Talking Shop: Immoral and downright callous

“It's not a choice between

our environment and our

economy. It’s (one) between

prosperity and decline.”

―Barack Obama

What a sad day, that I have to quote a former President of the United States and not one of my own leaders. But this gentleman is talking a lot of sense—about the global economy, Climate Change, his missus and children, and how the world has to be saved for us. Barack Obama may have moved on from office after two terms, but likens the direction of the world to that of a vagrant ship, one that has transgressed its chosen trajectory and is headed for an iceberg, quite similar to the ill-fated Titanic. In a recent interview, Obama mentioned queries from his daughter Sasha, who asked him about Climate Change. He unassumingly admitted that he had no answers. Alarmingly, he also said there now seems to be no real recourse on this front. Oops.

What is going wrong? If the once-ruler of the free world has no true answers for his kindred, then who the hell does? That’s food for thought. Moving on to brass-tacks, Obama admitted that the world’s leaders just don’t appear to have the inclination or wherewithal to take on this Herculean task (and look at our own Indian leaders). In his inimitable way, Obama confessed that the only solace he shared with Sasha was that even if global temperature increases can be brought down by half a percentile point through collective human effort, it would be an achievement. Divina ex machina, it appears, which translates into ‘justice by divine intervention’. So who is divine and who will catalyze this intervention?

Times are depressing

Obama grimly pointed out that increasing temperature, haze hanging over most global Capital cities and other deleterious impacts of Climate Change show that the world and its leaders are just not moving as quickly as they should and that this is ‘depressing’. The issue is not to be blind to the rising problem, which is surely a cause for stress and anxiety, but to have a clear perspective. Yes, here have been moments and events that have been worse than Climate Change, such as “World War I, the Great Depression, World War II, the increased instances of lynching around the world, partition in the sub-continent and the killing fields of Cambodia.” However, the world and its people still grew through these anomalous times and learnt to be better as a species, becoming less racist, sexist and homophobic, and better educated, healthier and wealthier.

What we are facing today with Climate Change, though, is somehow more ominous than all of these, because it verily threatens the future of humanity and it is unlikely that the world can get its act together fast enough to combat the growing menace. This is not a problem that can be solved individually and needs a collective global approach. For instance, Obama said: “How do you get the Chinese and the Indians to cooperate, given that the demographics are different and (there are other areas too that) are poor. How do we get education to them fast enough? It is quite overwhelming. I am not sure we (the world) can manage this (battle Climate Change) because we are a bunch of chimps.” He added, hysterically funnily, that the world is still at a stage where chimp-like people, even when they have a banana, want everyone else’s banana. And that this is done by weapons, industrial madness and manufacturing races. Whew!

Havoc everywhere

So what exactly is Climate Change doing to the world? Well, for starters, there’s havoc nearly everywhere. Look at just the last two years, with the world facing the wrath and fury of Mother Nature, battling unforeseen floods after an unseasonal tyranny of rain or hot spells, followed by bone-chilling cold. The only change is the intensity of these weather aberrations, which are slated to increase with time as we merrily tear apart the very fabric on which our weather systems have been dependent on for centuries. What’s going wrong? As I said before, the world has known the danger for years but not much has been achieved at mitigating this. Also, no one foresaw the speed and ferocity of changing climate patterns. Worse, experts now warn that this is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg and that we can expect odd-weather events to become a regular occurrence.

Climate Change is playing truant with infrastructure systems that have catalyzed the world’s runaway growth over the last few decades. Highway and rail networks, dams, metro and rapid transport systems have all increased urbanization and accelerated deforestation. This is now driving dangerous and disruptive change—forest fires, freak heat and cold waves and flooding in towns and rail systems around the world. Over the last two years, there are increasing incidents of flooded rail tunnels, disrupted services and stranded passengers in Boston, London, San Francisco, Taipei, Bangkok, Washington DC and a host of other cities.

Let’s talk about India

I live in New Delhi and let’s now talk of India, which is also in a bad place from the Climate Change perspective, with things only getting worse. Look at these numbers—of the 30 most polluted cities in the world, 21 are in India. At least 14 crore people in India breathe air that is 10 times or more polluted than the ‘WHO Safe Limit’ and 13 of the world’s 20 cities with the highest levels of air pollution are in India. As much as 51 per cent of pollution in our country is caused by industries, 27 per cent by vehicles, 17 per cent by crop-burning and 5 per cent by other sources. Yet, we rejoice. We are the world’s largest consumer of fuel-wood, agricultural waste and biomass for energy. We annually use nearly 15 crore tonnes of coal replacement worth of fuel-wood and biomass. The overall contribution of fuel-wood, including sawdust and wood waste, is 46 per cent, the rest being agricultural waste and biomass dung. In urban areas, traditional fuel constitutes 24 per cent and we burn ten-fold more than the US.

Clearly, this is literally a burning problem that is waiting to metamorphose into a climatic inferno. For India, and indeed for the rest of the world, the time to act is now, collectively and judiciously, with sledgehammer legislations, punitive damages and harsh penalties for wrong-doers and naysayers. As Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio said: “This is not a partisan debate; it is a human one. Clean air and water, and a liveable climate are inalienable human rights. And solving this crisis is not a question of politics. It is our moral obligation.” It is time to stop being humanly immoral and downright callous.

The writer is a veteran journalist and communications specialist. He can be reached on narayanrajeev2006@gmail.com. Views expressed are personal