According to one environmentalist, the top carbon emitters in the world have only provided Pakistani flood victims “crumbs.”
An environmentalist who was born in Pakistan has shed light on how the biggest carbon polluters in the world have donated “crumbs” as restitution while international help keeps pouring into Pakistan in the wake of disastrous floods that left millions homeless and more than a thousand dead.
An environmentalist, human rights activist, and co-founder of @Pollutersout and Fossil Free University, Ayisha Siddiqa, put into perspective in a Twitter thread what it means for 33 million people to be uprooted and given meagre aid by the developed world, which is likely to do little to actually ease their suffering.
“People still don’t seem to get what it means for 33 million people to be displaced, in my opinion. That is about 90% of Canada’s population, which is six times the number of individuals that were internally displaced due to war in Ukraine.”That many people are currently internally homeless.She wrote on Twitter, “That’s more than the total population of Australia, and three times that of Portugal.”
Siddiqa compared aid to Pakistan’s role in climate change and claimed that despite its $30 million commitment, the United States had only provided less than $1 per person to the displaced. She remarked, “That’s not even a drop, it’s an insult.”
For a nation that has CO2 emissions of 0.98 percent per person and has contributed less than 0.5% to the climate issue, she claimed, “it has been given crumbs and told to be grateful.”Siddiqa said, “Imagine if for everything you lost, you were given $1.”She claimed that unlike the United States, China, Russia, and Europe, Pakistan is not to blame for climate change.
She also forewarned the West, stating that while Pakistan may currently seem like a far-off reality to those in the global north, if they continue to burn fossil fuels, what happens there will eventually affect the rest of the world. She said, “Wake up.”
Siddiqa discussed Canada’s role in climate change and showed that it produces 15.5 metric tonnes of carbon annually, which means it is “actively setting the globe on fire,” and has given us $5 million in aid, or less than 50 cents per person, in exchange.She denounced, “That’s the global north’s idea of reparations.”
She claimed that since 1750, the good old English had “flame burned the globe,” emitting more than 78 gigaton of carbon, giving us 800,000 pounds, or 2 pence per person.
Even the typical individual has more dignity than to open their wallet simply to give a displaced person a penny, she asserted, calling the phrase “calling this charity” hyperbolic.
According to a press release from the British High Commission in Islamabad, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss announced lifesaving assistance yesterday.
According to the foreign secretary, the UK’s £15 million in humanitarian relief would help supply food, water, and other necessities to people all around the nation.
She stated, “The UK stands with Pakistan as tens of millions of people struggle with devastating floods that have submerged a third of the nation, an area nearly the size of the UK.”
“As a significant humanitarian contributor, we will use every available means, including this £15 million support package, to bring life-saving aid to the most needy.”