While the majority of Sri Lankans are preoccupied with the political pranks of the country`s doomed opposition in the afterglow of the military victory gained by the ruling UPFA on May 18 this year by the elimination of the LTTE leadership, the issue of climate change has been practically sidetracked. In fact, in Sri Lanka, except for a couple of articles, published at odd intervals by several authorities on the subject, it never seemed to be deemed to be a matter to be reckoned with. Whenever this issue was taken up for discussion, for most Sri Lankans, that it could potentially wipe out entire civilizations from the face of the earth always sounded more like a gloomy prognosis from a Science Fiction by a highly imaginative writer than a scientific truth.
However, in an interview with The Nation on August 2, 2009, Environment Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka reveals some important facts and findings while highlighting the importance of working collaboratively to stave off the danger of global warming. According to him, it is a worse disaster than the colonialization itself as it can potentially imperil the very survival of the entire humanity not to mention the tenuous 20 million Sri Lankans priding ourselves forever on our proud 2500 years old history.
Basically, climate change disrupts agricultural production from time to time with droughts and floods occurring out of season causing the world`s agricultural food production to decline which may possibly give rise to famine specially in the less developed countries(LDCs) and to a lesser extent in developing countries like ours. In addition to that, it can potentially displace millions of people all over the world. In Bangladesh, one of our SAARC neighbours, alone an estimated 20 million people will be displaced within this century due to climate change. Also, the rising temperatures can cause glaciers particularly in the Polar regions and elsewhere to melt, which will in turn lead to rising sea levels. The rising sea levels will then submerge the low-lying islands. If the worst comes to the worst, unless we are drowned, we might be literally burnt to death by the same good old sun that keeps us alive. This is not stuff from an SF. It is a mere scientific reality of cause and effect. And we already see the proverbial tip of the iceberg.
Therefore, without doubt, we have to contribute to keep the temperature levels from rising. But, there comes the problem of ethical dimension of this issue, because, at the moment, it is the developed world that is principally responsible for the green house gas emissions that result in global warming. It is they who burnt so much fossil fuel and practically littered the atmosphere with Carbon Dioxide (CO2). The developing world`s contribution to it is almost negligible. Therefore, should the developing world pay for the disaster brought about by the erroneous industrial practices of the developed countries that now advocate a grand theory of ‘sustainable development’? Practically speaking, the answer is ‘Yes’, because, although our contribution to global warming is almost insignificant, we are not going to be able to evade the consequences of it unless we can afford to pack up and go to live in another planet, say, Mars! Still, essentially, it is the developed world that must play the major roles of financing the possible remedial measures in recompense for their deleterious environmental practices. Be that as it may, at the moment, we must try to emit as little of greenhouse gas as possible, because, as the occupants of the Planet Earth, already, we are stakeholders of this issue and our individual choices do matter.
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