Voices for climate justice get louder as Earth’s borrowed time slips
The TIME named Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish climate change activist, as their Person of the Year. Editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal called climate change the “biggest issue facing the planet”.
Latest data suggests that Greenland’s ice is melting seven times faster than earlier estimates. The United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has suggested that the world now only has 12 years to save itself from climate change’s irreversible harm. Despite such a dire scenario, the world leadership remains divided on the subject. This division has coincided with the rise of administrations that don’t just question but deny climate change, which is led by the United States under Donald Trump’s presidency, who has pledged to quit the Paris Agreement.
South America, home to the Amazon rainforests that produce 20% of all the oxygen in the atmosphere, has been in the news lately for the destruction of the rainforests. Brazil has this year witnessed the most deforestation in more than a decade. President Jair Bolsonaro pledged to open the forests to industry upon his election in January 2019, and has since downtoned protection. In August alone, 1,114.8 square kilometers of rainforests were cut down — roughly the size of Hong Kong. This clearing was beside the fires that raged on for months and destroyed 3,500 square miles of forests until August alone. Fires were reported in the Amazon as late as in October.
Brazil has been marked by political turmoil in recent times and people have frequently demonstrated but rarely over environment. People have taken to the streets in large numbers across Brazil to protest against Bolsonaro’s policies.
In Brazil, the industrial model that rests on nature’s exploitation has come under scrutiny. Much of the fires were credited to cattle ranchers and farmers, who clear forests to claim land to rear cattle and grow crops. Brazil is the world’s largest producer of beef, with India tailing it. In India too, beef production has caused severe environmental stress in areas like Meerut.
Such economic models need to be revamped, says Extinction Rebellion’s co-founder Gail Bradhook, who also criticised meat eating. She said that Amazon were being burnt for beef burgers.
Bradhook told The Times of India, “It’s going to take nothing short of a transformation of our economy. It will be like living through a time of war when 50% of GDP is spent on war effort. That is the kind of shift we need — involving everyone.”
The dire situation has given rise to groups like Extinction Rebellion (XR) that have employed radical means to bring climate change in focus. XR, now present in 72 countries, sprayed fake blood on the United Kingdom’s Treasury building to draw attention to what they consider “funding climate death”.
One of the protestors, Mark Ovland, was quoted as saying by The Guardian, “There needs to be a real wake-up in terms of the money being spent by the government. We’re funding billions in fossil fuel subsidies and carbon-intensive projects, and we just need a rethink otherwise we’re in serious danger.”
Such movements are not a waste. Research shows that these movements not just bring short-term relief but also impact long term policy making. A study at the National Academy of Sciences found that the increase in environmentalism at about the same scale as economic growth can offset adverse effects of the industry.
The Guardian reported Professor Thomas Dietz, who led the study, as saying that findings indicated that solutions to environmental problems do not emerge automatically as an economy grows, but need a broad and strong environmental movement.
The all time worst condition has coincided with the rise of right-wing leaders across the world, such as Brazil’s far-right president and Europe’s nationalist and populist parties that deny climate change. Journalist Beth Gardiner wrote for Yale that “Europe’s increasingly powerful nationalist and populist parties have found a new cause — attacking what they view as elitist hysteria over climate change.”
While right-wing regimes elsewhere have received near-universal criticism, the Indian government has largely been an exception. India and China, both among the fastest growing countries, were at the top of countries in adding green cover, credited to plantation initiatives and increase in agriculture.
However, Indian activists are sceptical about such claims though. Sarthak Tomar, a climate activist from Bhopal, who is associated with Climate Justice Muhim, told this writer that the increase in green cover may not make much difference if it’s due to an increase in crops like paddy.
He said, “Our policies have not changed much. New coal plants are coming up, and petroleum production in India is going to pick up pace with ONGC partnering with ExxonMobil, a world-acclaimed polluter. Setting up coal plants in forests would uproot ancient trees. Even if you plant new saplings, it is no supplement for destroyed ancient forests. Such suicidal policies of promoting fossil fuel energy does not add to claims of increasing green efforts.”
Vijay Pandit from Meerut, who runs Green Care Society, an NGO, was also critical of official claims. He told this writer that forest departments plant eucalyptus trees that grow quickly and increase green cover but have no environmental value.
He said, “When trees like eucalyptus grow quickly, they reflect in increased green cover in satellite imagery and official records. Massive plantation drives that are advertised every now and then also comprise of mostly beautification plants. Both of these tactics officially increase green cover but carry no environmental value.”
In such a scenario when official claims do not match on-ground realities, and when governments remain inactive, activists across India and the world are increasingly getting louder by the day. In the words of TIME’s editor Edward Felsenthal, Greta is “avatar of a broader generational shift in our culture that is playing out everywhere from the campuses of Hong Kong to the halls of Congress in Washington”.
This new generation of activists and decision makers, from Greta to Congressperson Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, will challenge the system as loud as they have to, for as long as they have to, for they are the last ones who can before the irreversible harm sets in. As the IPCC reported, humanity has 12 years for this.
This article was originally written in December 2019.
