The Climate Is Changing, Are You?

Our quality of life may have improved over the past decades, but isn’t the price too high!

When it comes to the topic of climate change, many people find the issue too big for their individual efforts to make a difference to it. Although climate change is everyone’s concern, yet it is a widespread belief that small steps hold little worth in the bigger picture, many people passing it off as a matter of national or global concern, beyond their power of influence. Infact in many countries, the debate is

 not about countering climate change but to limit its effects as it is deemed inevitable that this is a road that has no turning back.

However, we first need to present this matter in such a way so that it is relatable for everyone, each one of us realizing how it is affecting the lives of each one of us and what our role in countering this challenge should be.

What exactly is climate change? Carbon doxide and methane, known as the green house gases alongwith watervapors, warm up the temperature of the planet by trapping heat in the atmosphere. The green house effect is a good thing, as it keeps the earth warm enough for life to survive on the planet but after a point, this effect in itself is becoming a threat to life on earth as the heat levels are rising to undesirable levels. Not only that, there is extremity in the weather, with intense heat or cold waves, dust storms, heavy downpours, absolute droughts alongwith unpredictability in weather.

This brings us the question as to why this is happening. How have the greenhouse gases become evil over the decades. The industrial reveolutin while bearing so many fruits of comfort to mankind, has had its hazardous effects too, the results of which have become more visible over the past decade or so, the connection between rising earth temperatures and industrialization making sense with more clarity now. Today, the earths average temperature is rising faster than ever before. Besides industrialization, the daily activites of a common man also contribute to the rising temperatures. From heating to cooling the house, transport, electricity, wastage of resources, use of non-earth friendly materials, all contribute in some way to accelerating this problem.

How is this climate change affecting the world of today? An estimated 25-30% animal and plant species are facing the risk of extinction, while the worlds coral reefs are under great threat too. The sea levels are rising while the ice melting is on the high. The picture does not look pretty!

Human beings too, are not exempted from bearing the consequences of climate change. While 70% of the earth is water, yet the dichotomy is that people die of thirst everyday. The absence of clean drinking water is a growing concern in many developing countries. Unaccountable use of pesticides and fertilizers and drainage of harmful chemicals in the water bodies not only affects the climate by releasing harmful gases in the atmosphere but brings forward health hazards in the form of flu, typhoid, fever, that have far reaching impacts. The unpredictability and irregularity of rainfalls either lead to floods or famine, not to mention the damage it causes to crops. The financial burden that these illnesses, crop damages and destruction caused by floods bring on the shoulders of the farmers make life even more difficult while the supply of harvest is also affected.

20 years ago, who could possibly believe that water would be packaged and sold in bottles, yet today, access to clean drinking water is a mere dream. Underground water levels have fallen down unprecedented levels and what was once a free, readily available essential need of everyone, is now no longer safe unless sold in shops! While this may not hit us hard for now, the time is not far, when if we do not change our attitudes, habits, policies and approach, clean water will become a commodity rare to find!

The changes in climate are more visible today than ever. People can clearly point out how the summers have become longer, drier and harsher, and winters, extreme and short. One of the biggest indicator of the hazardous impacts of climate change is the health problems that are occurring due to this in the form of respiratory issues, heatstroke, flus, fevers, malaria, typhoid, stomach infections and viral infections that last throughout the year.

So what is being done to address and counter these grave realities? While a worldwide debate and movement is ongoing to demand and implement concrete measures to control, reverse and undo the affects of climate change, more awareness and action needs to be seen on the individual level for which improvement in information dissemination and attitude change is required. Many people believe that climate change is a problem so big that their small efforts would amount to nil. Hence, most are reluctant to make any changes in their lifestyle such as use of resources, means of livelihood, adapting to the changing demands of the times in an environment friendly way that may not be the most lucrative option in the present but may be the best for the future of this planet.

The first and foremost need is to make everyone realize and form the connection between climate change and its impact on the lives of each one of us. Each citizen of this world needs to own it up, the world with all its beauty, seasons, seas, oceans, mountains, forests, birds, plants, animals, glaciers, deserts and understand his duty towards preserving it, be it by planting a tree, saving water, recycling or making a compromise in his lifestyle as his contribution towards countering climate change.

The process has to start with awareness and sensitization at every level of the society, with communities participating in discussing the problem and themselves suggesting localized, lasting solutions. Noone should be left out, from the small child in the school to the old man in the shop, everyone should be on board, everyone should be one voice. Rather than making this a complicated subject for the diplomats and policy makers only, it should be a topic relevant and appealable for a cab driver in Lahore or a sweetsmaker in Karachi.

photo credits: dailymail, aajtv, pakistan today