One of the perks of not being in a corporate job is that I now
have the time to catch up on all sorts of strange things that I enjoy. One of
them is watching comedy, which in the age of Trump, has become one of the most
mind-enriching forms of entertainment known to man.
This morning’s great snippet came from watching Trevor Noah,
host of the Daily Show, interviewing Greta Thunberg, the 16-year old Swedish climate
change activist. Much has been said about climate change and Ms. Thunberg’s
leadership of the world’s youth in shaming the world’s powerful for their
inaction on a pressing topic, so I won’t dwell on the politics of the topic.
However, what caught my attention was a portion of the clip where Trevor Noah
asked her what she thought of how people in New York thought of climate change
and what they thought of it at home. Her reply was very apt – she said people
in New York thought of climate change as a belief while at home people treated
it as a fact. The clip between Mr. Noah and Ms. Thunberg can be found at:
I noticed this segment because it reminded me of a
particularly sad truism – a problem isn’t a problem until affects a person. Why
should I care about something that does not affect me?
Ms. Thunberg is Swedish, and the signs and risk are climate
change are real in Sweden, so the Swedes are going to take climate change,
global warming and so on as fact that needs to be dealt with. In America,
particularly in places like New York, the affects of climate change are not
obvious and so, people don’t take it seriously enough to elect a President who,
despite all the science thrust under his nose, has declared climate change as a
“Chinese Hoax” bent on crippling America. There were people who cheered for the
Donald when he pulled America out of the Paris Climate Accords.
In a way, you can’t blame Americans for not treating things
like climate change the way the Swedes do. It is human nature to feel the pain
of anything only when they actually feel it. A problem is only problem when it
becomes personal. Unfortunately, when it comes to things like the environment,
particularly things like climate change, the nature of the problem is
exceedingly real and global. Sure, I’m living in Singapore, which as far as I
know, not in any imminent danger of sinking. However, so I need to wait for
things to get so bad that Singapore faces the dangers that the Maldives
currently faces?
If one looks at the way humanity has tried to impose its
will on nature, one will find that nature has always found a way of sticking it
to the human race. What’s worse as that many of our so called “crisis” are not
new. Climate change was discussed when I was in school some 20 odd years ago.
Only difference between then and now is the fact that countries were not in
danger of disappearing into the sea. The other more unforgivable aspect is that
things like alternative energy sources were not economically viable in many
cases back then. Today, sources like solar power and hydroelectricity are.
Let’s go back to the topic of climate change, which America’s
champion of the working poor, Donald Trump, claims to be a Chinese hoax. When
America withdrew from the Paris Accords, the world’s largest polluter, China, stayed
put in the Accords and worked towards trying to cut its Greenhouse emissions.
Although there is a long way for China to go and in many ways the signs are not
optimistic, thanks to the trade war with Donald’s America, the Chinese did, for
a time reduce their emissions. Today, China is a large market for wind and
solar power.
It’s not that the Chinese Communist Government particularly
cares for the global environment. For years, the Chinese accused global
environmental movements of being a leftover of Western imperialism bent on
keeping China down. What changed? The air in the places that count, namely
places like Beijing and Shanghai became unbreathable and the problem became
real enough for the CCP to realise that this was the very thing that could get
them ejected from power.
I think of Bhutan and its philosophy of Gross National Happiness
(“GNH”), which looks at things like environmental preservation as part of its
development goals. As I type this blog from “haze-filled” Singapore, its become
clear to me that the Bhutanese obsession with environmental preservation is not
an idealistic dream. It is a very practical tool. Keeping trees where they are
helps prevent landslides (in part of the world where landslides are common).
Giving free hydropower and solar panels to rural people stops them from burning
down trees. Selling hydropower to India, reduces India’s need to use polluting sources
of power.
Another good example of a leader who understood that
environmental preservation was a practical tool, was that late Sheikh Zayed Bin
Sultan Al Nahyan, for President of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Abu
Dhabi, who planted trees throughout his emirate. Result of his gardening was the
fact that he managed to cool the temperatures. What’s particularly interesting
here is the fact that most of his money was made from hydrocarbons. In his
neighboring emirate of Dubai, I remember the pride that buildings took in being
environmentally friendly. Why was that? I believe that although the UAE’s main
source of revenue has been hydrocarbons, the rulers have been wise enough to
see that they have to take care of the environment in order to have real
prosperity.
Yes, the problem is only a problem when it affects you.
However, one needs to be far sighted enough to understand that you shouldn’t
wait until the problem reaches you. It’s best for all of us to do something
about global warming now, when it’s a few atolls in the ocean being affected
than to wait until it hits home. We have the technology and the money, now we
just need to political and human will to act. As Ms. Thunberg has said, she
should be in school, not trying to make the great and powerful understand their
responsibilities for keeping the planet alive. Do, we really need to Mar Largo
in Florida to get flooded for something to happen?
Note
Being an independent blogger and providing a platform for independent
voices is tough work. However, it is work that I believe adds value to the
discourse that we need today.
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