In reaction to a severe cold wave in the Midwest this January, US President Donald Trump tweeted, “In the beautiful Midwest, windchill temperatures are reaching minus 60 degrees, the coldest ever recorded. In coming days, expected to get even colder. People can’t last outside even for minutes. What the hell is going on with Global Waming? Please come back fast, we need you! (sic).”
Trump is a vociferous climate change denier. But in the middle of that awful cold snap, many an eco-sensitive citizen may have be forgiven for wondering whether global warming, if at all it is happening, is such a bad thing. Words are evocative, even in this age of visuals and emoticons. And with climate change becoming such a mainstream concern, it is not surprising that experts are constantly deliberating over which are the most suitable terms to describe situations.
Some years ago, climate change had become the more acceptable term; global warming, though still in usage, was limited in scope and did not explain every extreme weather event. Now, though, the word climate change itself looks too benign and is gradually being replaced with stronger ones like climate emergency, climate crisis, climate chaos and climate breakdown.
The changing climate has ushered in a new lexicon, which is updated almost as rapidly as the change in climate. With it impacting almost every sphere of our activities, it is little wonder that the new words are being attached to it in the same way gravel and stones attach themselves to glaciers as they slide down the slopes. Almost all the change that is being wrought on earth is caused by one species—humans, and thus, these changes are anthropogenic.
We talk a lot about mitigation, or lessening the impact of anthropogenic changes. A circular economy is the new buzzword among planners. For Indians, this is not really a new concept, given that we have traditionally believed in extracting the most from a product, even the torn vest which goes on to become a mop or duster. A good example of the traditional circular economy would be the newspaper cycle. Used newspapers are sold to the raddiwalla, who in turn sells them to manufacturers of paper bags, or back to the recycled paper industry.
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Planners now talk of linking industries in such a way that the slag produced in one could be the raw material for another, thus minimising harmful discharge. The ultimate aim of responsible manufacturing is to have zero emission, which means not discharging any harmful pollutant into the environment.
In reality, however, we see that all these talks result in only some greenwashing, or a cosmetic makeover which may make it seem that their efforts are sincere and effective, which actually they are neither.
Disasters and crisis are often good inspirations for works of art. There is so much fiction based on the world wars, for instance. Now, increasingly, there is a lot of cli-fi (climate-fiction), in books and cinema. Many existing works, which we earlier classified as sci-fi or fantasy, can now find a more comfortable slotting under cli-fi. The film Avatar, for instance.
The impact of anthropogenic changes is indeed scary. Take for instance, microplastics, which are those little bits of plastic that are left after plastic ultimately breaks down after years and years. Less than 5 mm in size, or the size of a sesame seed, microplastics have been found in Arctic snow as well as desert sands. One estimate says that humans consume a credit card-sized amount of plastics every week through the food chain. This is enough to give even the most resilient among us a bout of solastalgia, or a feeling of helplessness when faced with the overwhelming effect of climate crisis.
We, should, however, not give up. Just as every small action has contributed to this crisis, every little good deed, will also help. Remember that song about little drops of water making a mighty ocean. So you can just make your morning jog more meaningful by plogging, or picking litter as you jog. And yes, even growing one flowering plant will help attract bees, and elevate you to the position of a pollination broker.