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According to Oxfam America – a group of non-governmental organizations fighting poverty and injustice – climate change has taken on a new character. It has become a monster to the world, which, to most responsible citizens should be cause for concern. It has constricted Sub-Saharan Africa with drought, drowned Bangladesh with sinking floods, wreaked havoc and tortured the Caribbean with frequent cyclones and scorched glaciers in Peru. This is no joke. In its horrific stubbornness, climate change unravels and destabilizes years of painful development in many poor communities of the world. Not only does this affect human beings, but also the many different forms of life.
With its giant foot, it traps all these communities into abject poverty. As if that is not enough, it pins the world deeper into food crisis and painfully escalating transportation and energy prices. But who is to blame here? Could it be society with its tangled, pathless, and dangerous wandering ways of its misguided quest for material accumulation? Can anyone sane see that we have ignorantly huddled ourselves in the dirt and have literally destroyed our own future that we seek to enjoy? For how long should we celebrate our breakthrough to technology that does no good for the environment that is home to our existence? What a degenerate way to dignify our existence against nature! Can anyone see the threatening doubt hanging its ugly head in the horizon?
If all these get you worried, then what do you do? Do you sit and fold your arms while you hope for better? Does it bring you joy to know there are people out there suffering because of our irresponsible way of life? Of what dignity is a society that cannot sustain the future for its next generation? Clearly, our current government systems and their policies have failed us. Well, I find no joy in all this and see no reason why I shouldn’t act now. As a responsible citizen, I cannot remove myself from the reality of our misguided existence. So good and responsible citizens of the world, let us unite and begin to act now. Let us negotiate a comprehensive peace deal with our environment to usher a sustainable lifestyle.
In my point of view, it is dignified to recognize that our duty to the environment is greater than our duty to ourselves. I urge you to make a green revolution, by whose aspiring influence we take a stance on the issues of climate change and give the world and the future generation true grounds for hope. It’s about time we add “green morals” to our existence. As the future leaders, it is imperative that we make sustainability a part of the air we breathe. This is a race we must all run, and there are victories to be had. For now I rest my case, and it’s up to you to choose either to be part of the problem for to struggle for the solution.
Ncamiso Dlamini is sophomore human ecology student.
