Climate Change is a word we read almost daily. It is largely considered to be at the forefront of the many crises’ plaguing human society. Every few months, one comes across a report, by the United Nations or another reputable organisation, detailing how time for us is running out. In some cases, we are told that what we have done to our planet is irreversible and the climate crisis is here to say. Yet, despite the perpetual gloom and despair surrounding the field, there is still a glaring lack of urgency.
Most of us are cognizant of the veracity and volume of the crisis, yet we do very little to help it. Writing this piece probably won’t make too much of a difference, but here I am. Yet, to blame individuals is to absolve the real culprits of any blame. The carbon footprint of the average human is nothing when compared to a transcontinental flight. Manufacturing companies have massive factories, which contribute increasingly worrying amounts of pollution to our air, our land in the form of garbage dumps and even to our rivers and lakes.
Our biggest pollutant by far, however, is fossil fuels. The renewable sources of energy are blamed for the release of greenhouse gases, which cause global warming. Often, we hear people come forward and ask for a change, but with a large lobby in most governments, shell companies ensure that the world cannot make the switch to alternate sources of energy. Sanjeev Mukherjee, Director at Northeastern University’s Centre for Renewable Energy, maintains that our next step must be to initiate a dialogue between the next generation, for whom solving the climate crisis is paramount, and between those that specialise in storage of energy.
We have alternative and renewable forms readily available to us. For electricity generation, we often see the use of solar and wind energy while the development of electric or ‘hybrid’ cars is also seen as an attempt to clean the roads from fossil fuel emission. When our politicians are failing us, when companies are hell-bent on exploiting Mother Nature till the very end, we must take a stand. Not only should we focus on doing what we can at an individual level, but we must also hold our governments and those companies accountable for the damage they are doing.
Aryaman Sood