T

he Mayans got it wrong. Doomsday came and went. We’re still here.

But it’s unlikely that today’s scientists have got it all wrong too. The overwhelming majority from around the world continue to ring the alarm bells but nobody’s really listening. No one who’s in a position to do anything meaningful seems bothered enough about global warming, rising sea levels, melting ice-caps and the like. The residents of smog-laden Beijing ignored the hints and set off the firecrackers that ushered in an even more hazardous new day of the Lunar New Year. Superstition wins over science, wealth over health.

Let’s not just blame the politicians. We get what we deserve, even if we think we deserve better. From Canada to Australia, new oil and gas finds are lighting up the eyes of finance ministers, pole to pole. What seemed unreachable and unfeasible yesterday is now accessible and viable today, thanks to ever-changing technology. The Russians have staked their claim to much of what lies beneath the rapidly disappearing Arctic ice. The state of State of South Australia will soon confirm a 20-trillion dollar discovery of oil and gas buried in shale rocks. That’s 1 trillion dollars per-Australian-capita, more or less. I don’t see anybody walking away from these treasure troves. Fossil fuels look like they are here to stay, forever. Way past the forty years of reserves that used to be talked about, just a couple of years ago.

If I was a citizen of Vanuatu or Maldives, I’d be busy looking for another home on much higher ground in some other benevolent country. But I’d be just as worried if I was living in Jakarta’s Pluit neighborhood where high tides invade the bedroom all too frequently. When Hurricane Sandy hit the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, their President Barack Obama sounded like he was serious about climate change. But the prospect of lowering dependence on foreign oil with new licences for drilling local gas smothered any such aspiration. “It’s the economy, stupid.”

That is what all sides of politics know to be the vote-winning truth. It’s the economy, unemployment and the ever-growing demand for energy that has put global warming on the back-burner. Looks like it’s going to stay there, with a few more rounds of talks at Doha or Johannesburg not to be taken too seriously. Even the Japanese have walked away from Kyoto, so who can blame the Canadians? Here in Indonesia, there’s a lot of talk about climate change in the conference halls of Bali but Citizen Jusuf isn’t getting his way.

His way, her way and the way of most Indonesians is “act now”. In fact, 85 percent of all citizens 14 years of age and older believe “if we don’t act now we’ll never control our environmental problems”. The effects of climate change are being felt by farmers in the paddy fields, by fisherman watching fish stocks dwindle, as well as Jakartans and Surabayans who dread the day they’ll wake up to a smoky Beijing-like city of their own. Driven by fear perhaps, a not-surprising 82 percent think “at heart I’m an environmentalist”. But left without anything resembling a mass transit system in the cities, without enforcement of laws against industrial pollution, the legion of environmentalists have little to do but bemoan the mounting residue of economic progress.

Whatever their motive, economic necessity or diligent conservation, a growing band of Indonesians say “I try to recycle everything I can”. From 54 to 66 percent in just five years is a significant display of individual effort, small though its impact may be. If the visible blisters of garbage piles dotting the cities appear to be a contradiction of thought and action, we must put the blame where it’s due. No housewife can also double up as garbage collector, and the trash has to be put somewhere, even if it’s just outside the front door. Waste management systems are an urban necessity, not a luxury. Show her a dumpster and she’d make sure the household does the right thing. This is one of those situations where it’s the thought that counts. Equally reassuring is the growing number of Indonesians who reject the media’s willing embrace of all bad news and then “spinning” it some more. Climbing from 39 to 60 and back down to 51 percent in the same five years, a small majority still believes that “threats to the environment are exaggerated”. The good news, from a marketing perspective is that a declining percentage of the population, now 43, believes that “environment friendly products are over-priced”.

Personally, I believe that nobody is going to do anything real to try and arrest the current trends. We’re going to burn fossil fuels in much greater volumes for who knows how much longer because the new news is that the stuff isn’t running out anytime soon. That’s the old news. The Pacific islanders will move to Australia and pick oranges for a living. That’s harsh? But there’s a glimmer of hope. Human ingenuity is dreaming up video game-like scenarios where bombing the stratosphere with magical chemicals will eliminate the harmful carbon particles from our skies. That’s where we seem to be heading. If that doesn’t work, where do you think we should all be sent for the damage we are doing to our world today? God knows. It’s no comfort to know that if we don’t wreck the planet ourselves, it’ll all end regardless, in about 6 billion years when our sun runs out of gas.

The opinions expressed are my own. The conclusions are based on Roy Morgan Single Source, the country’s largest syndicated survey with over 26,000 Indonesian respondents annually, projected to reflect almost 90 percent of the population over the age of 14.

