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Climate change : A change Humanity can’t afford!!

Last time when I was religiously serious about climate change was when I had to write an essay on it for 10marks in exam probably when I was in 8^th or 9^th std. With all effort, I could only manage to write more of a fiction about it than the facts and figure it required to qualify as an essay. Fast forward, a few years hence, I happened to give tuition to a student of 6^th std. and was kind of surprised to find a separate chapter dedicated to climate change in the textbook. The content of the chapter was ominously more factual than the fiction which I had written in that essay .This made me think of the issue which was just a decade ago could suitably be referred and placed as a problem set in future date was right here and staring directly into the eyes of each individual and challenging our existence on this planet. Welcome, in the era of Climate Change- a change we just can’t afford anymore.

The world is moving and expanding with its own pace and so is the complexity arising with each incremental technological breakthrough and refined political and socio-economic structure. Since the inception of life of all forms on this planet we have just entered into a quite extraordinary time where it is actually unwise to predict about anything even for next two to five years. Humans have outsmarted and outpaced other species during the course of their evolution and diverted every possible best tangible and intangible aspect of nature to their favor and in no time the planet earth found itself into an unprecedented somersault induced by human activities backed by their newfound technological inventions and discoveries .Things picked pace specially after Industrial revolution ( 1760 to 1840) which brought and founded a new set of need and desire in people . Not only it changed the dynamics of education, human behavior and social hierarchy but also manifested its dominance and not so good effect on nature and its ecosystem. All it went unnoticed in the pride and frenzy of human intelligence and series of inventions and discoveries until the start of a story –The Climate change and its effect, which was quietly developing all along on its own and weaving its own characters – Global Warming, Green House Effect, which we have to end now before it is called - too late.

The Industrial revolution (1760-1840) began and sustained itself on fossil fuels and utilized or precisely exploited natural resources at the cost of touching a delicate thread connecting not just between Homosepians but also other species with nature and its feedback mechanism -Carbon cycle and Nitrogen cycle. An issue doesn’t seem to worth address until it challenges one’s existence. The same is now true with the climate change. A mere glance from the window of our house or office give us enough reasons why the responsible national and international organizations seems so concerned yet helpless in current scenario.

-The term Climate Change often gets confused and used interchangeably with another term Global Warming. Though, both terms are as different in their definition and concept as the terms Climate and whether, yet they maintain a cause and effect relationship. NASA describes the Global warming -a long term warming of the planet due to increase in fossil fuel Emission since industrial revolution. On the other hand the term climate change refers to a broad range of global phenomena created mostly by burning fossil fuels. These phenomena also encompasses the changes such as sea level rise , ice melting In arctic and polar regions , glacier melting and extreme whether events.

In general, visible effects are noticed easily and taken seriously unlike its long standing and silently evolving causes. Climate change, as we see it now is being accepted in its true form today than ever before for its furious manifestation in different forms such as unforeseen rise in sea level, erratic shift in climatic and ferociously extreme weather conditions across the globe. Europe which is known for its luxurious and pleasant weather conditions saw an unprecedented surge in temperature this year in July, 2019. Paris, for example, where the world leaders gathered to agree on the famous Paris Agreement on Climate Change in 2015, saw a record high temperature of 42.6 degree Celsius which forced the Govt. to issue red alert in Northern France. Other European countries –Belgium, Germany and UK felt the same 41.8C,41.5C & 38.1C respectively.

The natives of a region across the globe are not easily adapt to drastic shift in whether conditions, hence become susceptible and easy target and victim of this phenomenon. Be it is massive heat wave in Europe , floods in Asian countries or frosty weather in American Subcontinent ,it is always highly unlikely to face and endure such conditions resulting into tremendous damage to the natives who have never experienced such climatic change ever before.

Other continents and subcontinents are no more left untouched from the fury of this massive and roaring global threat. The immediate recipients of climate change are the cities (Mumbai, Chennai, Cochin, New York, Singapore and many more) and human settlements based near seashore and bank of rivers. Amitav Ghosh in his book –The Great Derangement gives an interesting observation on pattern of human settlement inviting imminent disaster in the backdrop of rising sea level. He writes, “Proximity to the water is a sign of affluence and education; a seafront location is a status symbol; an ocean view greatly increases the value of real estate. A colonial vision of the world, in which proximity to the water represents power and security, mastery and conquest”. So, we can very well understand the real reason of massive human settlement near seafronts and riverbanks. Most of the major cities and financial hubs in India and around the world have been developed near seafront and on the banks of river are now the direct targets of climate change.

