Jonah Achumi
Jean Rostand said ‘Science has made us gods even before we are worthy of being men’. A photo of a hungry malnourished skinny African child with an empty plate in his hands and a caption on the side reads “The world’s hunger is getting ridiculous; there are more nutrients in a rich man’s shampoo than in the food of a poor man’s plate”. I bet if anyone has a heart will be emotionally touched by this. Climate change or global warming is no longer just only a risk but it is already a reality which we are living with. It’s going to be much far worse if we humans keep living our same way without changing our irresponsible lifestyles. The human irresponsibility has been the dominant cause of observed warming since the mid-20th century. Scientists warn we have very little time to cut global greenhouse emissions before they continue to rise to dangerous levels.To be clear, they are saying that without an action there will be a catastrophic climate change. Global agreement on how to reduce carbon emissions is vital because it will enable our leaders to set bold national policies that make a difference. Time to act locally while thinking globally now.Not only climate change is a threat but it’s a problem multiplier as it exacerbates poverty and water scarcity, it compounds food and nutrition insecurity and it makes it even harder for poor households to secure their rights. Pope Francis say “Anyone who takes a breath, drinks a drop of water or eats a bite of food, and wonders where all this nourishment comes from, understands that every single one of us depends upon nature for our lives”. We need robust long-term strategies that reflect the reality we are facing now. Ignorance may be bliss and a virtue long back but not anymore in our present context. The more we are ignorant about it the more harm and damage is inflicted on our environment and our children. One very worrying factor is that the global climatic change is happening much faster than the scientists has predicted. Many of us never have imagined that human-induced climate change might force whole countries to go out of existence. But the melting of glaciers in the Polar Regions and the rising sea levels are really disturbing. Modern wastes materials take a long time to wear out, and they’ve been very widely disturbed across the planet. Almost nowhere is safe. Even most mud samples taken from remote ocean beds now contain plastic fragments.
The awareness campaign in our state Nagaland on the World Environment Day by our people and leaders shows positive signs that our people has now woke up. Churches initiating about environmental awareness in their services are truly a blessed step. Anyone, whether a literate or an illiterate can witness the changing seasonal patterns of temperatures, rainfall, wind bringing unexpected hailstorms, landslides, floods, droughts, food shortages recently happenings all around us can no longer let us remain in our pretentious slumber. Though it may seem to be like a far-fetched idea here, yet I do at times have to agree with the socialist countries mode of limited production of goods. The capitalists unlimited and uncontrolled production of material goods for the consumerists goods ultimately overburden the nature such as soils, plants, water, air by using of chemicals and other toxic elements choking the planet Earth gasping for breath. Seven billion people, let’s consume with care. Though our people seems to have woken up and now seem to have been imbibed with some sense of responsibility with lots of social work in their respective localities cleaning up clogged drains, road repairs, planting trees and so on. But no matter how much we carry out social works, clean our neighborhoods and clear those clogged drains; what good is it if we don’t change our habits and lifestyles? No matter how much we clean our neighborhoods, what good is it if we keep on throwing every rubbish and dirt everywhere around we live? No matter how much we fill up our potholed roads or repair it what good is it if we don’t give even an inch of land to make drains for water to flow? No matter how much we drive around in ritzy glamorous cars wearing chic branded clothes donning Gucci or Armani shades with bejeweled ornamental luster of countless accessories around our bodies scented with most expensive perfumes but keep throwing out your litters in the streets? What good is it when you just plant some tress for creating awareness but cuts down in hundreds for illegal logging business? Singing hymn ‘Holy Night Silent Night’ at the church service in the evening during Christmas time and bursting mega-loud firecrackers polluting the whole town and causing knee-jerking sleepless nights reactions in the middle of their sleep to the newborns and the aged and sick are very much part of our Naga Christmas celebration. Why not just buy some clothes, food or give that cash to some needy ones instead of intoxicating and poisoning our good earth? The riversides in the evening after a New Year’s Day picnic and Easter Sundays show how many tons of garbage is accumulated by us. Emphasizing environmental conservation in the media and in our chief guest speeches when all our office corridors and walls are stained with tamul and gutkha stains while the office garbage are strewn at the backyard only contradicts what we preach.