The writer can be contacted at debnath.guharoy@roymorgan.comDebnath Guharoy

Roy morgan

The Mayans got it wrong. Doomsday came and went. We’re still here.

But it’s unlikely that today’s scientists have got it all wrong too. The overwhelming majority from around the world continue to ring the alarm bells but nobody’s really listening. No one who’s in a position to do anything meaningful seems bothered enough about global warming, rising sea levels, melting ice-caps and the like. The residents of smog-laden Beijing ignored the hints and set off the firecrackers that ushered in an even more hazardous new day of the Lunar New Year. Superstition wins over science, wealth over health.

Let’s not just blame the politicians. We get what we deserve, even if we think we deserve better. From Canada to Australia, new oil and gas finds are lighting up the eyes of finance ministers, pole to pole. What seemed unreachable and unfeasible yesterday is now accessible and viable today, thanks to ever-changing technology. The Russians have staked their claim to much of what lies beneath the rapidly disappearing Arctic ice. The state of State of South Australia will soon confirm a 20-trillion dollar discovery of oil and gas buried in shale rocks. That’s 1 trillion dollars per-Australian-capita, more or less. I don’t see anybody walking away from these treasure troves. Fossil fuels look like they are here to stay, forever. Way past the forty years of reserves that used to be talked about, just a couple of years ago.

If I was a citizen of Vanuatu or Maldives, I’d be busy looking for another home on much higher ground in some other benevolent country. But I’d be just as worried if I was living in Jakarta’s Pluit neighborhood where high tides invade the bedroom all too frequently. When Hurricane Sandy hit the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, their President Barack Obama sounded like he was serious about climate change. But the prospect of lowering dependence on foreign oil with new licences for drilling local gas smothered any such aspiration. “It’s the economy, stupid.”

That is what all sides of politics know to be the vote-winning truth. It’s the economy, unemployment and the ever-growing demand for energy that has put global warming on the back-burner. Looks like it’s going to stay there, with a few more rounds of talks at Doha or Johannesburg not to be taken too seriously. Even the Japanese have walked away from Kyoto, so who can blame the Canadians? Here in Indonesia, there’s a lot of talk about climate change in the conference halls of Bali but Citizen Jusuf isn’t getting his way.

His way, her way and the way of most Indonesians is “act now”. In fact, 85 percent of all citizens 14 years of age and older believe “if we don’t act now we’ll never control our environmental problems”. The effects of climate change are being felt by farmers in the paddy fields, by fisherman watching fish stocks dwindle, as well as Jakartans and Surabayans who dread the day they’ll wake up to a smoky Beijing-like city of their own. Driven by fear perhaps, a not-surprising 82 percent think “at heart I’m an environmentalist”. But left without anything resembling a mass transit system in the cities, without enforcement of laws against industrial pollution, the legion of environmentalists have little to do but bemoan the mounting residue of economic progress.

Whatever their motive, economic necessity or diligent conservation, a growing band of Indonesians say “I try to recycle everything I can”. From 54 to 66 percent in just five years is a significant display of individual effort, small though its impact may be. If the visible blisters of garbage piles dotting the cities appear to be a contradiction of thought and action, we must put the blame where it’s due. No housewife can also double up as garbage collector, and the trash has to be put somewhere, even if it’s just outside the front door. Waste management systems are an urban necessity, not a luxury. Show her a dumpster and she’d make sure the household does the right thing. This is one of those situations where it’s the thought that counts. Equally reassuring is the growing number of Indonesians who reject the media’s willing embrace of all bad news and then “spinning” it some more. Climbing from 39 to 60 and back down to 51 percent in the same five years, a small majority still believes that “threats to the environment are exaggerated”. The good news, from a marketing perspective is that a declining percentage of the population, now 43, believes that “environment friendly products are over-priced”.

Personally, I believe that nobody is going to do anything real to try and arrest the current trends. We’re going to burn fossil fuels in much greater volumes for who knows how much longer because the new news is that the stuff isn’t running out anytime soon. That’s the old news. The Pacific islanders will move to Australia and pick oranges for a living. That’s harsh? But there’s a glimmer of hope. Human ingenuity is dreaming up video game-like scenarios where bombing the stratosphere with magical chemicals will eliminate the harmful carbon particles from our skies. That’s where we seem to be heading. If that doesn’t work, where do you think we should all be sent for the damage we are doing to our world today? God knows. It’s no comfort to know that if we don’t wreck the planet ourselves, it’ll all end regardless, in about 6 billion years when our sun runs out of gas.

The opinions expressed are my own. The conclusions are based on Roy Morgan Single Source, the country’s largest syndicated survey with over 26,000 Indonesian respondents annually, projected to reflect almost 90 percent of the population over the age of 14.

The writer can be contacted at debnath.guharoy@roymorgan.com