COMMENT | There is no Planet B
- Mahatma Gandhi
COMMENT | Climate scientists and activists all over the world are desperate. No one is taking them or science seriously.
The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report should be keeping all of us up at night. Yet, despite the dire warnings of the potential catastrophe that lies ahead for our planet, our leaders have remained mute.
Do we think this crisis has nothing to do with us? Malaysia cannot live in a bubble as if the climate crisis is too remote.
Maybe people think those melting glaciers are too far away from us to worry about! The sooner we realise that we are affected by melting glaciers as much as melting glaciers are affected by what we do, the better.
A rise in temperature has directly resulted in the warming of the sea, which has resulted in melting glaciers and has caused extreme weather conditions the world over.
The work ahead is...
“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs but not every man’s greed”
- Mahatma Gandhi
COMMENT | Climate scientists and activists all over the world are desperate. No one is taking them or science seriously.
The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report should be keeping all of us up at night. Yet, despite the dire warnings of the potential catastrophe that lies ahead for our planet, our leaders have remained mute.
Do we think this crisis has nothing to do with us? Malaysia cannot live in a bubble as if the climate crisis is too remote.
Maybe people think those melting glaciers are too far away from us to worry about! The sooner we realise that we are affected by melting glaciers as much as melting glaciers are affected by what we do, the better.
A rise in temperature has directly resulted in the warming of the sea, which has resulted in melting glaciers and has caused extreme weather conditions the world over.
The work ahead is urgent and every person in Malaysia must be involved. Of course, all of this requires the government to first acknowledge we have a climate crisis. Failure to do so is not an option.
Unfortunately, in this pre-election silly season, nothing else seems to matter to our politicians except for the race to keep power. There is little attention being paid to climate change and its effects.
Instead, in the frenzy to win votes, election madness has set in and more is being done to burden the environment than to save it.
Logging licences continue to be indiscriminately handed out, upending the lives of so many, in particular the indigenous peoples.
Deforestation continues. Projects are being approved without regard to the environment, our coastlines continue to be ravaged and savaged, food security gets scant attention, pollution of the water and air is unceasing, and unsustainable development continues.
The floods we have just faced are the best example of the severe effect of climate change. Climate change is all around us.
The perpetrators and enablers of these heinous crimes against nature become richer and more powerful while the rest of the people get weaker and more vulnerable to the effects of their greed.
Make no mistake, climate change is a problem largely caused by the corruption and greed of a few at the expense of the many.
Greenpeace, noting that not a single country is doing enough to fight the climate crisis, has given us their takeaways on the IPCC report which I urge everyone to examine.
We must step up our efforts but there are interesting upsides to some of the solutions which may also be easier and more cost-effective than we think.
In other words, the solutions are doable and can be financially advantageous. Read their article here to find out how we can get this done.
It, therefore, appears from the IPCC report that we still have a chance to save the planet if we act immediately and quickly. This window of opportunity is, however, narrowing, as we speak.
We have to:
Explore alternative energy sources like solar and wind which will reduce reliance on fossil fuels and invest in clean energy
Adopt climate-friendly agriculture and food
Conserve and restore forests and other natural resources
Implement energy efficiency
Encourage sustainable lifestyles
Improve current national targets and policies that will prevent further development of the fossil fuel economy
Make developed countries accept the responsibility for their greater role in global emissions by bearing higher cleanup costs and by helping poorer countries
In fact, our indigenous population could teach us so much about living in harmony with nature.
Yet, we ignore their wealth of knowledge and instead, violate their homes and destroy their ancestral land with devastating consequences to their lives and to the environment.
Climate activists have been working hard to educate the public about this existential threat. There are many homegrown climate organisations in Malaysia that have been doing excellent work.
Jedi, EcoKnights, Kamy (who had a protest recently), Kuasa, Rimba Disclosure Project, and MyHutan, to name but a few. (If you know of any more, please add their names in the comments section)
Gabungan Darurat Iklim (GBIM), a coalition of climate NGOs had a press conference on Wednesday (April 20) and launched their Climate Emergency Declaration.
They have called on the federal and state governments to declare a climate emergency before Sept 16, 2022. Please take a look at their report here.
There are more such climate activists, many of whom have faced harassment, legal suits, and investigations by the authorities for calling out crimes against nature.
Recently, PSM members, including Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj, were investigated when they assisted farmers whose land was being violated, thus threatening their crops and threatening our food security.
I would like to commend all climate activists for the work that they do. It is my fervent wish that the public will support all these groups in whatever way they can.
A people’s movement
I believe it is time to establish a people’s movement that the government cannot ignore. Our leaders must be reminded over and over again that destroying Mother Nature means destroying ourselves.
The elections are not far away and not a single political party (save perhaps for Muda) has unveiled any plan to combat this existential crisis.
This is wholly unacceptable given the current worldwide call for climate action which we should be a part of.
The rakyat must demand that each political party immediately put forward a realistic plan for Malaysia to address the problem of climate change, failing which, that party should be resoundingly rejected in the next election.
A pictorial journey of the climate crisis
The rest of this article will be presented in pictures.
Deforestation, illegal logging
Floods
Dumping of toxic waste
Happy Earth Day!
Do you now see the magnitude of the problem in Malaysia?
Today is Earth Day. “Happy Earth Day” is so inappropriate when we are subjecting our earth to so much abuse. Perhaps we should say “Cherish Planet Earth. Save Humankind.”
Article by Ambiga Sreenevasan and Suraj D Bhaskaran.
Research and views contributed by Leong Shan Li.
Hot off the press: See the latest (from 2021): “Deforestation Wrapped” by Rimba Disclosure Project. Follow them on Twitter @rimbadisclosure
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