Bolivia is one of the poorest nations in Central and South America. One clear display of this is the extremely low carbon emissions for the country, topping out at just over 1,800 kg/2 T per person in 2018-9. Bolivia’s cumulative carbon emissions are estimated at just over 454 billion kg/500 million tons, which is less than one-tenth the US’ annual emissions (4.5 T kg/5 billion tons). Bolivia’s relative poverty in a modernizing world has contributed to its ongoing political instability, and also makes it a prime example of the injustice of climate change, affecting poorer, smaller nations with disproportionate severity.
Bolivia’s lowest elevation is roughly 122 m/400 ft above sea level, in the Amazon basin in the country’s northeast quarter. Sea level rise is not a concern. However, glacier loss–Bolivia has most of the world’s tropical glaciers–and the resulting reduction in water access is. Cities at elevation, like El Alto and La Paz, are at real risk of severe water shortage in years to come when the depleting glaciers have melted. It is estimated that 40% Bolivia’s glaciers have melted in the past four decades, and they are expected to be largely gone by 2080.
Annual CO2 emissions, Bolivia, 1928 - 2021.
Cumulative CO2 emissions, Bolivia, 1928 - 2021.
And as seen elsewhere in the tropical zones, including much of Africa, while overall precipitation in the Amazon is expected to increase–absent active deforestation–models predict this rainfall will be increasingly erratic and dangerous, coming in smaller, more intense bursts, with likelier intervening droughts which could contribute to forest fires. While Bolivia has not cleared rainforest as rapidly as Brazil has (4300 km2/1660 mi2 in 2020 in Bolivia, vs 32,000 km2/12,350 mi2 in Brazil), it continues to convert rainforest to farmland while actively moving citizens from the Altiplano down to the lower elevations to take up farming.
Per capita CO2 emissions, Bolivia, 1928 - 2021.
Disappearance of the Chacaltaya Glacier.
Tomorrow: introduction to Colombia.
Be brave, and be well.
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