Mother Earth is facing its acutest phase of a ‘forced metamorphosis’ due to a human propelled climate change
Rains battering Mumbai and devastating lives and livelihoods have raised a local administrative quandary but also have addressed a global one too. The weather catastrophes around the world have been wreaking havoc on mankind. While category 3+ storms continue to pound the Caribbean and East coast of the US, droughts have ravaged Australia- here at home an estimated 10 million have been adversely effected by the floods and incessant rains in central and North East India and landslides devastate the hilly states of Uttarakhand, Himachal and J and K. Painful as this grim scenario is, what makes it even more excruciating is attitude of the policy makers world wide which is palpably myopic and disastrous when it comes to planning and execution. Mother Earth is facing its acutest phase of a ‘forced metamorphosis’ due to a human propelled climate change. The environment and the atmosphere have been altered critically to the point of no return and due to that the weather anomalies will continue to get severe each passing day. Mankind and all life forms will face the flak of these disruptions. The solution to this diabolical predicament has come in form of a feeble symptomatic response by mankind, which seems to be satisfactory only in digits but a disaster on ground.
We need a paradigm shift in our concept of development a migration from the current anthropocentric model to an all encompassing and holistic one which treats the Earth and nature as living entities. Secondly Eco sensitive zones should be identified across the globe and recognized as international heritages, and a no tolerance for human interruption policy should be followed in this zone. For example the higher zones of Himalayas, which are not only a magnet for the monsoon and thus control the weather of the entire subcontinent, but also are the fountain head of the rivers that nourish close to 1 billion people should be declared a zone for no massive constructions. Thirdly a joint Eco task force for the protection of the environment should be established by all nations, with more teeth to this force than what the current conventions on climate change impart, because as per experts by 2025 the world would have more than a billion climate refugees.
Lastly and most importantly a holistic environment education should be made compulsory in the schools, where the value of interconnections present in the web of life and how to protect and preserve it must be taught to the future generations .
– By Deana Uppal ((Writer is an Indo- British Model & Entrepreneur))
OpinionExpress.In
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