The climate crisis is a care crisis. But it's not too late - openDemocracy

Climate change is driving the care crisis. But it’s not too late | openDemocracy

The UK’s care crisis is just one facet of a much bigger problem.

Our economic systems are designed very well to enable the accumulation of wealth for the already affluent. They are not adept at protecting and promoting the right to live a dignified life.

The global expression of this systemic failure is most evident in the climate crisis. Corporations have known, for decades, that fossil fuels are contributing to warming. They have consistently failed to act in accordance with warnings and continue to actively promote misinformation. States also continue to defer action, and instead subsidise fossil fuel companies.

While many families are, rightly, concerned about the rising cost of living and their access to health and social care, the consequences of climate change are also profound. Nearly half the world’s population is already vulnerable to climate change impacts. Damaging coastal erosion in Wales, droughts in the Horn of Africa, storms in the Pacific, wildfires in the US and Australia, floods from England to Pakistan, rising temperatures and seas, toxic air and the spread of disease threaten us all.

Climate change is taking away our capacity to breathe, eat, drink, and live safely. Homes, schools, healthcare facilities and businesses are being torn apart, crops are failing, hunger and displacement is spreading. Women travel further and further to access clean water. In parts of Bangladesh, where crops fail as salty water encroaches on land, men move to find work in the sweatshops that line the cities. Women are forced to try and maintain subsistence farming in harsh conditions, while continuing their unpaid care labour. When homes suddenly fall into riverbanks, children have been left orphaned or with permanent disabilities.