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limate change: Two words that we hear often, a term that we can define, but an occurrence that we care little about. Scientists have warned us for many years that if the human population does not start preserving Earth better, then we should brace ourselves for extreme climate change and impact. Clearly, we humans, as creatures that are populating and inhabiting the world in great numbers, did not listen to the memo. We decided to ignore the warnings and ignore the facts provided and led by professional and outstanding scientists and instead we go about our daily lives as if nothing needs preserving.

The human population is booming, the number of cars on roads is increasing, global food supply is diminishing and natural disasters are becoming more frequent. Realizing these factors, we are still doing very little to save Mother Earth.

There are only a small number of individuals that are taking actions to “go green” and even though there’s the saying “a little goes a long way,” in reality, we know that this is no longer valid. The safety of Mother Earth and our livelihoods depend on the actions we take every day.

Indeed it is not easy for anyone to buy hybrid cars, to reduce CFC emissions, and other work related to the so-called “Green Revolution,” but it is possible to help our Earth. When I attended a short seminar on climate change, the speaker who is from the National University of Singapore warned us all that if we did not take serious and drastic action soon then we are only wishing the worst to happen to us.

He mentioned many of the risks we may face in the future such as stronger earthquakes, frequent tsunami occurrences, a rise in sea levels, the melting of icebergs, and basically everything that you see in the movie The Inconvenient Truth.

At the time, most of the participants including myself, didn’t think much of the consequences and the common perspective was that only developing countries and below would be most affected by it all. Well, as the recent Japanese earthquake shows us, we were wrong… dead wrong.

Climate change has a global impact. It does not choose between the developed or developing countries, the poor or the rich, or the blacks or the whites. As condolences poured out to the people in the Japanese earthquake and around the world, the question becomes what next?

If the next process is anywhere between the lines of governments giving foreign aid, interest groups raising small charity funds for donations, but we still go about our business without thinking twice about the world then we never really understood the true message.

Continue the pattern of ignorance, and Mother Nature will show her ferocity. The only way we should take her message is
by accepting the fact that yes it is our fault and it is this carelessness that has led us to this point where we are all struggling to fight for our safety against the unpredictable powers of our great Mother Earth.

Cantika Paramitha R
Bandung