Humanity’s code red

Published October 31, 2021
The writer is a Karachi-based independent journalist.
The writer is a Karachi-based independent journalist.

A REPORT by Save the Children titled Born into the Climate Crisis and launched last month, is giving me sleepless nights. Going by the report, my granddaughter, Elaheh, born earlier this year, will encounter twice as many wildfires, droughts and river floods events and six times more heatwaves during her lifetime than her dadi, born in the early 1960s.

As she looks up at me smilingly, secure that she will come to no harm, the knowledge of what awaits her makes me terrified as I steal my gaze away.

But Elaheh is not alone. Another report by Unicef, titled Children’s Climate Risk Index, the first comprehensive analysis of climate risk from a child’s perspective, released in August, states one billion children, or half the world’s 2.2bn child population, who live in one of the 33 countries classified as “extremely high-risk”, and which include Pakistan, will bear the brunt of climate change since they face “multiple and often overlapping shocks”.

The report also points out the disconnect between where greenhouse gas emissions are generated, and where children bear the brunt. The 33 countries, including the South Asian states home to over 600 million children, collectively emit just nine per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions compared to the 10 highest emitting countries that collectively are responsible for nearly 70pc of global emissions.

World leaders know the solution to global warming. Will they implement it?

Of these countries, children from Pakis­tan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and India will bear the greatest burden of climate change with a ranking of 14, 15, 15 and 26 respectively on the climate risk index. With Nepal at 51, Sri Lanka at 61 and Bhutan at 111, the children in these three countries face a relatively lower risk. The Save the Children rep­ort states that the intergenerational impacts of climate change are infringing on childr­en’s rights to life, education and protection.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, released in August, makes for even gloomier reading. No wonder UN Secretary General António Guterres, called it a “code red for humanity”, a term reserved for an emergency, or imminent danger.

But all these reports released just ahead of the COP26 climate summit have failed to stir any reaction from the world leaders. If only my generation becomes as frightened as the one after us is, we can actually take the problem more seriously. But climate crisis eludes us.

Like Greta Thunberg, the young Swedish climate activist, I fear the climate conference (which takes place from Oct 31 to Nov 12) in Glasgow will be just talk and little action. Purported to be an important summit, over the next two weeks, states are expected to agree on guidelines and fine-tune rules on how to measure and report each country’s carbon emissions and deliberate on future plans about reducing greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade.

With quicker global warming than anticipated just three years ago, the world leaders know what the solution is. Will they then take the unprecedented but necessary decisions to reduce emissions and pledge to stop the use of fossil fuels?

If that happens and if the world is able to limit warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, the good news is it will reduce the additional lifetime exposure of newborns to heatwaves by 45pc, droughts by 39pc, river floods by 38pc, crop failures by 28pc, and wildfire by 10pc, according to the Save the Children report.

Can this happen? Thunberg does not think so and that is why she is disgruntled and angry. But it’s not just her. The Unicef report states nine out of 10 children don’t think enough is being done to tackle climate change and 81pc don’t feel they are being listened to.

The despair felt by the youth in Pakistan is no different from that felt by the youth globally. They don’t see real climate leaders to follow. Pakistan has a youth bulge with over 64 pc of its population below the age of 30 years and their energies can be channelised in a way that this enormous human potential can be turned into a demographic dividend. But before this youthful population is able to join Generation Greta and become productive, it needs to be provided with education — quality education — and healthcare, clean drinking water and plentiful nutrition.

In the meantime, their peers in the West will be fighting at the climate summit, both inside and outside the meeting halls, on their behalf. They are closely following the science of climate change, because as Thunberg says, “science does not lie”.

As the world leaders prepare to gather in Glasgow, it would be wise to listen to the youth for a change, come up with honest arguments and meaningful action. Prove to the young ones our generation can move beyond blah, blah, blah.

The writer is a Karachi-based independent journalist.

zofeen28@hotmail.com

Twitter: @Zofeen28

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2021

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