Collective responsibility with positive outcome and shared anxiety for making it our own surroundings a better place needs to be culminated in all of us without any delay. Predictions about climate change and its implications brings more gloomier thoughts and worries no matter how much we try to be positive. How can we expect ourselves to be optimistic with our future when nothing seems to be going well? There are predictions that India will be facing with acute water scarcity by 2030-40 is another alarming issue. Another issue of creating multiple wastes in our local context is during the weddings season. Our big fat Naga weddings see huge amount of food wastage with half eaten plates of food strewn all over, half drunk water bottles scattered all over the tables and the venue, spoons, forks, napkins, paper wastage etc. Aren’t all those a product of Mother Nature? Mass weddings seem to be the solution in order to save time, energy, traffic pollution, wastages and ultimately conserve all those things that are sucked out from Mother Nature and the good earth. In a surprising yet a very welcoming move now in some community to save expenditures, time, and energy wedding invitations are being done over the phone personally. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle seems to be the only quick fix solution that will yield immediate results and atleast solve some impending dooms at this time. Walking and cycling atleast, if we cannot in the blistering Dimapur daytime heat, we can in the morning and evening hours to ease our traffic snarls. E-ticketing for train and air travels, LCD display of programmes instead of printing programmes wasting money or paper for just an hour or a two are now heralded by new breed of environment conscious people to curb wastage of paper. Yes surely our habits need to change. Driving only when we have to and not just because we want to will save fuel, energy and ultimately less pollution of the environment. By tele-communicating we save energy and cause less pollution which is the need of the hour. The absence of parks and playgrounds in almost all localities by our never ending greed of rampant encroachment also prevents many to undertake even short strolls during evening and morning hours and due to lack of clean fresh air. It clutters our thought for clear clean thinking too with haphazard concrete jungle prowling all around us. Deforestation due to ever increasing population to accommodate human settlements is one gravest issue concerning climate change causing serious ripple effects like soil pollutions, garbage disposal problems, carbon emissions, blockade of clean fresh air, rising temperature, depleting ground water table etc. The problems are way too many even to list it all out.
But we still control the future to a certain extent, however, as the magnitude of shifting weather patterns and the frequency of extreme climate events depends on how much more greenhouse gases we emit. We aren’t facing the end of the world as envisaged by many environmentalists in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but if we do nothing to mitigate climate change then billions of people will suffer and a catastrophic end seems much obvious. If anything needs justice right now, the climate needs it the most at present times. The Earth is our mother and her natural resources are sacred; they are God’s energy and how we respect and utilize them is what will determine the fate of the world. The solution to current environmental concerns is to change our consciousness from exploiting the earth for our own purposes to protecting and honoring the earth for God’s purposes.97% of the world’s climate scientists agree that human activity is causing dangerous global warming, threatening life as we know it. At previous climate summits the world’s politicians have failed to reach meaningful agreement on how to respond. But the UN believes there is still some hope of global agreement in Paris 2015 if the moral call for action is so loud that politicians can’t ignore it. Government and the people together need to act without any delay or else we are creating our own Doomsday Conspiracy Theory in Practicality. This planet is our one and only home. We have no other choice — we must care for it. “How often in life do you have this ability to plan ahead for? If you knew something would happen in your life and you had 10 years to get ready for it, wouldn’t you do that, or would you sit on your hands and wait for it to hit you?” I think addressing environmental issues is critical and overrides everything else for the people of the world besides terrorism.
