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What made us stop talking about it? : climate change

- Soumya Negi.


A daily wage worker, from the districts of Alwar, Rajasthan, labors throughout the day, whilst, sweat trickles down his forehead, at a temperature of thirty-five degrees. Heat stress caused due to such climatic conditions has moved up the death rates in extreme tepid cities, especially among the uneducated rural class. This is a mere outcome of the recent human induced warming, which includes both you and I. Climate change includes both global warming and the resulting large-scale shifts in weather patterns.  How can we eliminate such extreme repercussions? Let's start by talking!

We have witnessed super-cyclone Amphan, and the tropical cyclone Yaas, within the last two years, and neither of them were less than fierce. Almost all of the world's glaciers are in the process of melting, except for a few in Iceland and Scandinavia that are fed by increased precipitation.  This is inevitably  leading to sea level rise, which is ultimately going to lead to more cyclones and floods. It's evident how this is a continuous cycle of intertwined events. 

The  planet is heating up, and it's happening quickly. The year 2020 and 2016 have been recorded as the warmest yet, with temperatures 1.2°C above pre-industrial times. These exceptionally high temperatures triggered the largest wildfires ever recorded in the US states of California and Colorado, and the bushfires  in eastern Australia in the previous year. The intensity of effect on the average living  population was massive.

 

Covid’s effect on climate change:

The year 2020 was also the year when the pandemic hit us for the very first time. The first ever lockdown took place, movement got restricted, sources got minimal and we were all house ridden. It is conspicuous, how it affected the natural surroundings, moreover the climate. CO2 emissions reduced, skies became clearer and rivers translucent. However, it remained temporary. It is easy to believe that with the restrictions of the pandemic, industrial activities came to a pause, the amount  of waste reduced and the overall contamination and  pollution levels decreased. And with this, we stopped talking about the environment in general.

Environmental activist Greta Thunberg, was all the rage in 2019 as she spoke boldly afront the world leaders demanding immediate action against the climate crisis. Her speech was powerful enough  to make us address  the  conversant but disregarded  subject. Ridhima Pandey is another fellow activist who filed a lawsuit against Indian government for not taking enough steps to combat the crisis of global warming. She also came to be heard in 2019 at the UN climate Action Summit.  Going big on  all social media platforms was one thing that got  us to apprehend climate change, not just as a global crisis, but a personal one. However, in the next  year, we could not have been expected to focus on more than one epidemic.


Global Economy, Covid and Climate Change:

Lockdown measures designed to contain covid, have led the global economy into one of its most severe recessions. Added to this is the covenant, world governments have agreed upon, to  keep 12 trillion dollars for covid relief. According to research, “if only 12 percent of this amount were spent every year through 2024, on low carbon investments, it would be enough to limit the rising temperatures up to 1.5 degrees Celsius.” 

The Paris Agreement of 2016, aimed at limiting global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, compared to pre industrial temperatures. However, according to current efforts put by the governments across the world, this seems nonetheless ambitious.  


What can the policy makers do?

Once covid is over, countries are going to start to deal with the economic crisis, this time only if it could be done in an organic way. The climate positive recovery needs to be strong, near term focus on actively avoiding polluting recovery. According to an analysis conducted, the US and European Union, have contributed the most into he covid relief fund. If only they invest a proportion of this into the above-mentioned plan, they could back on track to reach the Paris agreement goals. Moreover India, just having suffered the disastrous second wave of covid, is still recovering from the falling GDP. 


What can we do? 

As an individual, there’s a lot we can do on a basic level, here are a few ways we could start: 

  • Walk and bike to your destination, when possible. 

  • Swap your gas stove for an electric one.

  • All of our  activities being online these days,  make sure to unplug devices when not in use. 

  • Change to energy efficient light bulbs

  • Recycle. This is something extremely basic, but important. Recycle everything, as much as you can .

  • Go without hot water, if you can, India being a tropical country, we can certainly do  without warm baths in thirty degrees!

We need to learn that the rural population in India might not exceed the urbans, but it’s not small. 

It’s a huge number! people, many of which are not aware, or certainly choose to ignore the world-wide epidemic, that is global warming. And then there are the ones, who are the most affected by this. The electricity, the water, the gas it's just not a basic amenity to them. Following any of these above mentioned activities, gives them an access to a better lifestyle. 







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