The presence of life on earth dates back to 3.65 billion years. Human beings have used the earth's resources not merely to survive but also to build a modern civilisation. The pursuit of ever better life style has driven the excessive pressure in exploiting the natural resources, minerals and fossil altering the contours of the world, temperatures of the oceans and composition of the atmosphere. The very life and environmental science of the planet faces severe threats from contamination, excessive utilisation and abuse.
Climate change is the story of humanity's plundering of the earth's fossil carbon, burning it and releasing it into the active carbon cycle, thus disrupting the balance of carbon in air, soil and the seas. Unless people want to live on Venus, their task is to leave that fossil carbon in the ground.
There are plenty of sources, mostly linked to our modern way of life, that have been leaving adverse impact on the planet for centuries. The result, among others, was global warming -- a prospect at its ominous threatens the very sustenance of the earth. Emissions, in general, are the main reasons. Aircraft are the fastest rising source of greenhouse gas emissions. If aircraft emissions are not reduced considerably, climate change will deteriorate faster. But seeking a short cut to ride out the climate threat is not possible. Telling people to plant trees to resolve climate change is like telling them to drink additional water to keep downward the increasing sea levels. These arguments just do not stand up. All they do is shield us from the harsh reality. The 'jump-in-a-plane for a weekend break' culture that has grown up in the rich world is doing environmental and social harm. The world needs to ditch carbon offsets and face that harsh reality by way of an organised global effort.
With methane emissions causing nearly half of the planet's human-induced warming, methane reduction must be a priority. Unlike carbon dioxide, which can remain in the air for more than a century, methane cycles out of the atmosphere in just eight years, so lowering methane emissions can have more immediate results.
The world has sufficient provision for everyone's needs but not for everyone's greed. Living on the planet means people require and use what is enough for themselves and their dependents, as different from 'growth' or 'progress'-driven excesses, which erodes the earth of its essential vitality. Its inhabitants have to construct an earth where each one can live a self-sustaining life. Let everybody look at his sense of right and wrong. In the effort to do so, people can look up to the young population, who, if properly motivated and made conscious of the ills of the deteriorating climatic conditions, can engage themselves in a befitting manner in their respective spheres of activities to stop further deterioration of the environment. This is particularly important in the developing world where industrialisation is gaining momentum and as a result of industrialisation, harmful emissions are released ceaselessly. The damage had been done earlier by the developed nations in their frantic bid to reach the maximum level of prosperity.
Now, it is their turn to repay for the colossal damage done. The United Nations is trying to bring about a framework of collaboration among the developed countries in order that countries that face the risk of climate change most are assisted to protect themselves from the ravages of the looming danger. A generation of conscious young people across the world can team up to pursue the cause of saving the earth from wanton degradation.
arnold_raza@yahoo.com
