Give ‘Nature’ one last chance

There is a Hollywood movie named “I want to live.” Today we hear the echo of that cry coming from nature. Nature wants to live. Let it live. Give it one last chance.

This is a universally accepted fact today that nature backpedals while technology moves forward. A water dam is built with concrete over a millennia old free-flowing river. Hills are leveled to construct human habitats. Millions of lofty trees are felled to get packets of facial tissue. Billions of tonnes of human waste are polluting oceans, rivers, earth and air on a daily basis. Nature is gasping for fresh air. Nature wants one last chance to live.

Human factors are contributing to extreme changes in climate and this is happening in the last one hundred plus years since the advent of technology. Big industrial units in rich countries are releasing carbon dioxide and other harmful  gases in the air. Thus, the more chemical factories are coming up the more toxic waste is getting released to cause global warming. Global warming in its turn melts ice in the polar region causing water levels in oceans and rivers around the world to rise and threaten low-lying areas. Global warming causes many species of plants and insects to go extinct. Global warming is changing millennia old patterns of climate. Climate change is responsible for the mutation of various types of bacteria and virus, resulting in the outbreak of deadly diseases and deaths in humans and animals.  Therefore, something drastic needs to be done to put a check on the factors that cause deterioration of climate worldwide.

With the good intention to save the world, leaders from many countries will converge in Glasgow in November this year and thrash out options as to what can be done to reverse the dire situation in hand. The conference is named COP26 (Conference of the Parties). Climate action will be the main theme in the high profile conference. Sir David Attenborough, the celebrated nature lover and activist, will grace the occasion. The COP26 event is a global United Nations summit about climate change and how countries are planning to tackle it. It was due to take place in Glasgow from 9 - 19 November with more than 200 world leaders attending, but when coronavirus arrived, the schedule had to be changed.

Interestingly, many young activists from around the world have decided to organize an online conference called Mock COP26 on the original dates. The conference will be attended by countries that signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) - a treaty agreed in 1994. The 2021 meeting will be the 26th meeting, and that is why it is being called COP26. The COP26 campaign poster stresses the fact that countries need to work together to fight climate change.

The last conference, COP25, was held in Madrid, Spain, in November 2019 with mini celebrity Greta Thunberg giving a big speech at the event. We remember the hype she had created there by pointing her fingers at the big leaders of the developed countries for the worsening climate situation. The COP meeting in Madrid could not resolve all the pertinent issues, but an agreement was reached about cutting carbon dioxide - a gas that causes global warming. In the conference, nations agreed to take an effective plan to cut their carbon emissions by the next conference in Glasgow.

The Paris Agreement, held in Paris in 2015, was aimed at tackling issues related to climate change, agreed upon by leaders from 195 countries.

The salient features of Paris agreement were:

• Reduce the amount of harmful greenhouse gasses produced and increase renewable types of energy like wind, solar and wave power

• Keep global temperature increase "well below" 2C (3.6F) and to try to limit it to 1.5C

• Review progress made on the agreement every five years

• Spend $100 billion dollars a year in climate finance to help poorer countries by 2020, with a commitment to further finance in the future.

If we recall, in 2020 the United States had officially pulled out of the deal – as Donald Trump perhaps thought it was demeaning for the US to abide by the UN rules. It was more his ego than logic that triggered the decision. Will the current president of the US, Joe Biden rejoin? A million dollar question, indeed.

Things are still not crystal clear regarding how the agreed goals should be achieved. Possibly COP26 will help clear some confusion and help resolve some complex issues.  Since it is going to be held in the UK, people are asking what the UK is doing about climate change? Official documents say that the British government had declared 2020 a "Year of Climate Action". It also has plans for changing to electric cars and reducing the UK's carbon emissions to "net zero" - which means releasing virtually no carbon - by 2050. Emissions from transport, farming and industry will be reduced completely by sucking CO2 out of the atmosphere.

The warming of the planet earth is happening at a rapid speed because of certain reasons. The UN document says “The atmosphere traps heat radiating from the world and stops it escaping into space. Certain gases in the atmosphere, called greenhouse gases, block the heat from escaping. One of the biggest problems is carbon dioxide (CO2).

Carbon dioxide is released naturally but humans have increased CO2 in the atmosphere by more than a third by burning fossil fuels like coal and oil.”

We first heard about climate change and its possible fallout from conferences taking place in the Rio Earth Summit, then the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement. Some actions have been taken which are giving results now. But, now it is more important than ever that we do more, become more proactive and take concrete actions towards reaching the goal of zero emission target. We have only one planet. A healthy nature will ensure good health of our progeny. So it is our responsibility to keep it healthy for posterity. Let us pay heed to the cry of nature. Let us let it live and thrive.

The writer is Associate Editor at The Business Post