Human-caused climate change can be seen as a form of oppression, especially in light of the disproportionate effects it has on poor and rich populations.
Wealthy Individuals, corporations, and countries generally have more overwhelming amounts of a carbon footprint than poor communities, whose carbon footprint is minuscule comparatively. The burning of fossil fuels for energy consumption, transportation, and manufacturing, produces greenhouse gases that majorly contribute to climate change, often which driven by the elite.
Even though it is the rich that are usually not conscientious of what they are putting out to their environment, they don’t pay the price of what they have done to the Earth at all. It is the poor communities that often bear the consequences of climate change like extreme natural disasters. For example, during Hurricane Katrina, one of the most devastating hurricanes for Louisiana that were a result of climate change (rising sea levels), the upper classes and the higher-ups in the government fled when hearing of the news, but those who did not have the capacity to leave before it was too late suffered displacement and loss of life. Those who did flee and come back often found a loss of property that they could not afford to replenish and their neighborhood and support system destroyed. This displays that the impacts of climate will continue to affect these vulnerable communities and leave others that are causing it unscathed.
Considering this, climate change caused by human activity can be seen as a form of oppression as it is the actions of those with substantial carbon footprints (wealthy) contribute to degrading the environment while others are left with the aftermath of mother nature’s reaction. Upon first look, this seems like a bit of a stretch considering that everyone has a carbon footprint, but when noting that regular lower to middle-class people have minute carbon footprints compared to large corporations and the elite, it is not too far to say that a lot of climate change derives from that group.
