We must go back to basics to save our planet
Growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, we came to believe that the use of a plastic bag was a luxury and a sign of development at the expense of the more sustainable paper bag. We were also led to believe then that owning a gas-guzzling motor car was a sign of success. Today we are told that these modern necessities and many more are polluting our planet, and that we must drastically change our attitude to saving the environment if we are to protect it from global warming.
The findings of a new report by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change, which convened in South Korea on Monday, make for gloomy reading about the well-being of our planet. Its key message and warning was a call to end our addiction to fossil fuels before 2030, or life on Earth as we know it would start to become unsustainable from 2052.
The authors of the report warned that avoiding climate chaos will require major transformations in governments, societies, economic models and our day-to-day lives. Their main concern is to limit the rise in the planet’s temperature, keeping it below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, if we are to avert worsening ecosystem damage across the globe, which in time will fail to maintain life on Earth.
The findings of the scientists of 2018 are not new. The world has been listening to the same warning annually since the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, when the Rio Convention set out a framework aimed at reducing greenhouse gases to a level that protects the planet’s climate system, with approval from 195 countries.
However, despite governmental legislation and regulation, our addiction to fossil fuel consumption has continued to increase.
We have simply sleepwalked into a lifestyle that encroaches negatively on the planet’s fragile ecosystem.
Mohamed Chebaro
The world’s open skies policy encouraged more air travel, so now we can boast how the world has become one large, accessible village, despite the large carbon dioxide footprint left by air travel. And look at the household items used by consumers across the globe in the early part of the 20th century. Gradually they were all replaced by plastic and other environmentally damaging products, since they were cheaper to produce and sell, regardless of their impact on the planet’s future.
So has modernity polluted our environment, or is it our greed for economic and financial success that has led us to cutting industrial corners that impact the environment in order to achieve better profits? In short, many agree that we have simply sleepwalked into a lifestyle that encroaches negatively on the planet’s fragile ecosystem — but who should we blame?
I believe we are all guilty and, unless there is a call for a return to basics, the limits set up by the UN report will not be met in 2030 or 2050.
Saving the ecosystem that preserves our fragile world needs a global mindset change. But, in a world that is polarized politically, ideologically and commercially, this could be challenging to achieve, since sustainable growth in countries and economies around the world is based on access to fossil fuels.
The EU was the first to react to last week’s report, and its leaders have decided to act to meet interim targets that envision car emissions being reduced in the bloc by 35 percent by 2030. This, they claim, could be done by banning the use of diesel vehicles in European cities, while also migrating infrastructure to cleaner energy sources like wind and solar power instead of coal and oil.
Europe has been at the forefront of attempts to reduce fossil fuel consumption, but countries suffering from war, conflict or breakdowns in upholding the rule of law elsewhere in the world will find it harder to educate people on the importance of saving the environment, when many people are still living in poverty and instability.
For the Middle East, where some countries are key producers of the oil that has helped turn the wheels of the world’s economy in the last few years, the challenges are equally daunting. How do they reconcile economic models reliant on fuel production for income and stop producing this key commodity, which is seen as strategic and essential for their gross domestic product.
In other Middle Eastern countries, discord, conflict and the absence of the rule of law will make it more challenging for governments to meet the UN’s demands. In some of the region’s countries, it is inconceivable to have a greener policy to encourage people to protect the environment while law and order is failing and the coffers of the state are empty.
Having lived in a Western society for decades I have learned to recycle my newspapers, my tin cans, plastic and food waste. I have learned to reduce my water consumption and insulated my home to save energy and pollute less. Many like me have adapted their daily routines to better meet targets set to reduce our carbon dioxide footprint. The latest report is telling us, however, that this is not enough, and that more dramatic efforts are needed to avert the point of no return and save life on our planet.
When the world came together in Rio 26 years ago, cooperation and multilateral work fueled the conversation and the desire to work together to save the environment. In today’s world, where populism, nationalism, patriotism and economic protectionism are on the rise and multilateralism is waning, there are serious doubts about our ability to meet UN targets. Large and small nations must realize that we are once again in it together. We must make an effort to go back to basics and make it a personal and social priority to reduce emissions and limit global warming before it is too late.
• Mohamed Chebaro is a British-Lebanese journalist with more than 25 years’ experience covering war, terrorism, defense, current affairs and diplomacy. He is also a media consultant and trainer.
