God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference!
~serenity prayer
Water logged alleys, devastating floods, water shortages, ground water contaminations & fatal heat waves can no longer be ignored. Climate change is not disproved by the extreme weather of one day or a week; it’s demonstrated by long-term trends. This has been time & again proved by globally mandated studies. Recently, NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information reveals that the global average temperature is much higher and is rising more rapidly. Humans are living with the warmest temperatures in modern history.
Even if the best-case scenario was to happen and greenhouse gas emissions were to drop to nothing, the world is on track to warm 1.1 degrees Fahrenheit. The climate changes happening now are at the fastest rate than any point of time earlier in history of mankind. These are the results of human activities & the severity of future impacts shall also depend on the same.
As cited in the serenity prayer, we still can gather the courage to change our actions before the severity strikes with forbidden climate consequences, just left for acceptance of the aftermath. The wisdom to comprehend the difference lies very much in the present, NOW!
Yet, it baffles me why the human behaviour orients towards the God fearing than towards nurturing the creations of that very God, the almighty! We are now driving ourselves with artificial intelligence before we could save ourselves with common sense.
We evolved with basic necessities of food, clothing & shelter…Roti, kapdaa aur makaan…that’s it! Greed allured us to disillusionary happiness. And soon this is leading us to scavenge for the same three basic necessities of life.
In times of floods, earthquakes & tsunamis : roti, kapdaa aur makaan is what we go scavenging for…isn’t it?
Does our wisdom fail to accept or courage to act upon, our loved ones walking in flooded Mumbai, or homes of brethren washed away in Kerala or hands land sliding in Uttarakhand or the earthquake knocking down our neighbours in Nepal? After witnessing all this, what more do we want to believe that environment matters!