Nepal’s Disaster: Am I Free of Responsibility?

Numbers can seem strangely small. Sometimes they look too insignificant to matter; sometimes they are so large that they lose meaning. The figures in a recent United Nations Environment Programme report fall into the first category. The report acknowledged that limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, the Paris Agreement’s goal, is effectively becoming difficult. Even under the most optimistic scenario, temperatures could reach 1.8 degrees by the middle of this century. If current national policies continue, the increase could reach 2.6 degrees.

A difference of 0.3 or 1.1 degrees may not sound alarming during summers when temperatures already exceed 40 degrees Celsius. But the consequences are not abstract. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that warming of 1.5 degrees would eliminate 70 to 90 percent of coral reefs. At 2 degrees, more than 99 percent could disappear. Completely ice-free Arctic summers, expected once every 100 years at 1.5 degrees, could occur once every 10 years at 2 degrees. Sea levels in 2100 would also be about 10 centimeters higher at 2 degrees than at 1.5.

A week before the U.N. report appeared, mountains collapsed near the Nepal-China border. Ice, rock, mud and water surged together, swallowing people and tearing through villages. More than 1,000 people died and thousands went missing. Nepal estimated recovery costs at $4 billion to $5 billion, or roughly 10 percent of its gross domestic product. The exact cause remains unknown, but the disaster is difficult to separate from rapidly melting Himalayan glaciers and the climate crisis.

Nor is South Korea beyond danger. Last summer, torrential rain fell in Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province, at a rate expected only once every 200 years. A landslide killed one resident inside an apartment, a place many consider among the safest forms of shelter.

Climate disasters are frightening because the addresses of emissions and damage differ. Since 1750, the United States accounted for 23.5 percent of cumulative greenhouse-gas emissions, China 15.4 percent and Russia 6.6 percent. India’s share was 3.57 percent, while Nepal’s was just 0.01 percent. South Korea accounted for 1.12 percent, ranking 16th globally. But per person, South Korea emitted 12.8 tonnes in 2024, nearly twice the global average of 6.6 tonnes and above China’s 10.8 tonnes. Nepal emitted 1.3 tonnes per person. South Korea can hide behind larger emitters when totals are counted, but per-capita figures offer little shelter. The author’s difficult question is whether people can offer aid to victims while turning away from their own responsibility.