Introduction
Climate change has led to changes in air, water, and land compositions all over the world. However, despite being a global problem, climate change and its effects have been worst felt by developing countries.
Impact of climate change
Key lessons learnt from this class include causes and effects of climate change in both developed and developing countries. Noteworthy is that climate change that has links with indiscriminate human activities. Cities in developed, as well as developing countries, experience changes in weather patterns, for example, increases in sea levels, heat waves and solar radiations, and unpredictable rain pattern among others. Poor climate monitoring, lack of environmental sustainability has made cities in developing countries more vulnerable to the effects of climate change (Patrick, 2012).
According to a review by Vidal (2013), developing countries are the worst hit and continue to experience the adverse effects of climate change compared with developed nations. It is posited that poor nations in Africa, Asia, and South America among others experience severe changes in day and night temperatures, rains, wind, and storm patterns. Climate change again leads to increased temperatures with reduced rains. This implies that there would be reduced agricultural production and hence increased food shortage, hunger and nutrition related illnesses in poor countries. Conversely, developed nations like United States continue to receive heavy downpours and increases in sea levels that could lead to dangerous storms. However, developed cities have early warning systems and better planning protocols that could avert the effects of climate change. Different from the United States where there are resilience and better planning mechanisms, developing countries have poor planning of prevention and mitigation of the effects of climate change.
Conclusion
Increased world population and indiscriminate human activities like transport, urbanization, industrialization, and deforestation have led to pollution of air, water resources, and land. This leads to changes in the ecosystem, water resources, air pollution, and agricultural production. Developing countries are worst affected by effects of climate change because of lack of surveillance, poor planning, and lack of environmental sustainability mechanisms.
References
Patrick, D. (2012). Climate Change Adaptation for People and Nature: Climate Change Adaptation for People and Nature. Advances in Climate Change Research, 3(1)
Vidal, J. (September 2013). Climate change will hit poor countries hardest, study shows. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/sep/27/climate-change-poor-countries-ipcc
