Equity What is Equity? Equity Within Nations Equity Between Nations International Economic System Global Warming and Equity References Site Map Back to Main Menu...	Impacts Responsibility Actions Australia The Greenhouse problem raises many equity issues, including the unfair distribution of the impacts of global warming, the question of which countries should remedy the situation and the distribution of impacts arising from measures taken to reduce greenhouse emissions. Even the elevation of the greenhouse warming problem above other environmental problems has come under criticism for being a manifestation of how the interests of affluent people dominate those of low-income nations. Third-world activists argue that desertification and resulting famines in Africa are neglected issues because they do not impact upon people in high-income countries the way greenhouse warming might: "The millions of deaths in dozens of countries did not make the tragedy global, because it took place in the Third World. It remained 'local'. Thermometers registering a few degrees more in the United States, however, succeeded in turning climatic change into a 'global' issue for all the governments of the industrialised North and the entire scientific community was immediately mobilised." (Shiva 1990, p. 6) More importantly, people in the less industrialised low-income countries do not feel that they should share in the costs of reducing greenhouse emissions when they have played such a minor role in creating them. Ironically, it could be some of the poorest nations that suffer the worst consequences of doing nothing. Back to the Top...