Climate change has become the biggest crisis of our era, and global warming is dangerously close to spiralling out of control. It is causing suffering and death, and we’re all obsessed with the talk of changing environmental metrics!
Look at the year 2023 alone, when heat waves claimed hundreds of lives in Mexico and the US and wrecked widespread devastation in Europe, China, Laos, and many other parts of the world. Tornadoes and wildfires displaced thousands of people in China, Japan, Pakistan, Chile, Brazil, and Haiti, to name a few countries.
Beyond predictions, the weather has been crazy, and it is forecast worsen in the years ahead. A few months ago, the World Meteorological Organization issued a “red alert” about global warming due to the huge rise in greenhouse gases and land and water temperatures.
The agency’s secretary-general, Celeste Saulo, was quoted by news agencies as saying, “Never have we been so close—albeit on a temporary basis at the moment—to the 1.5°C lower limit of the Paris agreement on climate change.”
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the planet has already warmed 1.1 degrees Celsius since the preindustrial era began 250 years ago. The warning is that it could reach a worst-case scenario of 4 degrees Celsius by 2100 if we fail to tackle the causes of climate change.
But can the Earth handle this change and save us from the doomsday warnings? As experts point out though we cannot stop it, we can slow the rate. If we examine the weather history, we will find that current events are nothing unusual.
In this context is the book "Not the End of the World" by data scientist Hanna Ritchie, in which she argues, “If we take several steps back, we can see something truly radical, game-changing, and life-giving happening.”
The book, packed with the latest research, practical guidance, and enlightening graphics, makes us rethink almost everything we've been told about the environment.
Look at all those geologic timelines, including changing atmospheric gases, ice ages, earth quakes, floods, and other extinction events—all these have happened over and over in the past, and the Earth has handled all of them!
“All these problems are big. But they are solvable. We are not doomed. We can build a better future for everyone. Let's turn that opportunity into reality," Hanna suggests, adding, “The time for debating is over. We need to move past it to the question of what we’re going to do about it.".
In the past, it was common for disasters to claim millions of lives a year. Similarly, air pollution kills millions of people every year, but it doesn’t have to be this way. We know how to keep levels of air pollution very low, she points out in the book.
Despite being heavily criticised, the book presents what the data and facts are. The author suggests realistic ways to adapt in energy, transport, food, and construction to rein in climate change while improving human wellbeing at the same time.
Although I personally don’t agree with every point in this book, there are many things that make me think, and I hope they will also make other readers think. The book offers us all hope, especially those who are bombarded with negative messages about their future.
But one thing is true: the world has woken up to the reality of climate change. People are now taking action. If we want a sustainable future, we need to create it. The time for debating whether climate change is happening or not is over.
We should accelerate our actions and focus our efforts, although solutions to the crisis turn out to be political in nature.
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