We had this engaging and thoughtful discussion at my college on sustainable development and how can brands define their objectives to achieve their sustainable missions.
During the lecture, several points were raised by the professor and some of my peers. Some of them become the talking points of today’s post due to their perceived significance to me.
One of the starting points of the discussion was related to climate change and if it is real. One of my peers quoted that Vivek Ganapathy Ramaswamy, one of the candidates in the Republican Presidential Primary, said on national television that climate change is a hoax.
My professor replied by saying that various politicians and head of the states of many countries around the world have hesitated to accept the changing of the climate and its implications on the world due its affects on economy and GDP growth.
But first, what is actually climate change?
“Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. Such shifts can be natural, due to changes in the sun’s activity or large volcanic eruptions. But since the 1800s, human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.”
One of the examples quoted by the professor focused on how if the head of the state of India openly accepted that climate change is real and needs to be dealt with utmost urgency; it will lead to the complete overhaul of the government’s internal and external policies as well as any and all new projects taking place in the country.
The government will have to abide by the acceptance of the head of the state and will have to focus and work towards reducing and rejecting projects that have short as well as long term climate and environmental impact.
All subsidies and grants available to various upcoming MSME’s and startups would be under scrutiny and only be approved once it is ascertained that the operations of these firms will not lead to any adverse environmental impacts.
As one of the fastest growing countries in the world with on pace to become a developed nation by 2047, India cannot afford to lose sight of its goals in trying to accommodate climate and environmental care.
GDP growth is an important determinant of the development of economies such as India and thus trying to heavily enforce climate goals can hamper and slow down the economic growth.
India has started to diversify its energy needs with solar energy taking a central stage in it’s move to renewable energy. But it is without a doubt that one of the fastest growing countries on the planet continues to rely on coal as the driver of its economic health.
One of the terms used by the professor to address the hesitation by people and politicians to accept climate change is: climate skepticism.
“A climate skeptic is someone who does not believe that changes in the earth’s climate risk environmental catastrophe.”
– Collins
I think a lot of people in the world are either climate skeptic or deniers. It will be wrong to put people who are ignorant about climate change under climate skeptics but it won’t change too much even if we do that.
We have deserts recording excess rains for a continued period of time and scenes of floods and deluge.
Sahara desert, the largest and one of the most driest places in the world received its first floods in about 50 years this week. The Moroccan government reported that just 2 days worth of rains have exceeded the yearly average of rainfall that many of the country’s region receive.
“It’s been 30 to 50 years since we’ve had this much rain in such a short space of time.”
– Houssine Youabeb of Morocco’s General Directorate of Meteorology
Thar desert, located in the west of India have on record exceeded normal rainfall levels for over 20 years now. The region was 1 out of 36 subdivisions that have received excess rainfall this year but it was hardly a surprise as the trend has been seen in rainfall over the region in recent years. This undeniably tells us about the indications of the shifting monsoon patterns in a warming world.
The deserts are getting wet and the plains drier, my professor exclaimed during the lecture.
Which leads us to the question, is it too late? Is is too late to undo the climate change which humans have caused to the planet? I don’t have an answer to this question. Neither does my professor.
One of my peers questioned the professor that why is it expected that we do not throw the plastic bottles into the waters when the manufacturers of these bottles dump their waste in the same waters? Isn’t it hypocrisy to call out individuals rather than just reigning in on these corporations that continue to damage the environment and contribute to the climate change.
The professor said that one simple solution to the problem is to simply stop consuming what we deem is harmful to the planet. The peer responded by saying that how is it possible to stop consumption and why can’t the government simply reign in on the corporations who are responsible for the environmental damage to begin with.
My professor was quick to add that while it may be tough to stop consumption of products that we deem harmful to the planet, it is one of the easiest and effective ways to contribute towards environmental safeguarding. Eliminating the demand that incentivizes the producers to manufacture the goods that harm the environment is indeed an easy way out through this, albeit in a slow and long term process.
But the truth is unknown. Maybe it is in the front of us. But we do not know. We remain in a state of denial and ignorance that climate change is not an issue to worry about. Or perhaps, when it is said that climate change has already caused intense environmental impacts, people are forced to retreat and believe that it is already too late to focus on it now.
To sensationalize the climate change policies and its impact on the health of the people and environment leads to people believing that way. So while it may not be too late to reverse the damage, we just might leave the world for the future generation who will have to survive on borrowed time.
We are the last generation to fully reap the benefits of a world that didn’t have to worry about the climate, and the first generation to suffer from the consequences of the climate change that will continue to wreak havoc unless controlled and reversed.
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