Jenna Goldstrom

Climate Change & Population Final Paper

World Geo. Fall 2014
Guiding Question:
How is the population of Bolivia impacted by global climate change & what might happen in the
future if the current trends continue?
As far as global climate change is at the moment, barely any nations in the world, let
alone the UN, see what needs to be done. A few, mostly developing nations, are incredibly
opposed to recent compromises made at the yearly climate summit talks among prominent UN
members & world leaders. The people of Bolivia, especially the ingenious, see global climate
change as a serious threat to their lives and want to work for a worldwide radical change that
they see as the only way to halt the rising global temperature and sea levels that threaten a great
deal of humanity. A lot of Bolivias focus is on indigenous populations and developing nations,
which could suffer the worst consequences from global climate change regardless of the fact that
theyre not contributing to the problem anywhere near as much as developing ones are.
Bolivias representation at the most recent of the UNs global climate conferences, such
as the ones in Copenhagen, Cancun and Cochabamba, has been very active. They were actually
the only nation to oppose a very recent UN agreement about stopping the rise of temperature at a
comprisable 2 degrees Celsius, because they saw through its transparency. According to a
Bolivian Representative named Pablo Solon, the agreement is full of loopholes for polluters,
opportunities for expandine carbon markets and similar mechanisms that reduce the obligation
of developed countries to act. This was in 2011, but their stance hasnt changed much since
then.
A year before then, at the climate summit talks in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba, there
were indigenous representatives from all across the country, as well as indigenous peoples
leaders from all around the world, backed by the indigenous President of Bolivia, Evo Morales
Ayma. They apparently spoke a bunch of different native languages, and pressed the quips we
are all indigenous to the Earth and there is no planet b, in reference to the destruction of the
planet brought on by inevitable climate change. It was reported that the Bolivian capital city of
La Paz, a large mountainous metropolis, could easily become a desert if nothing is done for it as
well as many of developing nations.
Some of the most developed nations in the world have the biggest carbon and greenhouse
gas footprints, which the repercussions of are felt first by developing countries, who, like the
Maldives and Bolivia, are starting to voice their outrage at the diffusion of responsibility and
immediate, collectivistic, necessary radical action. Things like natural disasters, rising sea levels,
a toxic ozone, and a much hotter and dryer planet are quickly becoming very real for countries
like Bolivia, yet they havent got the power to do everything needed to stomp out this global
threat immediately.

In conclusion, the population of Bolivia could would suffer extreme natural consequences
like droughts if nothing drastic is done soon to stunt the progress of man-made climate change.
Fossil fuels and carbon emissions that clout our atmosphere arent going to just wait around and
the rest of the developed world, especially the big guys like China, the U.S. and India.

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