Co.Exist reports: As climate change gets worse, the tiny African country of Eritrea might be one of the worst places in the world to live. Droughts and floods will ruin crops on subsistence farms. Hotter weather will spread disease like malaria. Rising sea levels along the coast will make groundwater too salty to drink. And because the country is one of the poorest in the world, it’s also one of the least prepared for those changes.

The sad irony: It’s also one of the least responsible for causing the problem. In a year, an Eritrean has a carbon footprint of .08 tons, almost 200 times less than the average American.

A new data visualization from George Washington University’s grad program in health administration shows how the pattern repeats country by country; the places at most risk from climate change aren’t the ones that caused it. [Continue reading…]