Bolivia

Title: In Bolivia, Water and Ice Tell of Climate Change
Author: Elisabeth Rosenthal
Date: December 13, 2009
Source: NYT

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/12/14/science/earth/14bolivia_ss.html


Small cities in Bolivia like El Alto are experiencing the affects of global warming in a drastic way. The glaciers are melting and it is becoming more and more difficult for the people to obtain water and have to travel to other towns to get water. The glaciers of Bolivia have been providing water and electricity to these towns and cities for years and now that they are melting away it is “threatening the existence of nearly 100 million people.” A World Bank report said that the glaciers in the Andes will be melted within 20 years. Poor countries that are being affected by climate change are asking in Copenhagen for rich countries around the world to “provide money and technology to help developing nations adapt to problems that to a large extent, have been created by smokestack and tailpipes far away.” Many of the countries who are experiencing global warming on a large scale have not been the ones responsible for it and they do not have the money to deal with these problems. The European Union made a pledge saying that they would pay “$3.5 billion annually for three years to help poor countries cope.” Where will all this money be going to though? They do not explain in detail where this money is going to when it is such an important problem to be focusing on. Global warming should be the main topic of conversation all over the world, because sooner or later everyone will be seeing the detrimental impacts and it will be too late to do anything about it. If there is no water people will not be able to survive and it will lead to many other problems and violence most likely, because everyone will be trying to survive somehow. Many families are saying they are thinking of not having kids anymore, because there is no point to bring them into a world where they will have to suffer. The Bolivian government does not have much of a plan on what to do about the water crisis. Having access to clean water is part of providing for the general welfare and the Bolivian government cannot do this, because they do not have the resources. I think that developed countries have the obligation to provide for the general welfare of these people, because they have been the main contributors to global warming. This issue needs to keep on being addressed and sustainable and effective projects need to be planned out carefully.