Environment Climate Apartheid: Shadows and Lights in the Early 21st Century

Environment Climate Apartheid: Shadows and Lights in the Early 21st Century

At the beginning of the 21st century, signs of global warming were already spreading across the world. Drought-stricken African farming villages, Bangladesh's delta region submerged by high tides, and European cities covered by heat waves. These were not just natural phenomena, but accompanied by social realities that sorted people's lives. It is precisely to mirror this historical context that the UN experts used the term "climate apartheid.

Developed countries were able to protect themselves with air conditioning, earthquake-proof infrastructure, and insurance programs. On the other hand, developing countries and the poor had no means of defense, and disasters shook the very foundations of their lives. Just as apartheid in the past divided people through institutions, climate change has divided humanity into two worlds through economic disparity. It was the inhabitants of the poorer regions who lost their lives in heat waves, and the farmers who depended on the land who starved because of crop failures.

The early 21st century was an era in which globalization connected economies, but also in which the fruits of globalization were unevenly distributed. Countries that emit large amounts of greenhouse gases enjoy affluence, while others are forced to pay the price. This contrast symbolized the distortion of the post-Cold War international order. The climate crisis was not only an issue of science and technology, but also a touchstone for human rights and international justice, forcing humanity to find a way to coexist.

Thus the expression "climate apartheid" was born as an allegory for an era in which environmental destruction and social inequality overlapped. Behind the natural disasters, the reality that divides the future was quietly spreading, overshadowed by the systems and inequalities that humans had built.