Vidushi Dembi
We keep getting countless reminders of the dark future. Almost like an impending doom dancing in our faces. Unprecedented phenomena occurring in our own country. Droughts, floods, heat strokes, diseases – climate is indeed changing. Yet we do not see much concern from the masses except for the Instagram stories and marking oneself safe in a said calamity. People are dying in Chennai because of water scarcity, yet it seems that people respond only after the disaster strikes. Could we have known? Can’t we do something to prevent such disasters? Don’t humans care about climate change? If at all there is any near conclusive answer to this question, it is multi fold.
Experts say the Chennai water crises was staring the city in the eye. Yet enough preventive measures were not taken when there was time. There are some basic flaws with how humans handle climate change.
* It’s almost platitudinous.
I personally read any climate report with great interest. However, to be honest, I skip the catastrophic picture the article paints in the first five lines. It is almost cliché to start a climate change article describing how we are drawing a roadmap of death for living beings. You could skip the first paragraph of this article, and it still would have made the same sense. Stating of facts is supposed to strengthen the argument. But the peculiar problem here is – since the effects are not immediate and we are not able to realize the gravity of those sentences, such arguments when overly repeated make the whole concept sound specious.
* TMI – Too Much Information.
Atmospheric CO2 has increased by 46% since Industrial revolution. Sea levels are rising at an average of three millimetres per year. Wildlife populations have gone down by 60% in the past 40 years. Earth’s atmospheric concentration of CO2 now stands at 415.3 ppm. Tropical deforestation is responsible for 11% of the world’s CO2 emissions.
I’m pretty sure half of you didn’t even complete reading the paragraph above. It’s not your fault. Overwhelmed with too much data, anyone is likely to disengage. Rather than having consequences explained to us in simple terms, we are continuously bombarded by these confusing figures, which are necessary from academic point of view, but don’t make a good educator to the common man. People do not understand what they are supposed to do with the pile of information that is thrown at them. Even if they try processing the information and try to do something about it, separating your garbage into dry and wet waste does not seem an effective solution for the problem of high CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. Any action seems insignificant in front of the gigantic numbers.
* Ineffective ways of communication.
A major hurdle in inculcating climate values among the masses is the way it is communicated in the first place. The typical ways of climate communication are –
Talking about submergence of some distant island in a far off continent – which would make me believe that climate change is not directly related to me or not even my surroundings, so why bother
Talking about extinction of some polar bear species in the distant future – in which case people would unfortunately extend nothing more than sympathy
So, if years together have passed in futile attempts of educating the ‘intelligent’ human species, it is high time we realize that maybe it’s not humans that are dumb, but the way the scenario is being communicated to them. (Also gaur farmaiye this communication to humans comes from other humans, so, just saying, hehe)
The element that these ways of communication lack is relatability. How is the problem related to me and my family? How far in the future are we talking? How direct of an impact would it be? What kinds of impact can climate change cause to my immediate surroundings? If people are educated using simple, daily terms with a relatable impact, they will be able to articulate and respond better. Explaining climate crisis in terms of monetary losses, increased risk of diseases for their children and their family’s future is likely to instigate better action from people.
* I don’t see any change happening.
Another big issue is that of “invisible causes” and “invisible impact”. We cannot see greenhouse gases accumulating in our surroundings and causing Global Warming. We cannot see the ozone hole. We cannot see people dying of air pollution. We cannot see shrinking glaciers and inundating islands. Such seeming absence of any change in the climate makes us ignore the intensity of the problem. Even when there are visible changes – like natural calamities – the idea of linkage of calamities with climate change is still not infused in our system.
Our collective indifference is costing us big time. And there are some major socio-cultural intricacies involved too. The poor are the first ones to be hit by the climate crisis. But they are unaware of these concepts or they don’t care about these concepts, because they have other immediate issues to cater to. They are more concerned about surviving the night instead of saving the forests. On the other hand, rich people quite aware of the situation still chose inaction because they can afford the resources for immediate mitigation.
Poor don’t know and don’t care.Rich know and don’t care.
What we need to realize is that everybody would be hit eventually, and it is not a question of “IF”, but that of “WHEN”. You know climate change is here when you read 29°C on your phone in the mountain ranges of Kashmir.
Getting rid of the indifference will make a big difference.
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