Thursday, March 28, 2024
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There is Hope! Our Action has to begin now

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Jimmy Pdang

Newspapers all across the world were loaded with stories about young students rallying and walking across the world, staging a global climate strike since September 20, three days before the United Nations Climate summit, 2019. Global Climate strike was a series of International strikes and protests demanding action to be taken by governments and capitalists to address climate change. According to the views of many researchers and scholars, people are now more worried about climate change than the way they used to be and its causes and impacts are increasing rather than slowing down. It is real and poses a major threat to human life causing threats to physical health and survival, food and water shortages, loss of life of the most vulnerable in our society after being most at risk. The entire eco-system is collapsing and is becoming a real threat to human existence.

While there is a need for us to stage a protest and demand actions from the governments and other stake holders to solve the issue of climate change, there should also be a question lying in the minds of every youngster about the sense of self responsibility and efforts taken in an individual capacity to promote and protect our mother earth. We need to ask ourselves how far is our commitment towards building a sustainable ecology that breathes life in us and provides resources for us to live.  If our commitment is still lagging behind, then what moral right do we have to demand action from others? I understand that climate injustice involves violation of our human rights and dignity. All of us have basic rights to a peaceful and healthier environment and while these rights exist, there are also duties that we need to fulfill as global citizens towards mother earth. These are closely related and cannot be separated from one another. Simply put, if we demand from our governments to promote public transport, our duty is to make use of it to reduce air pollution. If we demand our governments to provide us electricity, our duty is to consume it sparingly. If we demand for a public park, our duty is to make use and keep it clean. If we are living by a river, our duty is to keep it clean and not to pollute it. If we recklessly throw and dispose of dirt and chemicals into it, later when it become dirty and unfit for human use, what right do we have to demand that our government clean it for us, and there are various similar examples that we can look at.

It is the truth and I have seen with my own eyes that many youngsters and educated people today lack civic sense and care very little when it comes to keeping the environment neat and clean. I have seen youngsters from luxury cars spit on the roads and throw out food on the streets. Many are still littering around the streets, throw waste in a place not suitable instead of garbage bins, dispose sewage into rivers and streams, driving vehicles for show off, cutting down flowers and trees, wasting food, water and electricity. What is the difference then? In my own view, the difference between such people and governments and stake holders is that the latter are greedy. They have enough power, money and resources to build an empire at the cost of contributing more to the destruction of the eco-system, while the former have less and contribute less to this global disaster.

I believe there is still hope to protect human kind and that hope is an action that we have to take now to improve the environment for the need of the present and future generations. As we put  pressure on governments and capitalists to do their duties towards humankind, I would suggest to my young friends that our protest and strike must take place along with our personal actions. Individual actions can make a lot of difference. Imagine if thousands of us young students who have taken part in the global climate strike plant one or two trees each and commit ourselves to see and take care of their growth, apart from taking active part in the strike, how much difference that would’ve made. I see the hope in both individuals and collective actions and not to isolate these two things from each other. Each one of us bears a responsibility to create an environment where our next generations don’t unnecessarily have to rally and sleep on the streets to demand their rights.

It is not enough for us to turn up in the streets and other visible places with placards to fight and demand our rights for our future. It is equally important to take active steps and in solving innumerable problems for a better society. If the leaders of today fail us, let us pledge to be eco-friendly and train ourselves to be the bright leaders of tomorrow who can strengthen the need of balancing the development of human beings and the need to promote a sustainable environment. I have heard stories of many young leaders of yesterday raising voices and concerns about the need to have a green, harmonious and healthy planet. They are the same leaders of today in various government and corporate sectors who are not faithful to what they were fighting for when they were young and they turn a blind eye to what is happening now. One of the primary reasons could be greed and corruption and I understand once you get into a comfortable zone, it’s difficult to come out of it or to fight against the disparity of rich people and vulnerable groups whereby the former can afford luxuries to protect themselves but not the latter. I have seen young people with much energy and who are influential in the society fighting for climate justice for the vulnerable. However, they want for themselves to sit inside an AC car, sleep inside an AC room and want all kinds of comforts in their personal lives at the cost of wasting more energy. We should also ask what kind of leaders are we today. Are we faithful enough to what we are fighting now? And later when we get to play an important role in decision making in the process of global governance, will we keep our primary focus on the rights of humans to have a peaceful and healthier life or, we will be propelled by economics at the cost of human life.

I understand that it is the duty of parents to teach their children about civic sense and the love for nature but, even if they fail, experience teaches us that as we grow in life. Those of us who believe that our parents and teachers have failed to teach us about cleanliness, to be nature friendly and the importance of conserving resources like water, food and energy, should start practicing what we understand and begin the action of educating ourselves, our young sisters and brothers at home and our young friends in our own places. If we are travelling daily to school, college or work, let us sacrifice our comfort zone of travelling by using public transport, cycles instead of personal cars, or even walk the short distances. Let us begin planting our community gardens in our school, college, villages or house compounds. Let us save energy by reducing the use of electrical appliances, unplug electronic devices after they are charged or when not in use. Let us pledge not to waste food and water and share our resources with others giving preference to the poor. Those of us, who are still using plastics in our daily lives should start reducing that by carrying our own shopping bags and avoiding plastic bottled drinking water. Let us not throw and dispose off sewage in places not meant to be and let us start following the three principles of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

When collective action is needed, it is rightly said that we have failed to trouble ourselves and trusted governments to lead us into the much needed collective action to mitigate and solve issues of climate change. Those of us who truly believe that present governments are on the verge of destroying humankind because of their greed, being money minded and industry-friendly should pledge to vote and elect leaders who are trustworthy and accountable to human beings and nature. Our hope to save ourselves is still there if our action to stop hurting our mother earth begins now.

(The writer is IYCS Asian Coordinator)

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