AN OFF SEASON ORANGE
When you peel an orange, you find a cream covering of the fruit underneath it. Each juice pith has another covering which you may or may not remove, in order to remove the seeds. There is one particular orange however, that fails to comply with these standards. From blabbering about Mexicans being rapists and drug addicts; calling the current senators stupid and admitting to not having time for being politically correct — this orange is infamously now known as Donald Trump. It is completely hollow from the inside and requires us to squint our eyes in order to look at the bright orange peel.
Much to everyone’s disgust, this orange has a lot to say. Especially in terms of climate change. There is a basic understanding amongst most of us about the effects of global warming caused due to excessive burning of fossil fuels which release greenhouse gases into the environment. These gases are emitted due to several human activities, such as emissions from cars and factories, use of aerosols, air conditions and electricity production. With a rapid increase in CO2 volume in the atmosphere, the ability of these gases to trap heat has also risen to a great extent. However, the orange seems to disagree. Apparently, it’s a hoax. At least that’s what he stated in his speech in South Carolina (December 2015).
What this absolutely obnoxious orange doesn’t know is that it is extremely ignorant of the effects of climate change experienced by a world of fruits that doesn’t involve him. In Kangra, Himachal Pradesh, orange growers have observed how climate change has affected the life span of orange trees. The trees become old in a shorter duration than before. There is lack of rainfall because of which the plants don’t receive adequate nutrition, leading to a decline in the quantity of fruition produced. The lack of availability of water clubbed with an increase in carbon dioxide reduces the protein and nitrogen content in crops which diminishes the quality of these crops, affecting the pasture available to support livestock. An increase in temperature would cause the soil to become drier, limiting crop production and growth.
The worrying part is this — Donald Trump has appointed a certain climate change denier, Mr. Myron Ebell who has promised to “rip up” the Paris Agreement once he takes up office. At the Paris climate conference (COP21) in December 2015, 195 countries adopted the first-ever universal, legally binding global climate deal. The agreement sets out a global action plan to put the world on track by limiting global warming to well below 2°C. What’s more, Trump has appointed advisors and political leaders who have links to the fossil fuel industry, including people who own such companies thus ensuring that he will remain aloof from reality. Take Shelly Capito, Tom Cotton, Steve Daines and Cory Gardner for example. Cory Gardner voted for tax credits for clean energy in 2012 and turned against it the very next year. Steve Daines voted for the anti-environment farm bill that endangers Montana’s wildlife and forests. Tom Cotton is convinced that the earth’s temperature has not increased in the last sixteen years and Shelly Capito adds that we shouldn’t really do anything about stopping this global environmental crisis. The fossil fuel industry will do whatever it takes to keep a stronghold over all the wealth that is has, even if that means destroying the goal of sustainable development.
According to Johan Rockston, who is a professor of environmental science at Stockholm University, the world is headed towards a four degree increase in temperature just this century. The surprising fact is that in the last 12,000 years, temperatures have varied only between a plus or minus one degree Celsius. The planet has never experienced a four degree increase in the warming, which means that many areas especially around the equator will have to be abandoned because they will not be livable anymore. Coral reefs are already on the verge of dying, and with a two degree rise in the temperature, we will experience heat waves and droughts. Greenland can actually stand as the perfect example to highlight the effects of global warming. The once icy layer that it used to be has become dark and turned into a self-heater. Methane trapped under the icy sheet is gradually getting released into the environment which is making the atmosphere warmer. With the second largest contributor of greenhouse gases in the world completely denying any of these environmental disasters, why would other developing nations agree to abide by climate change agreements?
The sooner we realize the problem, the better. Maybe then this orange could imagine a world that goes beyond the golf courses of Florida.
- Nayanika Chatterjee
