Abdi-Noor Mohamed
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
 Smoke from a Finnish factory. Olivier Morin / AFP / Getty |
Today a high level conference started in Copenhagen to discuss about the alarming condition of global warming and climate changes that affect the lives of millions of lives around the world, both human and non-human creatures. The question many people are asking themselves is: Will there be any tangible income from the conference? Will a legally binding document be signed and a monitoring body is formed to follow up status of implementation of the agreement? Some people suspect that nothing much shall be achieved in the Copenhagen conference. They believe that if some governments refuse to sign protocols nobody will discipline them, so the situation will not be any different from that of Kyoto, Japan.
In the Kyoto conference 141 nations have signed the document with the exception of the US which accounts 25 % of world emissions, and Australia. To some extent cutting emissions is implicated to lowering growth and production and that is why some nations are skeptical of conferences discussing about climate changes or signing of protocols to change the economic behavior of that nation by calling them to reduce emissions. But President Obama has said that he will make changes in the overall American policy on environment, therefore, everybody is eagerly expecting to see how he will use his magic wand to make miracles this year in Copenhagen.
But to come back to the real issue of climate changes, what kind of gas is creating global warming? It has been proven in many scientific and academic research studies, that it is mainly carbon dioxide and some other gases such as methane and nitrous oxide (which are trapped in the air) that cause global warming. There are other factors that are responsible of global warming but let us now focus on this issue of CO2 and how to reduce it to a level that it cannot disturb or damage our ecological systems. Do we have any idea to make a realistic intervention to deal with the issue of Carbon Dioxide? Let me try one:
In our primary schools we have learned that trees consume carbon dioxide to manufacture food, and release oxygen. Here we see that trees need the very gas that contributes to global warming. So why don’t we plant as many trees as we can to protect our environment. Know that planting one tree is equivalent to recruiting one soldier for your security and cutting one tree means losing one soldier in a battle which in turn means one step of the enemy taken towards you. Let us not help the enemy advance towards us by destroying the trees. Let us stop it by planting trees.
Alongside the high level conferences on reducing emissions into the air such as the one currently on progress in Copenhagen, there is a need to look into the matter on community, or personal basis so as to be able to change our life right from the base to ensure that our changes reinforce the decisions being taken at global level.
It is quite unfortunate that no Head of State or UN big bosses have so far committed any change in their personal lives to set an example to the rest of the world. Even trying to reduce their daily consumption as a personal conviction or cutting the energy use of their palaces by as little as 0.1% would set the mind of the people to make changes in their personal lives. Normally people emulate their leaders and replicate their actions but we see now no leader bothering to be a good example for his people with the exception of a few. The worst thing is that some leaders show skepticism about climate changes in their attempt to evade their duties to protect environment. They listen to their oracles who say “ The world is in no danger of being affected by climate changes. Situations has been like this since times immemorial. These floods existed even in Noah days when there was no greenhouse or gas emissions”. Can we follow such people as leaders to be in charge of our existence? Can we trust our destiny in their hands? "BIG NO" Is my answer and I hope yours is the same. But if your answer is yes, you should be prepared that the leader who remains skeptical today will come to you tomorrow and ask you: Can I Borrow Your Future? By then it would be too late and there will be no tomorrow left for you to lend him.
I think it is high time now that civil societies around the world took the lead to show people the way forward. It is better to take the initiative early enough than to wait it from leaders who have a political tussle between or politicize any issue brought to them, sometimes exchanging bitter words or even sling mud on each other at conference table. And more seriously they often take positions on grounds of their own state or personal interests at the expense of millions of people around the world.
Therefore I suggest all civil society organizations worldwide to step up. As a first initiative I suggest conducting a global tree-planting campaign somewhere in their surroundings and spread the message until almost everyone has planted one. The world is now staggering under the weight of more than six billion people. Imagine if 10% of the world population which is roughly 600 million people, plant trees. If we add that number of trees to what we have already had, it will be very difficult for carbon dioxide to disturb us anymore in this world as each tree would need millions of parts of carbon dioxide to make food. Would that not be astonishingly a great achievement?
In history the color “green” has been in the limelight to reflect a positive outcome of certain engagement such as the Chinese Green Revolution initiated Mao Zedong or the green books of Kaddafi’s Libya and more recently the Green peace movements and parties advocating peace through the preservation of environment. But here I would add one more item into the long list of greens: The Green Hope which means offering hope to another person in another part of the world by planting a tree for him in your area. In doing so people around the world will be connected through a common environment cause by sharing a common feeling regardless of their ethnic or religious backgrounds.
Since the whole world is considered to one global village and since that village is in deep trouble due of climate changes, we have a common cause to share. The only way we can make this village a safer place for our children is to offer hope to each other so as to generate hope from each other. The tree will act as the symbolic way of expressing that gesture of good will and humanity. As I finish this article which I am concluding now, I will plant a tree for someone in the world, may be you, dear reader. So please plant one for me or for another person, a brother or a sister in another part of the world. Let the flame of hope flicker.
Please share this poem with me:
In her head she has a crack
There is a hole in her heart
Her breasts are sapping fast
She feels excessively depleted
Just within her charred soul
A steam of anger is building
Should trends do not reverse
Another Tsunami is unavoidable
But we have a chance to save her
So easy and cost-effective indeed
Affordable to all who care for life
Simply plant a tree at your backyard
Add something more if you can
Spread the message wide and across
Reach as many as you can in e-mails
Create a global network of tree-planting
Make the world a shining green
Let the trees take guard of you
Let them tackle the gas in the air
Let them chew the carbon dioxide
Let the children enjoy a better future
Thanks
Abdi-Noor Mohamed
[email protected]
Writer and Film-maker
Växjö University
Sweden.