By Morgan McFall-Johnsen
Last year was the hottest on record for Earth’s oceans and the fourth warmest for the planet overall.
But although climate change is a global phenomenon, its impacts are not spread evenly. The countries that produce the least greenhouse-gas emissions are expected to suffer the harshest consequences. West African nations are expected to face severe food shortages as heat waves cause crop production to plummet, and low-lying Pacific islands are threatened by rising seas.
Here are nine countries expected to be disproportionately affected by heat, food insecurity, and rising sea levels across the globe.
Worldwide, diet and weight-related factors will cause five times more climate-related deaths than heat or any other factor, according to a 2016 analysis from the World Health Organization (WHO).
The reason for this is food insecurity: Rising heat and extreme weather threaten to reduce crop yields and even the nutritional value of the food we grow.
As the weather during India’s primary agricultural season grows more sweltering, crop yields are already declining, leading to increasing suicide rates among farmers. Climate change may have contributed to the suicides of nearly 60,000 Indian farmers and farm workers over the past three decades, according to a 2017 study.
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