When 'other people' becomes us

A youth delegate from an indigenous tribe in Brazil said something at COP30 that made my brow rise the first time I heard it: everyone is closer to being displaced than becoming a billionaire. I understood the sentence, but it didn’t sink in. Not the way it does now, watching what is happening in Thailand.

- THUNPICHA GREIGARN

People are seen in a temporary shelter after being evacuated from flooded areas in Hat Yai district, in Songkhla, on Wednesday.

(REUTERS)

Many people in Bangkok still believe climate disasters happen to “other people”. And yet these same people repost updates, donate to relief, criticise the government, and talk about structural change. But I wonder if we truly understand the scale of what is unfolding. We act like observers helping “them”, without realising this is not about “them.” It is about us.

The situation in Hat Yai is knocking on our door. This is not “just another flood.” It is not normal. It is climate. I work in climate and mobility, so I watch these events with a mix of professional dread and personal disbelief. I am safe at home. But that safety is thinner than it feels, and it should not require a climate degree to understand that.

I grew up thinking disasters happened to other people. In school in the Asoke area, we took off our shoes and walked through floodwater like it was part of the day. Even the 2011 floods felt like an extra month at home. Only later did I realise how much privilege shaped those memories. Privilege made disasters feel distant. It made us the ones sharing updates and fundraising links, not the ones needing help. Middle-class comfort gave us the illusion that climate impacts would always stay “somewhere else”.