EDITORIAL
Nature warns climate talkers
- Published: 2/10/2009 at 12:00 AM
- Newspaper section: News
Typhoon Ketsana carries a sinister message as it lands in Thailand, where policy-makers from around the world are drafting the climate-change agreements for the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen.
The message is: Shape up, or face the fatal consequences.
Despite its slowing down to a depression when reaching the Northeast, the typhoon has left a trail of devastation, killing at least 246 people in the Philippines and more than 50 in Vietnam and Cambodia. The landslides and severe flooding have displaced millions of people and destroyed large tracts of farmland in these countries.
An extra warning came from the concurrent tsunami in the South Pacific which wiped out all the low-lying areas in the Samoan Islands, killing more than 100 people as aftershocks continued to fuel the ocean's fury. On Wednesday Thailand's Andaman coast was also alerted for a tsunami threat, after a powerful earthquake in Indonesian waters. As it turned out, a series of subsequent quakes hit western Indonesia later and killed more than 500 people. These back-to-back natural disasters are part of a string of Nature's outpourings of wrath that are growing more frequent and severe due to the rapid rise in global temperatures and the world's unwillingness to shift to sustainable development, the use of green technologies and an earnest commitment to curb runaway consumerism.
Mother Nature's dire warnings should make the climate-change negotiators from rich and poor countries alike realise that they can no longer allow themselves to be trapped in the blame game. Time is running out. It is suicidal to keep shifting responsibilities or arguing about the wording, while constantly looking over one's shoulder for fear of losing an inch to their economic rivals. The latest string of natural disasters in this part of the world should also drive home another important message: while policy-makers are at loggerheads, it is the ordinary people who lose lives and livelihood, paying the price for their leaders' short-sightedness.
There's no gain in pointing fingers. Policy-makers and big business may remain fiercely attached to the economic model which relies on the need to trigger endless consumption, but the general public is also unaware of how their consumption patterns are part and parcel of the environmental breakdown.
As the world economy urgently needs a major structural change, saving the planet and humanity also requires significant lifestyle changes. Research has repeatedly shown that substituting meat, dairy and confectionery with local plant-based foods can go a long way to addressing global warming. So does the shift to renewable electricity. The consumption of goods and services must be reduced through re-use, repair and recycle. Food should be locally produced and consumed to cut down the use of fossil fuels from long-haul transportation, and any purchase of new goods should take into account whether they have low or high "greenhouse prices".
To simply say that old habits die hard while irresponsibly carrying on in the old ways will only speed up the end of days. Taking charge through direct and individual responsibility does not end there as individual acts, however. When combined, they create a powerful, collective momentum that will effectively force both businesses and governments to change. The people can no longer allow the big guys to continue driving us recklessly into a brick wall. Direct actions can stop this suicidal plunge. And it may well be the only path left for this planet's survival.
