Pleading for the Planet
Even as world leaders continue empty and highfalutin talks on global warming and climate change, the spat between the developed and the developing nations persists. And humanity remains the loser.
Can we spare a thought about our kids?
Do we care about our mother earth? Are we worried about the future of our children? If we do, the consensus between the developed and the developing countries could have been reached long ago.
It’s time we stopped bickering and made sincere efforts to save the world.
At Kyoto Protocol, it was decided that by 2012 the countries under the Annex 1 would reduce their carbon emission by 5.2% prevailing in1990. But, we now see that pollution has shot up by 11.2% compared to 1990.
UN secretary-general Ban Ki Moon appealed to all world leaders before the Copenhagen summit to close ranks and rise above the narrow-minded politics for the sake of our planet.
But, what do we saw was truly worrying. Developed nations didn’t eschew their much-trodden path. They stuck to their earlier stance of dictating to the developing nations asking them to cut carbon emissions, without showing them how to do it.
In a last-ditch attempt to show leadership in the climate campaign, the US offered a $100 billion package by 2020 at the summit.
But, wasn’t it motivated? Wasn’t it a ploy to divide the developing countries?
Thankfully, the package didn’t find any takers in the G-77+ China Group at the summit.
The developing nations like India and China have a point. It’s true that Americans and Europeans have polluted the world over the last five decades.
But, now it’s not a question of retribution.
Nobel laureate Prof Amartya Sen is right when he said: Forget trying to get justice for the past, but bear in mind the inheritance of the injustice of the past in injustice today and try to do something about it.
The developed and developing (including India, China and Brazil) nations should endorse a global contract which is fairer to the interests of the poorer parts of the world.
Our attitude should require critical evaluation as it’s the job of every country to decide what it can do to reduce global danger.
Economic progress, higher consumption of energy, carbon dioxide (even monoxide) enveloping the planet, greenhouse effects are all intimately linked. One must go through the recent history of world energy to examine the damage man has already wrought on ecology as well to understand how the human race can save itself.
Oil counts for about 35 per cent of energy consumption in the world. Next comes, coal going up to 25 per cent and natural gas with about 25 percent. Thus more than 80 per cent of world energy comes from burning fossils.
China must take a look seriously at the horror of burning fossil fuel. The graveness of the situation is amply illustrated in a Saudi slogan: My father rode a camel. I drive a car. My son flies a plane. His son will ride a camel once again.
The industrial revolution was driven by the abundance of cheap fossil energies. The horrifying fact is that anthropogenic carbon dioxide release affects the climate for hundreds of thousands of years.
Are we aware of this?
If mankind is to survive the global warming, it must tap every possible source of alternative and cleaner energy.
Finally, I have a plea to all US citizens:
Can’t we use SMALL cars?
Come on! Take the lead in this initiative.
It’s not a question of ‘progress,’ but a question of ‘survival’.
