I know — this post is coming really late in the day (it’s 7:30 pm!). I haven’t had a free moment all day, in between assignments, classes and activities. But seeing as how this blog is all about contributing to a brighter world…I felt it would be a travesty if I didn’t sit down and write something for Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Change. So, better late than never. Right?
I used to be a huge environmentalist in high school. Somehow that passion died down a bit as I became more interested in…people. People are easier to relate to than something “abstract” like the environment and biological conservation. Global warming is such a HUGE problem. But because it’s so huge, it’s very abstract. It’s very hard to grasp how switching off the light, using less water, turning down the heat, and taking public transport to work is going to help in the grand scheme of things. I try my best to be environment friendly, but I’ll admit — it isn’t easy to make such habits part of your daily routine when you don’t see much of an end result from your actions. It’s difficult to quantify the exact effects of global warming on people’s lives. So, I think this leads some people to give up on trying. Or to forget about these little things on a regular basis.
Part of the challenge is putting a “human face” on global warming, and that’s the next step we need to take. Thinking of global warming as an abstract problem that will affect us only years from now is misleading. Global warming DOES have a human face, and it’s destroying people’s lives at this moment — not sometime in the far off future.
And it’s developing countries and poor people that are hit the worst. In fact, an estimated 150,000 people die every year due to climate change. And the worst thing is that the poor – who individually contribute less to climate change than we in the developed world do – are hurt the most by it. They are more vulnerable to natural disasters due to poor housing and health conditions. Global warming increases the likelihood of contracting life-threatening diseases – especially as warmer weather allows malaria-bearing mosquitoes to survive in a wider range of areas. By 2030, climate change might result in 90 million more people exposed to malaria in Africa! Meningitis, dengue fever and diarrhea all might increase due to global warming.
And that’s not all. Poor countries are more prone to flooding. And global warming dries out farmland- a severe problem in Africa since 2/3 of the continent is composed of desert or dry climate. There is also more unpredictability in weather patterns overall, with more severe and frequent floods and droughts. Agriculture is one of the main means of livelihood for people in developing countries, and it is severely affected by climate change.
I know this is all very depressing. But the good news is that the environmental movement has exploded in recent times. A few decades ago, no one was talking about it — now, everyone and their mother wants to “go green.” Good for us. But now, it’s up to us to ensure that “going green” isn’t just another short-term fad — we have to keep the movement going until we make significant progress on climate change.
I’ll leave you with an inspirational project that I have written about before, and think is a superb idea. Face the Change, which is aiming to highlight the human face of climate change:
The goal of Face the Change is to mobilize support to tackle climate change by highlighting its social impacts. By putting a human face on global warming, we aim to elevate the current debate on science and energy policy to one that includes key human rights issues of natural disasters and forced migration. The web-based platform will primarily use video and other multimedia to document the current and future impacts and facilitate a global dialogue with the intention of shaping policy. To reach communities without widespread access to the Internet, we will run a pilot project using cell phone Short Message Service (SMS) and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) to raise awareness, rally and gather feedback from impoverished communities whose homes and livelihoods will be directly threatened by rising seas, drought and other climate change related effects. Cell phones are the windows to the world for many in developing countries, but their potential as a medium that informs under-represented people and allows them to participate in debates is far from realized.
Just like Face the Change, there are tons of other groups and organizations working on climate change issues – from the grassroots level to the international policy level. We just have to do our part to contribute to the movement and ensure it doesn’t fade out — and I think there is hope for future generations.
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