By Patricia Mukhim
It is heartening to see young people voicing their concerns on an issue of global importance. The young are today trying to set the agenda for governments on how to address the ramifications of Climate Change (CC). A two day deliberation organised by the Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN) in Shillong recently saw several youth of North East India deliberating on the overwhelming consequences of CC.
The IYCN is an organization of Indian youth that aims to raise their voice on CC at the global platform since South Asia is one of the most vulnerable regions affected by CC and other environmental issues. IYCN members in different states of India are trying to create awareness and generate consensus on what role India should play in the global debate on CC and how it should address its domestic issues. The IYCN started in 2008 and is now based in six locations with several outreach chapters. IYCN is a network of “informed youth” and climate change indeed requires informed citizens to push governments to take responsible action. The IYCN’s ‘Agents of Change’ project is supported by the Embassy of Germany and GIZ. This programme is timely indeed! We are passing through a period of bizarre climate uncertainties and the consequences are grave. Meghalaya should know this better than anyone else. The Government had hardly declared a drought in Garo Hills when suddenly came the deluge of unprecedented dimensions. About 60 people died but the loss in terms of property, livestock and farm products was phenomenal considering that was also the time when the rice grains were ripening. When the younger generation ( 15-35 years) speak of climate change, they actually don’t know what sort of climate Meghalaya had forty or fifty years ago. They can only hear from their elders that the weather ( a daily phenomenon, the sum total of which makes up climate)was much cooler in the summers ( 20-24 degrees centigrade)and cold in the winters (sometimes dipping as it does now below 4-5 degrees centigrade). Those of us who were born in the fifties have lived through those good times and are living through the highly variable climate scenario today. Nostalgia gets us nowhere but one cannot forget the clean, pure morning air wafting through the pine trees that grow around people’s homes or the aroma of the lemon and orange flowers or the peach blossoms from our compounds when we spared the space for growing fruit trees. Today every inch of space in this city has become very valuable because it could be turned into a room that fetches a regular monthly rent. So houses are built up and there is a strange greed to encroach on roads and other peoples’ property so much so the roofs of two adjacent buildings almost touch each other. All the norms of good civic behaviour are violated and there is no law to punish that.
When the IYCN invited me for a panel discussion on a SWOT (Strength Weakness, Opportunities, Threats) analysis of Climate Change, I was taken aback. What strengths can there be in something that is as cataclysmic as Climate Change? One has not heard happy stories from this phenomenon which has come upon us like some juggernaut of bad omens. I had to think really hard before I could come up with anything resembling a strength in this area. Here is my humble attempt! Strengths: The only strength one could think of is that we are today aware that CC is real and staring us in the face and that we are no longer in denial. And if anyone is in denial it is usually Governments both state and central because they realise that it means major investments in something they believe will sort itself out. Often those in policy making think that CC is an unnecessary bogeyman let loose by hyperactive scientists with fertile imaginations. Alas! Governments can look the other way at their own peril! Awareness about Climate Change enables us to try and find solutions to reduce the disastrous impacts by reducing carbon footprints in as many creative ways as we can thereby trying to reduce the triggers that hasten the CC process.
Perhaps another area of strength is that climate science has progressed by leaps and bounds and therefore we humans are better prepared to adapt and deal with the consequences. It has also pushed governments to allocate adequate resources for dealing and adapting with CC.
Weaknesses: There is as yet not enough awareness among farming communities and ordinary citizens. We see, we feel but we don’t change because we are not pushed to change. As of now CC seems to be a topic of avid interest only among environmentalists, agricultural scientists and climate scholars. Industrialists and corporate giants that depend on natural resources for their industrial base are least excited about CC. Some have even pointed to climate histories and said that the earth goes through its own cycle of change. They assert that CC has its advantages because we can now grow crops, vegetables, fruits etc that we could not have grown earlier. Such arguments skim over the fact that climate unpredictability makes it difficult for farmers to anticipate their returns. If they prepare for a drought they might have a sudden cloud burst and floods, a la Garo Hills. Those who rear livestock suffer the most from climate unpredictability. There is larger dependence on hormone boosted drugs for quick growth to avoid risks over longer period required for natural free range chicken for instance.
Opportunities : Ironically CC provides opportunities for creative minds in the area of waste management, clean development models, green buildings, green technology, new courses in schools and colleges, tapping better energy sources for heating, lighting, cooking , growing new crops and learning crop bio-diversity, expanding forest cover for carbon sinks, amongst others. Today, technology enables us to be better prepared to deal with cyclones through early warning systems and these systems are continuously upgraded. Flood management strategies are better developed. There is also greater accuracy in prediction through new research and studies and also through better dissemination methods so that those at receiving end are better prepared. Interestingly studies show that insurance businesses grow because of CC but they are also in a transitional stage.
However, opportunities would also mean that policy makers, business leaders, teachers and media have to know what CC is all about. It’s not just a fancy word. It impacts and causes large scale devastation. Hence policy makers need to take hard decisions on several intriguing questions. Should a farmer switch over to drought resistant crops? What happens if he gets adequate rains or more in that season? Should the height of flood protection dykes be raised to prevent damage to ports from rising sea waters? In the recent floods in Garo Hills many rivers broke their banks so should the Government now invest in higher embankments? How do governments generate resources to meet these new demands? Threats : There is growing evidence that climate change is responsible for an increasing number of health problems, including asthma, diarrheal disease and even deaths from extreme weather like heat waves, (Dr. Georges Benjamin, the executive director, APHA). Vector-borne diseases and waterborne diseases, such as childhood gastrointestinal diseases are on the rise. Food insecurity on account of reduced crop yields and an increase in plant diseases often cause mental health disorders, such as posttraumatic stress disorder and depression amongst the farming community. Merely spending money to reduce carbon emissions may not succeed in tackling health threats. Poverty and bad hygiene could often make the primary difference on the spread of infectious disease. However, unchecked warming would make the tackling of health problems even tougher. We have seen the prevalence of more infectious diseases in recent years. In Meghalaya diseases once thought to have been eradicated such as Meningococcal meningitis have resurfaced and so have many others. We are yet to find out if the Ebola outbreak is also a consequence of CC. But on the whole CC has a negative impact on human health. Also a cause of concern is that not enough clinicians are engaged in the CC dialogue and its health dynamics. Clearly the IYCN has its tasks mapped out. But hope lies in the fact that the young are able to make quick behavioural and lifestyle changes when they know the consequences of not doing so. And because they are better informed, they can inform others and spread the credo of smart and responsible Climate Change Adaptation.