Net Zero Future

I had this feeling of standing under a pile of garbage after the endless bombarding of eco-friendly advice to improve lifestyle, reduce, recycle, reuse and varied sustainable ways of living messages. The recently concluded UN Climate change conference COP 26, Glasgow, Scotland, kept me glued as not only it was in one of my favorite places but also one of the topics close to my heart. Like the other most anticipated events on earth, this environmental event has gained traction over time thanks to the growing social media. The goal is to go net-zero which is to limit global warming. Net-zero means to balance the amount of greenhouse gas produced and the amount removed from the atmosphere. We reach net zero when the amount we add is no more than the amount taken away.

The run-up for the conference saw some of the best environmentalist likes of David Attenborough, Jane Goodall, Greta Thunberg, the Royal family and the Head of States from many nations backing the cause to limit the global warming temperature to 1.5C by 2050 that is out of track right now. There were countless posters, news articles, social media feeds, smaller events and even door drops of recycled garbage bags to make the masses aware of the potential hazards of global warming and pollution. Now one might say, what's new in that? These are familiar terms and problems we come across every day for decades, yet get very little attention to resolve them.

Apart from the real intention and the actual cause, I found the whole conference cynical. It took more than Twenty-five thousand delegates from around 200 countries for a 12-day event to fly to Glasgow. To frame an action plan for the next 30 years that is more of promises and less on actions. Imagine the amount of fuel and resources it took as compared to the outcomes of the event. The number of lobbyists from the Oil and Gas sector was more than the UN delegates swaying decisions to benefit the culprits. The majority of the world leaders promised to bring global warming down for the generations who might not even vote for them. There are slim chances of hope when people in power misuse their positions to make decisions that benefit humanity. The superpower nations failed to acknowledge the pains of the smaller island nations that are already bearing the brunt of the consequences of the decisions that benefit only a few. The diplomatic teams negotiated days and nights on the language and words for the agreement that will continue to help those who want to continue mining and causing warming. I discovered for the first time that the pen is mightier than the sword. In the final agreement, when words such as stop coal and fossil, fuel subsidies were changed to phasing out the subsidies over the years to come in the agreement risking the whole ecosystem to collapse sooner than anticipated.

What hope are we passing to our generations to come when they would read their history say in 2070 that fifty years ago, the world leaders failed to take a firm stand on a problem that was well within reach to be solved? Very few of us might live that long if God permits, would hang our heads in shame on our inaction today. All this sounds depressing and rings alarm bells for all of us to wake up. But am glad to see young climate leaders like Greta Thunberg (18) from Sweden, innovators like Vinisha Umashankar (15) from India and thousands more marching ahead to demand a net-zero future. They have already made a sea change by their actions giving us hope and confidence that our Gen Z is way better than any of their past generations.

Thankfully, many across the globe now understand the gravity of the situation and are making conscious efforts to live a more sustainable life. I know it's hard to switch from easy to access, cheaper and not so eco-friendly items like plastic to more eco-friendly options that are costly. It is easy as all we have to do is rewind ourselves 100-200 years back when humans had intelligent and better ways of living in harmony with nature. The indigenous tribes worldwide continue to practice their traditional ways of living without harming the environment.

But this is not that practical in today's world. Even without going to the extremes of shunning everything and moving to the forests, we can still find a happy balance. Such as living more sustainably, limiting the toxic consumption of plastics, fuels and our dependency on things, sacrificing a little for the greater good. One of the booklets I received had a good message and made me ponder upon my now minimalistic(pandemic influenced) ways of living. It read - If you can manage to go on a holiday without carrying your entire house items and still enjoy, then you can always survive with less.

I hope with small and conscious changes in our lifestyle, we all will be able to give a net-zero future for times to come.