Kishor Basyal

What until recently used to be an exclusive domain of climate scientists has now gotten so visible to everyone, as clear as daylight. So much so that no country -- rich or poor, developed or developing -- can any longer afford to remain indifferent in the face of damages wrecked by it. The subject in question is climate change, and it is making its presence felt throughout the world, upending human civilisation as we know it in the process.
Recent glacier burst in India’s northern state of Uttarakhand, which has left about three dozen dead and scores missing, in all likelihood, is a foretaste of things to come. Some climate researchers have attributed this to a combination of factors: global warming and climate change to begin with. The former melts the snow, and the latter makes snowfall, even in the winter, increasingly rare. As a result, glaciers under both stress and strain because of those factors, break apart.

Bushfires
From the fiercely blazing bushfires in a number of suburbs in Australia and forcing inhabitants there out from their homes every year and wildfires razing acres after acres of forest in the American state of California to the ground, and drying up of fresh-water lakes which serve as lifeline to countless number of people in several countries in Africa to denuding of snow-covered mountains in countries like Nepal where they mean not only bread and butter of tourism industry, but also the lifeblood of the people living downstream — the impacts of climate change have become all too common.
International media outlets, including Reuters and The New York Times have extensively run stories showing how Nepal, alongside others, tops the list of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, and the signs are unmistakable. The scientists warn that it is only a matter of time before the crisis hits the tipping point. Such is the gravity of the crisis that no other predicament faced by the mankind throughout its history comes nearly as close.
Nepal’s economy, which heavily relies on tourism, has started bearing the brunt of climate change. Winters have gotten less biting, meaning less snowfall in the mountainous belt. There is no way to replenish the melted snow of the mountains when snowfall nosedives. And that is what has become the new normal. In one story concerning Nepal published in The New York Times a few months back, the plight of highlanders, who are forced to leave their ancestral land, was a common problem. Because of the lack of rain and snowfall, their desiccated crops have become increasingly fruitless, forcing them to emigrate in droves.
Even in places like Kathmandu, known for harsh winter, the uptick in the number of warmer days during the season has raised everyone’s eyebrows. For many Westerners, the country is synonymous with enthralling mountains. Pulled by the irresistible beauty of majestic peaks, they have always managed to throng the country. Some come here to relish that beauty; others to meet the challenge offered by the mountains. However, things are not always what they seem. They are changing for the worse, according to a host of studies on mountains.
Hotel entrepreneurs in Pokhara, a major tourist hub, were recently fretting over the constant low occupancy in their hotels. And they blame the disappearing snow from the mountains for their woes. “It has always been the mountains that have drawn tourists from far and wide. They have always enjoyed snow-enabled sports and adventures like skiing, summiting mountains, trekking, among others. Now that the snow is getting thinner and thinner, they are just going to be things of the past,” bemoaned one hotel entrepreneur.
To make things worse, the share of wetland areas in the country is also falling at an unprecedented pace, as per multiple studies. The ecosystem sustained by wetlands goes a long way to balancing human beings’ relationship with the nature. Once that is broken, its repercussions will be felt far and wide. It’s a well-documented fact that aquatic and non-aquatic lives inhabiting in and around a wetland do not just provide sustenance to the population dwelling in its surroundings, but enable them to earn their livelihood as well.
As regards the causes of climate change, two things stand out: burning fossil fuels and consumerism. While the role of fossil fuels in causing it is elaborately documented and therefore very well-known, the role of consumerism is relatively less talked about. Consumerism is the phenomenon of consuming more and more goods, either to maintain social status or pleasure from it or both. And in order to satiate the seemingly limitless desire of the consumers, factories that run on largely dirty fuels churn out merchandises in ever growing quantity, emitting lots of green-house gases in the process.

Growing consumerism
What’s more, fast fashion, which epitomises consumerism, thrives by producing goods -- typically garments -- whose life-span is hardly a year or two. Since the short-lived goods are discarded soon, they end up in the beds of seas and oceans, in rivers and lakes, further deteriorating the already-fragile environment there. We all know that our oceans have never been so polluted. So, if we are to bring about a drastic change that will help deal with climate change, we needn’t go further than ourselves, the human beings. Unless we mend our ways that includes weaning ourselves off the materialistic, or rather consumerism-centric lifestyle, our future prospects remain bleak. The onus is on us to change, not elsewhere.

(Basyal is a TRN journalist.)