There are researchers and scientists who have been working incessantly with a risk of remaining unheard and ignored by the global leaders and general public at large, but now is time to pay attention to what they are trying to convey and warn us against reaching the tipping point from where this issue spirals out of our hands.

Pieter Tans , Chief of National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) tries to connect the dots by making a point that It took Six Thousands years for Carbon Dioxide (CO2) to reach a level of 80 PPM (Parts Per Million- A scale to measure the concentration of something in water, air and soil ) and now it stands at 408ppm which keeps added every year roughly by 2ppm per year ,solely and purely due to human activities . He bluntly calls it an Explosion more massive than a volcanic eruption. Jim White who works on carbon Cycle and is Dean at University of Colorado helps us to understand the scale of PPM through a relationship between CO2 and Sea level. He points; ‘when CO2 goes upto-400PPM, that is warm enough to melt off chunks of Antarctica, Geeenland and we are dangerously at that point right now. When CO2 reaches 600 to 700 PPM, that is warm enough that there is no more ice –land ice on the planet and result in 80 mtr rise in sea level. And we are on our way to 600-700PPM.’ Jim further clarifies that we are on an interesting threshold moment in our relationship with this planet where- Are we going to push the climate system so far out of balance that we threaten the melting of all land ice?.

The government and people of other continents specially Asia and Africa may think that why they should bother about what is happening in a far distant place of this planet which is not actually affecting them directly or even indirectly. The scientists and researchers think otherwise. They, again warns that what happens to Arctic region has the major impact for the rest of the planet. Peter Wadhamas, Head of Polar Ocean Physics group, Cambridge University explains, “Arctic is warming up 3 times faster than the rest of the world and the temperature difference between Arctic and lower latitude is getting less. That means, Polar air can come down more easily to the regions of lower latitude and warm air of the same goes up the same way causing bizarre whether pattern.” He connects this phenomenon with imminent global food crisis because this disturbance surely affects the large areas of cultivation present in lower and mid-latitudes regions.

Dr. Michael Mann, Director of Earth System Science Centre,Penn gives us the horrific picture of largest human crisis as a result of Climate change . He says. “With melting of major ice sheets all major coastal cities of the world are flooded. Which means less land. The crops in tropic regions will decrease dramatically in their productivity. In short, you are looking at a world with less land, less food, less water and more people and that’s a recipe for a National security Disaster”. The land area required to cultivate beverages items –Coffee and tea will deteriorate upto a point where by 2050 it will shrink to half of it. Choclolate, Potato, various species of fishes even Whisky and Bear will face the brunt of this climatic shift. So, basically Climate change is going to affect our tastes also.

The actual cause behind the climate change and its effects is - Carbon and for its dangerous growth is our activities and Inaction to contain it. So how does it means to and affects us all?. Well, It has the potential to claim everything what we take for granted and relish today and the capacity to mutate the fundamentals on which life comes into existence and thrives on this planet. Society, which runs on its own syllabus of rules and hierarchy give no place to the imminent danger in it.

The question still remains-Why don’t we see a fresh outlook, sense of urgency and shift in attitude in Individuals, Governments and big commercial giants?. The answer is -our industrial growth story was written on the pages of fossil fuels which leads to carbon emission in excess and harms our ecosystem. But, we have come so far ahead from that point that no nation and Commercial organization is willing and dare to tear those pages as they have so much at stake in terms of their investments and Economic growth that they are willing to take all preventive measures which is not directly or indirectly affecting their economic and political interests. In individual capacity we are also the part of problem for our high carbon life style.

Where there is a problem, there is a solution. We have to be brave enough to think beyond our luxury and immediate economic interest in individual and national capacity. Studies shows that switching from carbon to clean energy based economy is more viable and sustainable and leads to more employment opportunity in long run without deteriorating our habitat. The initiative and sense of urgency is required from each one of us of this planet, it is the governments which have the machinery and resources to shape, formulate and implement the right solutions backed by scientist, scholars and research fraternity. The critical role is needed to be played by those in power and have influence on mass.

Eventually, we have to choose between being a climate refugee and rightful citizen of this planet.

The clock is ticking!!