The Call for Change: A Millennials Wisdom
Before we talk about our plausible future and our present, I want to take you back to my past. I distinctly remember an instance from when I was around 8 years old, having grown up in Qatar, the summers were never serene. Once, I was eating an ice cream in front of a McDonalds (yes, the machine was working lucky me, right?) I was cribbing about how it was so hot and how much better it would’ve been if I spent my summer vacation in my hometown, Bangalore. Little did I know that Bangalore would face the same issue in the coming future. Sure, it isn’t as severe as the Arabian summer but how quickly the change from a cool and pleasant climate to a hot one happened is truly scary. This is just 1 city in the 4,415 other cities which has already fallen.
Unfortunately, just like a game of tug of war there are people who don’t believe in climate change. Yes, the climate has changed before, yes, it’s been happening since the Earth was formed but we must understand that, climate changes dynamically according to whatever influences it or forces it to change, in the past it was our orbit around the sun, in the present it’s US!
In such a case who do we point fingers at? Could it be the giant flaming ball of gas at the centre of our solar system? Unfortunately, we can’t blame this giant, reason being, although the giant at the centre of our solar system burns at a very high temperature, it is a dying star and reports suggest that, the sun is cooling ever so slowly, unlike our planet earth which is warming up as you’re reading this.
Another common argument is, “If the globe is warming then why is it still cold?” Well, the average surface temperature of the Earth is increasing. Doesn’t sound very serious right? In fact, it is a matter of grave importance as this makes extreme weather more likely and severe, what form of extreme weather you face depends on where you are. The summers get hotter in the Sub-Saharan region, heat waves become common across Europe, Snow falls in huge amounts in New York and it rains cats & dogs in UK, sounds like something that would happen in an apocalyptic movie or even something that might happen in a climate change activists worst nightmare, sadly, this may be what’s in store for us in the future if we don’t act fast.
We humans are a resilient bunch, we’ve always found a way to overcome our slightest inconveniences. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the diverse wildlife on earth, rising sea levels and an exponential increase in the occurrence of natural disasters has affected them tremendously. The cheetahs are now racing towards their near threatened status, giant panda bears may starve in the future, the gently giants in the Asian elephant may soon be endangered, all because of climate change.
By now you must’ve realized that we are the cause of this change. The only way we can save the Earth and its inhabitants is if we humans change. In this battle against irreversible climate change, mankind is David, our stones are our resilience, our technology, our allies in trees and mother nature herself and just like always David must win!
Sachin Subhash
