Inconvenient truths

Global warming is taking place in your backyard:

by Nilma Dole

In simple layman terms, global warming is the dangerous rising of the Earth's global temperature, causing severe change and disastrous weather patterns. The sun's heat increases and the earth's temperature rises. Retained gasses called Greenhouse Gases comprise of Carbon Dioxide, Methane and moisture in the Earth's atmosphere.

"We have not inherited Mother Earth from our parents but we have stolen it from our children" goes a saying accompanied with a poignant painting of a baby crying in the midst of tree stumps and bare land.

This tragic reality gripped me as I saw it prominently hanging at the waiting room while I was waiting to see a doctor. This rings true today at a time when a lot of publicity is given to Global Warming also known as Climate Change.

In simple layman terms, global warming is the dangerous rising of the Earth's global temperature, causing severe change and disastrous weather patterns. The sun's heat increases and the earth's temperature rises. Retained gasses called Greenhouse Gases comprise of Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Methane and moisture in the Earth's atmosphere.

This is like a blanket retaining heat called the 'Greenhouse Effect'. This balance is now affected with more heat getting trapped in the Earth's atmosphere. Dangerous human activity like industrial development and deliberate environment tampering further thickens this blanket. More heat accumulates and because more heat cannot be released in to the atmosphere, global warming results.

This horrific ordeal is what is happening all around. Even though the richer and more developed countries emit all those harmful gases like CO2 emissions, it is the developing countries like Sri Lanka who are likely to suffer the consequences.

Deltas will be flooded, water will be scarce and poor nations will be poorer. Dry zones will be even drier with drought while wetlands will be even wetter with severe rainfall and floods. The glaciers at the Poles will melt and the sea level will rise around the world (6 cm per year).

Just like what 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Winner Al Gore highlighted in the 'Inconvenient Truth', global warming is already taking place in our backyard and we'd better wake up and smell the coffee because the penalty is irreversible and devastating.

It is indeed pointless to blame the richer countries for the whole global warming problem because it won't be they who suffer. The developing countries have limited means of facing and dealing with natural disasters so it is vital that we are educated and seek a solution right now.

Vice President of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Professor Mohan Munasinghe who shares the Nobel Peace Prize highlights two possible solutions. The first one is 'adaptation' where people learn about the climate change problem For example, the Suduhampala village near Hanthana in Kandy is under the threat of landslide. If more fertile and conveniently accessible land is given elsewhere, then the residents can live properly and with peace of mind.

The second one is 'mitigation' where we help others and ourselves reduce CO2 emissions and environmental harm by practicing nature-friendly behaviour.

For example, Jetwing hotels together with the Sri Lanka Tourist Board have launched the 'Jetwing Eternal Earth Project' where their guests can work with communities and school children to plant trees. This aims to reduce the CO2 emissions that tourists are liable to make in order to make the trip to Sri Lanka, thereby reducing 'Travel Guilt' and making the atmosphere more environmentally friendly.

The United Nation WTO (World Tourism Organization) Summit on "Climate Change and Tourism" at World Travel Market 2007 in UK saw the Sri Lanka Tourist Board Chairman Renton De Alwis emphasizing on making Sri Lanka a Great Green Destination. This revolved around the theme, 'Towards a Carbon Clean Sri Lanka: Tourism Earth Lung' and lung was being used because of Sri Lanka's shape like a lung on the Indian Ocean.

De Alwis mentioned, "With the Tourism Earth Lung destination initiative, we seek to establish codes of practice for each of the industry sub-sectors. It also seeks to influence and even lead efforts at stopping de-forestation, ensuring re-forestation, encourage the use of alternative energy sources and mitigate pollution at their sources through local and regional efforts, creating an 'Earth Lung Community'".

The government has been concerned about the global warming problem and has sought for solutions as well. The Environment and Natural Resources Minister Champaka Ranawaka points out, "We have even introduced the Environment Conservation Levy (ECL) that goes to the Green Trust for the preservation of our environment".

We can't say as just a single individual that we can't do anything about it.Of course, everyone can plant a tree, can't we? We can grow organic food; we can minimize the use of polythene bags by recycling or by using cloth bags.

We can look around us and use everything to be more environmentally friendly. There is even a new invention done by a person called 'Solar Sanath' who uses a cheap solar panel to power 6 small light bulbs which are light-giving sources of energy.

Cardboard and writing paper can be made from Eco-friendly recycled paper. We have also been inventive in creating a program to give people money if you give plastic and glass bottles to collectors. Can you believe that we even use elephant dung as official visiting cards? There is certainly an eco-friendly way to think and we should start implementing it now.

By setting aside our differences and accepting that we are all part of the global warming problem, we should work towards a solution together. Our economy and environment should focus on a sustainable development framework and not only save us from Doom's Day but preserve Mother Earth for our future generations.

[email protected]