The world is dying a slow death
The world is getting warmer
The discussion is on… the topic is hot… the question is whether the year 2014 will be the hottest year ever the world has seen in last couple of decades or centuries? The representatives of 190 countries are in Lima the capital of Peru for a twelve day meet to discuss about the changes in world-environment. The convention under the ‘United Nations Organization Framework on Climate Changes’ is on again and they will keep the same topic of reducing the ways to find the increasing Carbon in the environment once again. I feel it’s not easy to bring all nations to a point of agreement on this subject as every nation has its own interests.
Our concern on environment
The world will have to consider our environmental seriously and they have started proceeding towards the matter of pollution to some extent but it’s not enough. They will discuss the issue in Lima meet and then will try to make a general agreement and then sign drafts for the meeting scheduled in Paris in 2015 that will be effective until 2020 for all countries, not an easy job indeed. As I said earlier it is not going to be an easy task reaching to a consensus on matters of world green house emission.
The time has come the world started to look into environmental issues seriously after what has been witnessed in the last decade or so. All incidents of very low to excessive rains in different reasons compared to normal rains otherwise, natural disasters, avalanches, landslides, increasing temperature are clear indication of very uncertain future. The time is not very far ahead but there are very clear signs our coming generations are in for serious troubles. Let’s all hope the twelve-day meet in Lima will bring certain positive results for our serious environmental concerns.
The hottest year
If we were to believe Karen Christiana Figures Olsen the famous Costa Rican diplomat and Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change appointed in May 2010 she says the year 2014 is going to prove the hottest year in last few decades as far environmental changes are concerned. She feels if we do not go for immediate changes in our strategies it could prove too costly to the world in near future. We need to take steps immediately to save the world from further disasters. The big need is to keep the temperature in limit due increased production by developed and developing countries without applying necessary precautionary measures in place. As per the studies the world temperature has gone up by 1 degree Centigrade which is one of the major reasons of most disasters the world faced recently.
Discussions but no results
Incidentally, Lima is not the first time we are discussing on this topic but we have discussed recently on environment related issues in Durban, Canberra, Kyoto, etc but we had never reached to any conclusion that was acceptable to all despite every country agreeing these were serious issues and worth resolving immediately. Every country showed their concern but within their own interests as no one was to move an inch minus his own country’s interests so as always each meeting ended without reaching to any conclusion. I would like to highlight one important here that not only all these meetings did not reach on any conclusion but every country tried to blame other countries for the pollution and tried to evade the issue as if they were not the one adding to Carbon Emission. Incidentally, India is among the countries responsible in increasing pollution along with America, China, Brazil and Japan. But as usual the west tries to blame India and China for breaking all the rules as these two countries are fastest developing countries in the present scenario in the world economics. I agree China and India are responsible up to some extent but if we compare them with America in amount of Carbon Emission we are emitting far lesser. Besides, keeping in mind the population of China and India these two countries should be allowed more concessions to achieve their targets as these countries are still in growing stages. It should be the responsibility of developed countries like Australia, America and Japan etc to cut down their pollution level so the pollution level remains in a balancing limit.
How it all started
The fight began in the capital of Germany, Berlin in the year 1995 as COP-1 an annual meeting the current meeting in Peru is its 20th edition or COP-20. The funny part of these meetings is they call it historical meetings every time but they have done nothing to remember a single point so far or worth mention in world history in coming years. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was praised by United nation’s general secretary Ban Ki-moon in the last meet in New York but the fact is if there was anything worthwhile done it was done in Kyoto, Japan in 1997 reaching many important decisions and agreeing to cut back the emission levels to pre-1990 levels. But that decision demanded a cut of almost 7-8% by developed countries and to some extent by developing countries too. The fact that no country wants to implement the rule in their country but waiting to see others taking the initiative fails the purpose.
What they have to say
America has its own reasons to justify development in its industrial sector saying if they increase their production they have enough forests that nullifies the effects of emission. America reputedly guards its interests based on this plea and same is the case with all other countries responsible for polluting the world. In other words, every country is looking its own interests without caring a bit for world environment. We can put it in one line by saying, the present development is more important than the future of the humanity. All such discussion end when the self interests are at stake and we all are behaving the same. Different countries are coming up with different solutions like the developed ones suggesting developing countries to cut down on production unless they make proper arrangements of reducing the impact of pollution on world environment.
In the ongoing meeting the emphasis is on raising a fund to control pollution levels and they all want an agreement on contribution amount according to amount of pollution added by countries responsible. Whatever the agenda of all such meetings but no country is concerned about the interests of poor people of this world that do not have any representatives in these meetings but suffer the most. You can read through the proceedings of all 20 such meetings but not likely to find a single word that was attributed to resolve the issue of these people. The fact that the villagers and tribal people who are responsible for safeguarding the natural resources have no say in such meetings.
Reducing Natural resources
Everyone talks big in all such meetings about green house emission levels and reducing them but nobody seems to take matter of constantly reducing natural resources. We should add it in our agenda and discuss it on priority basis depending based on country specific needs because what is true for India could not be applicable on a country like Singapore. The discussion should be based on how a specific region should handle its environmental problems according to geological and economics rather than keeping the entire world in one group. India is one of the parties of this meeting and raising its concerns but the fact is we have no real solution of large number of problems that we have been facing on different environmental issues for so long without actually looking into them.
Conclusion
I am not sure how a country of India’s size and status has nothing worthwhile to offer to the world. We have in fact done nothing in this important worldwide problem to show the world that we are ready to face issues related to pollution effectively and become a world leader playing a role in this revolution. I am sorry to say I can see no such experiment under process in our country apart from few announced by newly elected central government but we shall have to enhance the speed of action otherwise it will be too late. We should not wait or depend on others for a reasonable solution of the problem but come up with our own solution which is a burning demand of a country of almost 1.4 billion people.
Image source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference
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