Earth Day 2020: Climate Actions for Climate Friendly Earth

Dr. Mayanglambam Ojit Kumar Singh *

April 22, 2020 is the 50th observation of the Earth Day and the theme for this year is Climate action.

Actions relevant enough to change the anthropogenic cause of the climate change are an enormous challenge not deprive of vast opportunities.

The first Earth day which started on April 22, 1970, fifty years from today, as a response to environmental crisis associated with oil spills, smog and rivers so polluted that they literally caught fire is credited with launching the modern environmental movement.

In the efforts to shape nature to their own satisfactions which are far from any sustainable goals human have ironically and continuously thrown the natural systems out of any recognizable orders.

And continuing the same action that brought the situation to the present alarming conditions of climate change, global warming, habitat loss, expanding predatory agricultural activities and commodifying nature to unrecognizable forms will be a stupid effort.

Climate action today demands certain important steps to bridge the gaps that exist in front of us all. This action will be incomplete without considering these gaps.

Hot and Hungry Earth:

The Planet Earth today is equivalent to being roasted by the burning of forest, desertification, drying up of wetlands, burning of fossil fuels and destruction everywhere. Many of the regulating services of the ecosystems are out of any useful orders.

Purification of the polluted air, control of the erosion, moderation of the extremities of the climate is beyond the existing conditions thanks due to the great developmental activities of man. Local and the global climate may no longer support the biodiversity which is so uniquely important of our existence.

Destroying ecosystems for extracting a temporary gain, to grow commercial crops when there are already overexploited and abundantly degraded area to put those crops on, damming life giving rivers to feed corporate firms, converting natural landscapes and seascapes into cheap ranches are all high grade climate stupid action which demand complete annihilation.

The Earth is hotter and warmer shown by every possible analysis and the colourful graphs of every single page of the IPCC (Inter Governmental panel on Climate Change).

Ultra positivists who envisioned the greening of the tundra and the opening of the coniferous forests for cultivation of the grains will remove starvation of the world will not be able to wait the completion of the one crop cycle among the increasing pests’ outbreaks that will accompany the slight increase in the average temperature of the globe.

The more than 3 trillion trees of the Earth which is acting as the lungs of the Earth by absorbing the carbondioxide and releasing the oxygen are losing in front of us and as we loss these trees by deforestation, mining, burning of the forest we are simply compounding large percentages of the global warming gases adding to the atmosphere.

In the last one hundred years we have destroyed as much tropical forest as it did in the previous 2000 years. These lost has resulted in the increasing starvations and the loss of livelihoods.

If the loss of the biodiversity and degradation of the ecosystem do not stop achievement of the UN goal of freedom from hunger and poverty will still be a distant dream.

The declining productivity due to the global warming and the erratic climatic conditions is putting every one of us big and small , policy makers and the one woo will implement the same in a difficult situation. Food and the climate change pose one of the most difficult and the dangerous pictures to the planet today.

Climate friendly Earth:

The contesting arguments over how to address the challenges of the food for the hot and the hungry and sustaining a secured Earth for all are so many. In many incidents the discussion is polarized over the issue of commercial and conventional agriculture over the local food production systems and organic farming. To find a common ground will still be difficult.

One climate smart action will be to blend this two more and more with the local food production systems strengthening given special priority. Increasing availability of the food without harming the environment by agriculture will be the smartest action demanded. Eliminating the destruction of the forest further must be gaining ground.

One way of understanding and learning how to execute would be to appreciate and learn from the traditional agricultural methods and the livelihood activities that the indigenous people have been following. The case of doing agriculture sustainably, efficiently with least environmental footprints is the ones that these traditional methods are engaging with.

Even conventional agriculture methods may use extensive knowledge from the traditional methods while choosing the crop varieties, timings of growing and harvesting and removal of the harmful pesticides and weedicides by allowing the natural predators to act upon the pests. This will also increase the varieties of crops to be cultivated by eliminating mass cropping of a single variety or monoculture.

Hence we need a system which is more organic, systemic and sustainable. Incorporating Traditional ecological knowledge, appreciating the local food culture and reducing the destruction of the natural environmental conditions are smarter and climate friendly.

Remember to a country like India which has rich biodiversity and equally rich and diverse indigenous populations adapted to different regions of the country appreciating the local food and systems employed in their cultivation and growth will in the long way is the safest route and action for a secured and smart future.