Change approach to tackle climate change
If anybody has ever doubted the gravity of the climate change menace, then it hit home to some Kenyans in a gusty, dusty and angry phenomena—an ominous swirling windstorm on Tuesday afternoon.
It was a scene only associated with recent happenings in the Americas and Asian regions which experience tornados, hurricanes and other phenomena. For those who witnessed it, the unheeded warning of Nobel Laureate, the late Prof Wangari Maathai, that “Mother Nature is very generous but very unforgiving” must have painfully rang through the minds.
Combating climate change is no longer a remote academic discourse at scientific fora and international conferences. It is about our survival. Though the obvious warning signs that Mother Nature, after being pushed against the corner was now fighting back—through erratic rainfall patterns, rising temperatures, hurricanes and drought—humanity blinded by unparalleled greed has continue to ignore them.
As the Good Book says, “he who has ears, let him hear...he who has eyes let him see”. For ignoring the wisdom, we will collectively suffer the wrath of an abused, degraded environment.
The climate change challenge calls for collective response through a shift in thinking. Again, in the wisdom of Prof Maathai, “we are called to assist the earth to heal her wounds and in the process heal our own”. This is the only way to guarantee the next generation a future.
The global community must join Swedish school girl, Greta Thunberg,who has galvanised school children to fight for their future. And her warning is stark that the generation that destroys the environment is not the one that pays the price.
For Kenyans, who are beginning to suffer the consequences of climate change in form of erratic rainfall and dying rivers, we must resolve that saving the Mau Complex and other water towers and forests, is a matter of life and death. The issue must, therefore, be depoliticised and government efforts to save the critical ecosystem supported.
In the long term, there is need to educate a critical mass of an environmentally-conscious population that not only understands and appreciates the challenge, but fights for a healthy and safe environment. Perhaps, the opportunity has now presented itself in the new school curriculum.
