COP 27 summit: Centralisation vs. decentralisation is the tightrope on which every public policy is walking. Governments have to decide whether they take everything into their own hands or leave it to the masses. Both have their respective records of success and failure. For instance, financial inclusion in PM Modi’s India is driven by a push from PM Modi himself. On the other hand, asking people to leave their gas subsidy is a bottom-up approach, and both have been successful.
Sometimes the problem is bigger than the one faced by the nation. Climate catastrophe threatening billions of years of life on Earth is one such imminent crisis. Sadly, a major part of the problem is being tackled only from the top down approach. No wonder; real and effective solutions are miles ahead.
COP 27 and wokeist hypocrisy
COP 27 just finished. An agreement to pay for damages and losses to developing nations was finalised in Egypt. But it took decades to come, and we do not have more decades left in the tank. This is the reason why the COP 27 summit left more questions than it answered. Hypocrisy and self-contradictory nature puzzled people all across the globe.
Apparently, politicians hop on public and private jets run by fossil fuels to talk about climate change. To their credit, they do find a solution, only to worsen the crisis. The West is shovelling down environmental, social, and governance (ESG) norms all across the world. Not only American companies are failing, but countries like Sri Lanka and Ghana are facing civil war due to it. The reason behind such grand failures is that policymakers cater to the woke lobby rather than practically feasible measures to solve the problem.
According to Elon Musk, “the problem with wokeism is that it gives people a shield to be mean and cruel, armoured in false virtue.” And that is exactly how they have been behaving on public platforms. The wokeists promoted by governments encouraging nihilism are now down to breaking statues and paintings, jamming roads, and cornering people in the street to execute their ideologically driven stunts.
Kids like Greta Thunberg, Mari Copeny, and Xiye Bastida, among others, are being used as shield cover activists for anti-human propaganda. Their operators earn hefty sums while these kids are continuously becoming mentally destabilised. But any such debate about that is being shunned down by narcissistic people praying on compassion.
A combined will is needed
Common folks are slowly but steadily coming to realise that things are not changing on the ground with activism. Developed countries have poured more than $632 billion, but the problem is only growing by leaps and bounds.
Apparently, Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) are also not expected to bring big numbers since countries all across the world are struggling to implement their promises. At the end of the day, it all boils down to one solution, and that solution is people’s voluntary participation.
There have been instances in history where combined efforts have ended up bringing tremendous results. If Hitler had not gone mad for territories, Germany’s revival in the aftermath of the global financial crisis would be a miracle in itself. Similarly, credit for defeating Germany in WWII goes to millions of Russians who rallied around Stalin’s call to save Mother Russia. Talking specifically about India, Netaji’s call for independence was echoed by millions of Indians.
Changes on the ground
Somehow, that is already happening all across the world. There are millions of individuals who are planting trees across their neighbourhoods, highways, and other roads to clean the air. Then there are people like Sundarlal Bahuguna, who started the Chipko movement way before the western drama about climate kicked off. With the advent of science, climate-friendly innovations are also arriving at the forefront of the battle.
One of the projects includes making fuel from sunlight so that we do not have to dig oil wells and harm the topsoil. The research is being led by Dr. Govinder Singh Pawar, a scientist at the University of Exeter, UK. If successful, soil erosion on a mass scale will be a thing of the past.
The quality of crops produced is decreasing due to soil erosion. The problem is exacerbated when, in the case of crops like rice, the husk is separated and left untreated. Fortunately, soon it will be a thing of the past. A team led by IIT Kharagpur alumni is chalking out a method for making furniture from the husk.
War on plastic
Similar projects to minimise the effects of plastic are also underway. At the Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology (IIFPT), jackfruits are being tested as a viable option to replace plastic cutleries. In Mumbai, a group of teenagers is working day and night to restart the trend of eating on banana leaves. In the National Capital Delhi, a team from IIT Delhi has found a way to turn paper staples into paper plates.
While a movement to find alternatives to plastic is gaining momentum, in Bengaluru, Swachh, a non-profit organization, is using the waste plastics to colour the pavements.
But getting rid of plastics is not going to be solved by a small innovation. Instead, a large-scale drive is required all across the world. Our oceans are filled with plastic and other similar waste. Two years ago, a Pune-based teenage boy named Haazik Kazi designed a ship to suck up plastic and other waste coming its way. The ERVIS project was successful as a prototype, but for unknown reasons, it has not yet been produced on mass scale.
Boyan’s magic
Kaazi has been unlucky in finding investors, but a Norwegian guy has been successful in implementing this idea. At the tender age of 17, Boyan had given a Ted talk about his idea of eliminating plastic from the ocean. Salt’s idea went viral on the Internet, and the next year, he founded a non-profit organisation named “The Ocean Cleanup.”
The organisation initially relied on crowd funding to raise $2.2 million. He was so popular that people from 160 countries contributed to his project. Boyan did not disappoint them, and next year his organisation published a humongous 528-page feasibility study. Now, the organisation is a full-fledged company with Salt as the CEO. Pictures of salt with collected plastic wastes from the ocean can easily be seen on the internet.
Individual acts of brilliance
While Salt is out there bringing change with financial clout; there are people who have proceeded without any support. A Kannada lady named Saalumarada Thimmakka alone planted 384 banyan trees on a highway between Hulikal and Kudur. In the same state, there is a couple who has changed 300 acres of farmland into a private wildlife sanctuary. Anil K Malhotra and Pamela spent 25 years to effect such a colossal change.
The bigger work was done by Jaydev Payeng who changed 1360 acres of barren land into a sanctuary within 30 years. Incredibly, he did it alone. Just like Deepak Gaur of Gurgaon, who distributed over 47,000 saplings since 2010. Deepak wants to plant a billion trees before he leaves for heavenly abode. Other stories like that of a tree loving Alappuzha cop, MPites planting 66 million tree, a bus conductor planting 1 lakh trees across 32 districts, a Kerala autorickshaw driver planting 23,000 trees keep making headlines from time to time.
People will have to unite
Unfortunately, they did not get more coverage than Greta. Their ideas worked in practice while Greta’s anxiety driven responses worked for the media. Most of the innovators cited above are not covered, due to which their innovations fail to find investors. Maybe, that is the purpose. Maybe they do not want the problem to be permanently solved.
But, one day, collective wisdom will take over the power of the elite few. That is how change works. Common people should focus on small changes rather than big and hollow promises by globakists. Cop 27 summit is over now.
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