And as my thoughts drift, I asked myself this question, who are we fighting climate change for?
The reason why We have to do something, no matter whose fault it is, is that our previous generations screwed up knowing that the consequences won’t be seen in their lifetime. But with our generation, the changes are happening RIGHT NOW. We have to fight to have a secure future in our own lifetimes.
The problem is not just about the temperature going up or the air becoming a little more smoky. Rising sea levels will bring in millions of climate change refugees to higher altitudes. Resources like food and water will be scarce and only those with a lot of money and power will have easy access to those. There will be violence, wars for these basic things everywhere. And all this will happen within ten years, in our own lifetimes.
What we don’t see right now is that climate change is going to bring about huge social and economic problems, not just weird weather!
I’ve been trying to make changes in my life, but the truth is, I haven’t been trying hard enough. But on the other hand, watching documentaries and reading about these issues, being exposed to so much information in the past 3 years in NID has made me even more environmentally conscious. So I guess awareness can change people, little by little.
“It’s too late to be pessimistic”
The point is that too much needs to be done in too little time. Apart from making changes in our own lifestyles, we have to force out governments to become more environmentally conscious; to switch to clean sources of energy, to invest in sustainable development. We really have to unite and force our governments, because individually, we cannot install windmills in the seas or gigantic solar panels in the deserts, or stop creating plastic junk. But individually also, we have to get a little uncomfortable and change ourselves. Resolve to buy less, buy local (it takes a lot of energy to import and transport goods through air / sea), walk / cycle / use public transport instead of car / plane (planes have enormous amounts of emissions), eat less meat (meat is highly inefficient as a lot of farmland and crop is used to feed the animal through its lifetime before it becomes one meal), reuse plastic, reuse scrap, throw away less, use less.. and be more aware and sensitive towards our future.