Many new diseases are emerging which is probably because something’s wrong with their environment. If roads are flooded due to unusual rainfall or storm surge, and people can’t get to work, it’s because of the environment. If deforestation washes sediments into the rivers, sea, destroying water-bodies and threatening livelihoods, it’s because of the environment. If we compromise environmental health, we can’t move forward socially, economically or in any other way. It’s important that communities be intimately involved with the decision-making process. Because we are the ones who will be the most effected by whatever activities we are trying to undertake in future. We need to emphasize on nature-based activities and work in tandem with more conventional man-made constructions. Issues like overfishing, habitat destruction and poverty are all inter-related, and solving them will require that all aspects of the problem be addressed. As affluence increases, consumers demand greater variety, quality and quantity of food and all material things. Scientific method and high yielding variety to meet the demand of our growing population seem to be only aggravating the situation. Clearing more wildernesses to plant crops threatens biodiversity and is not sustainable. Recently, a local newspaper correspondent reported that Nagaland eats even its official wildlife totems like Mithun,Tragopan and Hornbills. Now forget about other poor creatures of the wild found in our land because every wild animal for Nagas are a ‘Dawai’. True to the comic line ‘Nagas eat anything that moves’. Our gluttonous habits of devouring even our heritage are sure bringing them on brink of extinction does not augur well for either us or our coming generations. Forgive me if am wrong but I haven’t come across any Naga vegetarian yet. Nagaland on a positive note has been declared as the Amur Falcon Capital of the world. All thanks to the initiatives of the state government, the people of the Wokha district and the concerned NGOs. Mithun rearing in Phek has given an advantage in restoring Phek’s forest cover. It is a win-win situation initiative for the people as well both flora and fauna of the region. The Governor in his address on World Environment Day stated that around 400 communities/villages in Nagaland(Community Conservation Areas) are conserving their forests and natural resources which accounts for 1/3 rd of the forest cover.
Unless our commitments turn towards more health, less poverty, more food, less waste, more biodiversity, less degradation, we are going to see only gloomier days ahead. Sol let us rescue farmlands, let us help biodiversity flourish. We have only one planet and we’re using it at the rate 0f much faster than it can take. What we’re asking it to provide is simply not sustainability. It’s time to think differently, live differently. It involves not only the world leaders but each one of us in finding a way through the complexities of accepting responsibility for the causes, agreeing what needs to be done and making ourselves available to prevent the situation from getting worse. Across the world, people from different faith and communities are coming together and are now involved in these kinds of activities to help communities cope with the impacts of climate change and to shift to clean energy use. Education and awareness activities at our local level in schools, colleges and especially our churches will surely help everyone shrink their carbon footprint at our homes, at work and in communities. Public policy engagements to encourage more enlightened laws and financial incentives for purchasing low carbon economies must be initiated. Investment activities to support sustainable economic development must be implemented. Let us plant trees and embrace green technologies, such as solar, wind and biogas. Let us appeal to all levels of governance for polices that mean sustainable action and brighter futures. Today let your own individual actions be heroic and let us all together do some historic act to preserve our environment for the coming generations.Today, change must begin with you and me so that there may quite simply be a tomorrow for all. The greatest threat to our planet is that we think someone will save. This is the only one, there is no planet B. An environment which is not safe for plants and animals is neither for humans too.
We should all learn from Bhutan which has become the first carbon negative country in the world. The country’s forest absorbs more carbon dioxide each year than it produces.72% of the country is still forested and its constitution guarantees atleast 60% will remain that way .In June 2015 a team of 100 volunteers planted 49672 trees in just one hour setting a new world record. This March 82000 households planted trees to celebrate the birth of their Queens’ first child. This tiny kingdom with a population of just 7 and a half lakhs is ranked number one in Human Development Index making it the world’s happiest country. Bhutan is the only country in the world to measure Gross National Happiness to measure its Growth. And now yet again, BHUTAN HAS SHOWN THE WORLD TO REVERSE THE GLOBAL WARMING. Are we even listening?
