02 Apr We Need to Change the Way We Respond to Climate Change
Societies are at a standstill. Economies are crashing. Streets are deserted. Hospitals are full. This has become the new normal with a pandemic on our hands.
COVID-19 cases are rising at an alarming rate. In a short span of time, we are made to feel its chilling effect, indirectly or otherwise. This newfound consciousness made us step back and look at the bigger picture: there are other global problems that need solving too. Now.
We are all familiar with climate change. We know it also carries severe consequences. So why are we not taking it seriously?
Everyone and Everything is Vulnerable
A World Economic Forum report states that we will witness extinction of species and loss of human life in the coming decade due to a decline in biodiversity. A UNDP report also states that women and children are 14 times more likely to die than men during natural disasters, which are expected to intensify due to climate change. While we are seeing people dying of only COVID-19 now, climate change implications carry far more diseases that are fatal to human beings.
Our ecosystems are already suffering. We are already witnessing our oceans getting warmer, marine life declining, and melting glaciers causing floods in low-lying geographies.
For now, countries are seeing toilet paper shortage and unemployment, but soon the Earth will face a food and water crisis if climate change is not acted upon. Food supply will be compromised. Water scarcity will increase. In fact, a quarter of the world is already experiencing water shortage.
Who will Suffer?
All of us.
Large and powerful countries will experience high economic losses, while developing countries will see more non-economic losses such as risk of exposure and death. Be it economic or otherwise, everyone is a victim of climate change.
2020: The Critical Year for Climate Change
How we choose to respond to climate change today will help decide our fate in the coming years. We need major countries to make commitments and act. Failure to seize the opportunities in 2020 might result in us struggling to make things right.
What we need to do on an individual level is change consumer behaviour.
It is a matter of demand and supply. If the consumers demand it, businesses supply it. If the demand for sustainable products goes up, so will their supply.
Lessons Learned
2020 so far has already become a life-changing chapter for many. COVID-19 carries with it some painful realities but also a lot of valuable lessons:
- We need to act now. Climate change is perhaps the most threatening of all global problems and governments need to work together to fight it.
- We need to be strategic in the way we address and control catastrophic impacts on our economies.
- Most importantly, this calls for boundless collective effort from us humans, in order to save lives, ours included.
Reem is the content executive at plasticfreeuae and the go-to source for everything sustainable in the UAE who strongly believes that mindsets can be changed through words.
