Every drop counts
I recall my fourth grade teacher telling us “the ocean is made of
lots of tiny drops of water. It is when those drops come together we
call it, the mighty ocean”. He was referring to small deeds. He
impressed upon us that each of our contribution, even though we were
tots then, mattered. I always remembered this vividly, held on to it
tight and tried my best to focus on many of the small things one can do.
Mega-mania
Later in life, I also learned that it was the mega-mania that we
embraced in our recent human history that has brought us many of the
ill-effects, we witness today. Terms such as ‘Small is beautiful’, ‘Need
before greed’, ‘Power of the many’, ‘miniaturization’, ‘nano-technology’,
‘the Titanic effect’ etc. become extremely significant and meaningful in
this context while those such as ‘Greed is good’, ‘Having a choice from
among many’, ‘Over indulgence’, ‘Over consumption’, ‘Big is better’ etc
only brought in a questioning of that dominant system of beliefs.
350. org
This weekend all over the world such ‘little drops of action’ are
taking place to mitigate some of our follies of the past. On Sunday,
October 10, 2010, in 181 countries, tens of millions of ordinary
citizens of the world are participating in over 5,900 events, to do what
little they can to mitigate climate change. Called the 10-10-10
movement, it comes under the banner of 350.org, tcktcktck.org and age-
of-stupid.org and many other like-minded organizations on the virtual
and real domains bonding together each doing their little bit. Some plan
to plant trees, care for mangroves, hold workshops and discussions to
spread the word around, make policies at work places on reducing energy
consumption, taking on new efforts at recycling, while others are
exercising pressure on leaders to take more meaningful and assertive
action. The President of the Maldives, head of a most vulnerable nation
of sea level rise and other negative impacts of global warming, is
himself installing a solar paneled roof at the President’s House in
Male.
Numeric that matter
In this effort 350 and 10 are significant numerical indexes. Up until
200 years ago the carbon dioxide (Co2) levels in the earth’s atmosphere
were at a healthy ratio of 275 parts of Co2 molecules per million (ppm).
With the industrial revolution, use of coal, gas and oil to produce
goods, emergence of consumerism and over-indulgence, the Co2 levels
began to increase steadily and within the past two decades have shot up
to intolerable levels for Mother Earth of 390 ppm. 350 ppm of Co2 in the
atmosphere is presented by climate scientists as a threshold level of
tolerance where our planet can have hope of rejuvenation and prevent
further catastrophe. They also hold that a 10 percent reduction in the
Co2 levels within a year to be a pragmatic target for mitigation action.
Growing disasters
The phenomena we know today as climate change and global warming
began with the our world witnessing unprecedented melting of ice-burgs
and glaciers in the Polar regions and at mountain peaks, increased
incidence of natural disasters such as floods, raging forest fires,
typhoons, desertification, earth-quakes and tsunamis taking place. The
incidence of Malaria and Dengue is increasing with mosquitoes having new
habitats, within a warming world. Food and water shortages are evident
and once futile lands are turning into deserts in some parts of the
world.
Even climate skeptics, who kept on claiming that this is a normal
cycle of the earth’s warming, have now begun to wonder if this is indeed
one of a cycle or a phenomenon beyond, what history had ever witnessed.
Lobbies against
The conventional energy lobbies of fossil fuel, coal and gas
interests have been working overtime to ensure that governments postpone
policies that discourage the use of these. Probes on climate scientists
and questioning the validity of their claims is part of the delaying
tactics they have adopted. Huge amounts of funds are used to create
lobbies against the rapid adoption climate friendly policies.
The good news though, is that they themselves are now working on
innovating alternative energy sources and modes to replace what they are
doing now. There are some among them especially in Japan, who since the
Kyoto protocol earlier this decade have taken the challenge head-on and
through technological innovation taken meaningful action to meet the
reduction targets set for them.
Citizen’s action
This all goes to show that what’s needed is the will and a push from
citizens to show our policy makers and conventional energy cartels that
they need to act and act fast. The objective of the 350 and the 10:10
movement is to create an alliance of grassroots climate organizers from
all over the world with a call for little drops of action from all. The
idea is to spread the word of the need to preserve the good health of
the only planet we have to live in, through practical, visual and
meaningful actions.
This weekend schools, universities, temples, churches, community
organizations, teachers, students, other ordinary citizens will all come
together to do their bit with the help of their constituencies to
demonstrate the power of grassroots action on mitigation of global
warming.
Work Parties
The creators of the movement in a communique said “To build a
movement, we need more than good ideas - we need to be able to gather
our friends, neighbours, family, coworkers. What we do must be fun, but
be meaningful... this is why we have decided to organize Work Parties of
small communities on 10-10-10 in every corner of the world”. I once
again recall the lesson I learnt in school. It is the tiny drops of
water that go to make the mighty ocean. Little bits of action of many,
from all over the world will come together this Sunday, to make a mighty
collective effort in overcoming the challenge of global warming. You
only need to resolve to join in a Climate Work Party near you by
visiting www.350.org and be part of that solution.
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