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Community key to solving climate crisis
Climate change is real
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limate change is real. The surprising snowfall that covered several states in Australia last December and the ensuing floods that struck Brisbane have awakened not only most Australians but also the rest of the world to the real impact of climate change.
In Europe, flight schedules were delayed due to extreme weather. The rainy season was longer than usual and affected most parts of Indonesia. Floods were everywhere. Farmers lost their harvests.
Disease ensued.
Climate change is a result of global warming — the increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere because of human activities. The unpredictable climate is now part of our daily lives. This anomaly is affecting both developed and developing countries.
The hard work to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, with its requirements to reduce emissions, must seem like a burden for the political leaders of developed countries.
A global commitment is likely to stagnate and become quite difficult to achieve. But, do we have a way out?
Living amid the adverse impacts of climate change, humans are surrounded by disaster. We know we are under threat, but our lack of information about climate change has made it so that we don’t know
how to cope with it. We do not even know how do discuss climate change in our own language.
Because we live in a community, we need to learn from others who are more experienced in dealing with the climate crisis.
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Indonesians can adapt to climate change by learning from existing traditional wisdom.
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Public outreach can be an effective tool to initiate awareness about climate change. Attended by hundreds of participants from Asia and the Pacific, The Climate Project Asia Pacific Summit, which was held in Jakarta from Jan. 8 to 10, 2011, demonstrated the effectiveness of discussing climate change at the grassroots level.
The Climate Project is a non-profit organization founded by former US president Al Gore, whose dedication to the issue earned him a Nobel Peace Prize.
Gore has trained thousands of people from various countries, termed The Climate Project presenters. He shared the science, the impact and the solutions to the climate crisis. Presenters come from various fields and educational backgrounds. Teachers, religious leaders, government officials, students, journalists and others all speak in different ways using the same phrase: solving the climate crisis.
Pictures say more than words can. Using more visual effects than narrative text, Gore instructed his audience how to use a powerful 200-slide presentation to encourage targeted communities to get engaged in the climate change issue. We don’t have to be scientists to deliver key climate change messages. We just need to find the most suitable way.
Siti Badriyah, an Indonesian presenter, discussed carbon calculators, a method to count the total emissions produced in a period of time and how to reduce them. Some carbon calculating methods can be done online. Urban dwellers with their carbon consuming lifestyles are the targeted community.
Evangeline Pua, a Christian priest, came up with an eco-theology concept to go with her evangelist missions.
In order to teach appreciation for the principles of reducing, reusing and recycling, together with her Ecology Working Group in the church Evangeline tries to introduce productive ways to transform unused plastic bottles into Christmas decorations.
Another effort is to use glass bottles rather than plastic water bottles whenever there are church activities.
Abdon Nababan, the secretary- general of the Indigenous Peoples Alliance (AMAN), said that indigenous people were part of the solution to the climate crisis.
They protect the forest from destruction. In line with the principles and beliefs inherited from their ancestors, indigenous people live low carbon lifestyles that contribute to climate change mitigation. Living on small islands that are vulnerable to rising sea levels, Abdon believes that Indonesians can adapt to climate change by learning from existing traditional wisdom.
Indigenous people should not be ignored by development, Abdon said. He said we can protect the earth if we protect indigenous people, who can play an inspirational role in raising public awareness about the climate crisis.
There are other role models that have had a positive effect. But, to solve the climate crisis, all potential resources need to be explored and brought to the surface. We may not realize that the crisis can be mitigated simply by turning off our electronic devices properly.
The writer works for the National Council on Climate Change in Indonesia and is a presenter for The Climate Project in Indonesia.
