A Comment on the Climate Change Report

Summer has become hotter and longer while that of winter has declined. The effects of climate change across the globe are asymmetric.

How do people react to the new IPCC report, released on March 31? Well, the important question is how rich countries have reacted to it. They will shrug and say ‘look, we have technology; we can handle the looming disaster’. First, they will be suspicious of the report. And complain that it is controversial. They will say the methodology and assumptions are not correct and al that blah blah. It has been, they go on complaining, written in such a manner that it demands rich countries to do more on reducing factors that cause climate change. Then they say we can devolve technology and we don’t have to sacrifice growth. Because in their dictionary the word “sacrifice” does not exist. These are classic cases of what you call fool. A natural disaster, unlike man-made disaster (like riots and all that) does not differentiate between rich or poor; or whether you are from the US or Bangladesh! All will be equally impacted. No question of inequality here! That is zero Gini coefficient! Yet they think that they can overcome these devastations. What a cruel joke? They also make nonsense arguments like the cost of taking climate change reducing actions far outweigh the benefits. Hence, it is best to do nothing and become witness to this devastation. Then they propose some smart concepts like carbon trading system which is unethical. This is unethical because rich countries don’t want to sacrifice growth. They have money and they can buy pollution from poor countries. In return poor countries have to reduce carbon dioxide and other GHGs. Since their manufacturing is primarily based on traditional technologies they have to sacrifice growth. This is the essence of all these smart concepts that those rich countries have innovated. It is high time that we acted now. It’s a question of now or never.

For god’s sake don’t get me wrong. I did not say that all actions have to be undertaken by rich countries. Poor countries must act. But when I see poor countries they say we can’t sacrifice growth. Hence we will reduce less GHGs and all that. They blame rich countries. And rich countries blame, though rationally, poor countries like India and China. For heaven’s sake stop this blame game and ACT NOW.

It is crucial to ask how youth react to such reports. Well, most are unaware and uninformed about the effects of climate change. And what about the educated youth? They hardly bother to care about it. They say: look, we have money. We can buy ACs, AC-cars and all that. They behave like rich countries. They are careless in using water, electricity, polluting air. Nothing can be sadder than this appalling attitude of youths upon whom the future of globe rests on.