“Global issues”. I’m quite sure, the only thing we associate with these words is the pandemic. It loops us back to two years ago, at the beginning of a new decade, when a global catastrophe hit us out of the blue. None of us would’ve imagined this happening to us, ever, nor did we imagine the kind of impact it would have on our lives.
Humans are selfish beings. We only think of ourselves. So, for a change, let’s take a look at how it affected our environment.
1985 was when we first observed the “hole in the ozone layer”, and through the years it only increasingly depleted. The main cause behind such a drastic and tragic change, were chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). At that time, we used them in everything: air fresheners, refrigerators, air conditioners and cars being the main factors. The CFCs that seemed harmless to us, rose up to the ozone, causing a chain reaction and depleting the constituents that form it. Immediate collective action was taken, and the Montreal Protocol was put to action – the only treaty to be ratified by all 198 UN states. The CFCs were replaced by HFCs – hydrofluorocarbons. This has promised the full recovery of the ozone by 2065.
However, HFCs still contribute to global warming. As of 2022, the global average temperature has risen by 1.2°C compared to pre-industrial times. Limiting warming to 1.5°C was the aim of the Paris Treaty, but it seems highly unlikely that we will achieve it.
In 2019, a United Nations report warned that the impacts of climate change are “increasing and inevitable”. In the summer of the same year, the Amazon rainforest was burning at record rates. Yet, the internet seemed to stay quiet. At around the same time, the news of the fire at the Notre-Dame spread so fast that, within 3 weeks, the government received more than enough funding to recover the losses. However, the Amazon rainforest, the “lungs of the earth” that produces 20% of the world’s oxygen, was, according to our species’ actions, less important than preserving cultural history.
Cyclones, extreme air pollution, floods, hurricanes; we faced it all.
But then, all changed just due to an infinitesimally small virus.
With the global pandemic, nature hit a reset button. Climate experts predicted that the emission of greenhouse gasses could fall by large amounts (nearly 8%) since World War II. There has been a steady decline in CO2 emissions and air pollution owing to the lockdowns. The lockdowns have also caused a drastic change in temperature reduction. The ozone layer has healed, and we no longer discuss it as a “crisis”. This really proves to us that nature has a way of balancing itself perfectly, and is a strong reminder to our species that we do not own this planet. However, floods in midwest plains, Australia’s bushfires, California’s droughts, growing deserts in Central Asia, and the melting polar ice caps are stark reminders that our battle isn’t over yet. Scientists claim that we have until 2030 to fix climate change before it completely gets out of hand. After all, there is no planet B.
Anushree Kagalkar
Another Level Higher 