Carbon Dioxide x Poverty
OBSERVATIONS
The map that we have assembled with NASA data shows the amount of carbon emissions highlighted in green (higher) to blue (lower), and, in red dots (higher) to orange dots (lower), amount of people living in extreme poverty. With this junction that our team developed with NASA data, we can see some important benchmarks between extreme poverty and carbon dioxide emissions. It is noteworthy that the carbon dioxide emission graph is divided into different main areas and the rest of the world. There is a very strong focus on extreme poverty in Africa and India.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are one of the main causes of climate change. Accurate information on CO2 emissions is critical to understanding the human impact on climate change and air pollution. The Carbon Monitor dataset was created as the first estimate of daily CO2 emissions for six different sectors, including energy, land transport, industrial production, residential consumption, and maritime and aircraft transport. This dataset is especially relevant to understanding the environmental effects of COVID-19 and shows a drop in emissions as the blockades were instituted.
Extreme poverty poses a major challenge to the livelihoods of current and future generations everywhere. The World Poverty Clock even uses publicly available data on income distribution, factors of production, and domestic consumption provided by various international organizations, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. These organizations compile data provided to them by local governments, and when this information is not available, the World Poverty Watch uses specific models to estimate poverty in these countries. Models include how individual incomes might change over time using IMF medium-term growth forecasts complemented by long-term "shared socioeconomic pathways" developed by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and similar analyses developed by the OECD.
Brazil tends towards enormous inequality in the distribution of income and high levels of poverty. An unequal country, exposed to the historic challenge of facing a legacy of social injustice that excludes a significant part of its population from access to minimum conditions of dignity and citizenship. As a contribution to understanding this reality, this article seeks to describe the current situation and the evolution of the magnitude and nature of poverty and inequality in Brazil, establishing causal interrelations between these dimensions.
Brazil emitted a total of 1.9 gigatons of carbon equivalent in 2018. This amount makes Brazil represent 3.4% of global emissions and places the country as the seventh-largest emitter in the world.
IN BRAZIL
INTERPRETATION
Analyzing NASA data along with observations from humanities and environmental studies, we conclude that another focus of disproportionate environmental burden is headed our way. Typhoon Mangkhut's passage through the Philippines in 2018 affected more than 250,000 people across the country, leaving at least 59 dead from torrential rains. According to the Germanwatch observatory, the extreme phenomena caused 455 deaths in the country that same year — 0.43 per 100,000 inhabitants — and more than 4.54 billion dollars in economic losses and a drop in GDP per capita of 0.48%.
Graph analysis: The graph shows the proportion of global carbon emissions from different income groups, ranging from extreme poverty (green) to the top 10% of earners (orange). B shows the carbon footprint per person for different income groups. Each footprint is measured in carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). The black line separates direct carbon emissions (bottom) and indirect carbon emissions (top). Source: Hubacek et al. (2017).
The survey found that, in 2010, the world's top 10% earners accounted for about 36% of global carbon emissions for the consumption of goods and services (see the orange section in each column).
In comparison, the extremely poor, who represented 12% of the world's population in 2010, was responsible for just 4% of global emissions (green).
The second graph (on the right) shows the carbon footprint per person for different income groups. Each point is measured using CO2e, or carbon dioxide equivalent, which is the standard unit for measuring carbon footprints. The black line separates direct carbon emissions (bottom) and indirect carbon emissions (top).