Pakistanis living in Canada have watched the flooding of their homeland in horror, and worked to create solidarity initiatives to provide relief. Countless people have found themselves unable to contact family in Pakistan, amid electricity and telecommunications outages. Now questions have arisen over Canada’s contribution to climate change, as its CO2 emissions are more than 10 times that of Pakistan. Rich countries of the Global North, like Canada, should act to address their contribution to climate injustice. Damages from flooding are estimated at 30 billion dollars and Ottawa has pledged 30 million dollars in assistance. Among urgent concerns are the impacts to pregnant women and the lack of reproductive health products to those most impacted.
This article is published in The Breach.