Who Creates Climate Change and Who Suffers?

 Who Creates Climate Change and Who Suffers?

 When I was 19 in 2015, I experienced the most serious flood of my life in Mrauk U which is my hometown. The water level was increasing immediately and the flow of water was too strong, if you passed it, you can be floated with the water flow even if you can swim. Me and my sister were sent to neighbor's house from the highland area. My mom and dad were being busy with keeping the household accessories in the place where they thought the flood could not reach. There were a few boats in the flooded main road in front of our house.

Here was the question that came up in my mind after flooding. What made this flood happened? At the age of 19 who was in the second year of University, I could not really figure out the answers for the question. However, I come to know gradually that flooding is that the problem that me, my family and my community has been facing. It is obviously a worldwide problem. There are some factors that have been contributing to the climate change such as deforestation and illegal logging. Deforestation can be caused naturally in the case of forest fire but in most of the time it was created people. The unlimited needs of the rich people and big corporations are the biggest cause that creates climate change and deforestation. They don’t want to keep nature as nature, they want to change it for money, they want to commodify it. So they extracted the oil, coal, gas, gems, gold and others precious materials from the nature which cause not only deforestation but also changes in the lives of people, mostly in negative ways who live in the area.

The same thing happened in Kyauk Phyu township, Rakhine state. The previous military government made agreements to sold gas from the Arakan coast to China National Petroleum Company (CNPC). They also agreed on constructing  deep sea port and oil storage facility in Made Island of Kyauk Phyu township. As the results of the projects, people used to be suffering a lot such as human rights violations, decreasing numbers of fish in that water which led community fishers loss their income, the mangrove forests and community forest were being destroyed under this project.

So it is very important to make investors and business people accountable for their actions to the community and environment. But this is not the only solution to solve the problem. Each and every individuals of the community members should have a strong vision for the sustainability of the community and should strongly work on the vision. Everyone should of part of the solution for our future, for our children’s future.