Introduction - The Global Climate System: Patterns, Processes, and Teleconnections - page 21

Figure 1.8 Photographs
illustrating the extent of
human impacts: (a) dust
storm over Texas, USA;
(b) The Negev Desert region
in the Middle East.

(a) (b)

and international political borders can have different consequences for the
environment (Figure 1.8 ). There are some situations where one can see how
differences in decisions about land use have led to differences in land
degradation that closely follow political jurisdictions.
Atmospheric processes and climate-related impacts do not stop at political
borders. Both sides of a border are put in the position of having to cope with
their climate-related hazards and using their climate as resources. A good
example of a transboundary climate-related impact is the forest fire situation
in Indonesia and the resultant regional veil of haze it produces. However, not
all societies have the resources to protect their citizens from the hazards or to
help their citizens capitalize on the resource potential of their given climates.
Hence, people end up living in areas at risk to climate anomalies and
climate-related hazards, mostly people who are poor or politically disenfran-
chised. Some of the existing natural hazard risks have been increased as a
result of government policies; people are allowed if not encouraged to live in
flood plains, on coastal chars, in arid areas, in tropical or mangrove forested
regions. Some risks have increased because population growth numbers have
far outstripped the natural resources needed to support them. Then, the
present as well as future populations are at increasingly greater risk to adverse
impacts from existing climate conditions, and more so in the face of deep
climate change.