There’s Trouble In Paradise
Slowly, the waves reclaim the land. One by one, the grains vanish
There is a refugee crisis underway.
No, its not the Syrian Crisis. Its not something caused by a terrorist group. In fact, the reason has nothing to do with violence itself, let alone war. Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to one of the world’s first climate refugee crisis.
A climate refugee is defined as one that is forced to abandon his/her own home due to predominantly 3 reasons. Rising sea levels, extreme weather events & water scarcity. It’s difficult to truly delve into the perspective of a climate refugee for most of us, sitting in our air conditioned room with hot water to bathe in. And sorry to burst your bubble readers, but we are the root cause of this.
Let’s start with nation of Kiribati. Famous for being the first nation of enter the 21st Century, Kiribati is a nation in distress. One one hand, the nation is struggling with procuring adequate amount of clean, fresh water for it’s citizens amid it’s severe isolation, lack of rainfall and deprivation of its natural sources. On the other hand however, rising sea levels are threatening this nation’s very existence. This puts Kiribati in an unfortunately growing club on places likely to sink in the next few decades which includes but is not limited to the Maldives, Dhaka, Mumbai, Kolkata, Tuvalu and Tahiti.
The grim reality is that this flow of events is no longer limited to dystopian, science fiction movies like “The Day After Tomorrow”. It’s a reality now folks! The government of the Maldives has already contemplated buying land in South East Asia and relocate it’s citizens while nations like Kiribati have started procuring evacuation protocols and are exploring the possibility of relocating their people to the nearby countries of Fiji, New Zealand and Australia.
This is just the beginning people. This is mother nature’s reflex response to our uncontrolled, unmonitored pollution causing activities. We had it coming. We have been breaking temperature records for years now. Hurricane Ivan hit the Caribbean island of Grenada, an island long considered to be a safe haven during hurricane season. Tornado Joplin was one of the most powerful tornadoes to ever form and coral bleaching is at an all time high.
However,
Not all is lost. There are many methods, for both an individual and a country, that can significantly reduce this and even possibly reverse this. Stuff like using public transport, using energy-efficient appliances, bathing in cold water etc. All of these are methods that require the grand total of $0. And yet, their as effective as any other, more expensive alternative. We tend to overestimate the effectiveness of expensive methods and underestimate the effectiveness of the little things.
There is STILL hope. We can STILL change people. We can STILL reverse our damage and works towards a more friendly and productive relationship with the Earth rather than our present destructive, exploiting and abusive dictatorship over our planet. We as a species have always been an evolving one. We are a species that learns from our mistakes. So, now more than ever, we must correct our errors, or else our rule book of the future will be written in blood.
