest emissions rates.
“Natural” disasters?
Wealthy countries like Britain are built on, and sustained by, impoverishing the global south. This means they have the resources to weather the storm whilst others are consigned to fate. With adaptation resources, a significant number of lives taken by Idai could have been saved.
