Some of you who know me will know that one of my new political/moral interests is the environment!
When I tell people this, I usually get three responses:
1. Ah crap, another tree-hugger. *Quickly runs away*
2. Aw that's cute, I'm sure it's just a phase!
3. Cool! Me too! (Followed by facts and statistics about things such as CO2 emissions and the Stockholm convention that make me realise - I know nothing.)
5 years ago, I would have had reaction numero uno. Not one part of me understood why anyone would care about the environment over issues as immediate as security or the economy. I saw no issue when I let the tap run while brushing my teeth, or carelessly tossed my prawn cocktail crisp packet in the road, or took the mickey out of students in the Eco Club. Why? Because caring about the environment was lame and I, Leah Heath, was not lame.
I'm not sure whether I grew up (a small amount) and understood that the Universe didn't revolve around my life, or whether as a world we have become more aware of the environment in recent years that forced me to change my opinion.
Only last Wednesday I read an article posted by the Guardian that shocked me, it was about air pollution in Delhi. Last year the World Health Organisation (WHO) found that Delhi was the most polluted city in the world. They also found that India has the highest number of deaths from respiratory disease with 159 per 100,000 which is twice that of China and 5 times that of the UK.
Children between the ages of 2 and 7 are at the highest of risk according to Indian doctor, Abhinav Agarwal.
Much of this has to do with levels of exposure, children of lower class families are more likely to bike or walk to school meaning that they are exposed to this pollution to a dangerous degree.
The fatally high level of pollution in India is caused by many factors: there is heavy traffic (usually badly maintained old trucks and buses); large landfills which are often set on fire; two coal-fired power stations etc. etc. etc. and the list goes on.
A study conducted by The Indian Express concluded that the effects of this pollution could mean that 2.2 million (half!) of Delhi's schoolchildren would never recover full lung capacity as adults.
Shocking statistics, yes. But if that doesn't bother you because it's not on your doorstep, remember this -
Climate change does not respect borders, I would argue that it is currently the biggest plague upon the Earth. There have been many "attempts" (a word I use in the loosest sense) to tackle climate change and pollution but to little avail. For example, the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 was an international treaty to make countries lower their CO2 emissions based on the premise that -
A. Global Warming exists
B. Man-made CO2 emissions have caused it
However, due to many things including notions of national sovereignty and the economy (blah blah blah) our leaders have failed to produce legally binding terms with regards to reducing CO2 emissions. This was shown most prevalently when the US, (some would argue) the world's biggest superpower withdrew support from the Protocol in 2001, showing if anything, a lack of care for the importance of the issue. This is of course only one example.
Another much more promising example is the Montreal Protocol, which led to the phasing out of substances such as CFCs (don't worry, no one has time to say chlorofluorocarbons) which are partially responsible for ozone depletion. It now has 197 ratifiers with LEDCs following suit. It is as a result of this that the ozone hole in Antarctica is slowly repairing. Happy days, but considering this was agreed in 1987, it is not nearly enough.
The big question you need to ask the Man in the Mirror is - why should we stop caring just because our leaders appear to have stopped? There are many things that we can do as individuals to make sure our sons and daughters survive the conditions that, if we do nothing, we are going to put our planet through. The truth is, the planet has (arguably) survived much worse, however the human race as we know it hasn't and I'm not willing to find out, are you?
I won't patronize you by telling you how to recycle or what you can do to be more green (that's what google's for, folks!) However, it doesn't hurt to go that wee bit further! I miss out on 3 vodbulls in Smack per month in order to donate £3 a month to Greenpeace because of the action they're taking on Fracking in the UK and because they're generally awesome.
(Fracking
/ˈfrakɪŋ/
Noun
-Something that makes me extremely angry and I'm sure I'll be blogging about it soon. In the meantime, please do educate yourselves.)
There are however, people who don't agree with this point of view. For example, there are the most appropriately named "Kokh brothers". They have donated billions of US dollars to prevent curbs on fossil fuel burning which is quite convenient considering the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that their family's business emitted over twenty-four million tons of carbon dioxide in 2011. They are known as climate change deniers. They deny (or dismiss) evidence of the rate of global warming and its relation to human activity. It doesn't take a genius to work out why the Cock, sorry, Koch brothers would be deniers.
Finally, I'd just like to say that caring about things that don't seem to affect you is in no way lame or a waste of time. For example, last week in Zante I went on a booze cruise and was unfortunately the only person who cheered when the MC declared that no one was to throw cigarette butts into the sea. It's up to you what you choose to do, but I advise to you all that you take a bit of initiative, take control of what you can do to help and be mindful of what you're doing and how it could affect yourself and others.
I really hope that with this piece, I have helped to plant the seed in at least one person's mind to start to "GAF" about the environment.
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