Depending where on the planet you are now, it is either too hot or too cold and perfect weather is no longer something we can take for granted. Even so, some of us may not notice the variations because we live, work or learn in a controlled environment.
Yet regardless of how secluded we are from these changes, we must have noticed some of it because they are beginning to affect lives in such catastrophic ways as to have made the headlines - the loss of livestock, disappearing bees, flash floods and destroyed crops. Are we getting all this doom and gloom scenarios because world news coverage has become better or because there is more open communication between world communities? Or is it as we feared, more incidents due to extreme weather.
Some climatologists claim that the warming atmosphere have started to melt the ice capes, envisioning Earth like that glass of soda someone forgot, the one whose ice cubes have melted to thin sheets and whose sweet tangy liquid now tastes like diluted lemon dishwasher. This reduced sea-water salinity apparently has disrupted the usual flow of warm and cold currents thus warming the Earth farther. The problem however, will not just be limited to a world filled with freshwater fish, but apparently life for humans will also become intolerable. Maybe those who have stayed in the same environment of their ancestors of thousands of years ago will survive, while those of us who are products of the new age - migration, mixed marriages - will die out because we are not biologically adapted to the extreme heats or colds of the region we now live in.
Along with climatic catastrophes also came the news of the spread of diseases. Apart from the influenza viruses like SARS or H1N1, Malaysia had a sudden increase of dengue cases in 2009. There are a thousand and one conditions that may cause this to occur but I suspect that heat fatigue also plays a big part. People like myself, who have allergy problems, are dealt a double blow because most of the fruit trees in my region are now in season at least twice a year. In fact, the durian trees in my brother-in-law's longhouse fruited three times last year. The deluge of fruit may appear good on the surface, but it could also be an indication that the plants are desperately trying to propagate. It brings to mind the story of Joseph and the King of Egypt in the Book of Genesis Chapter 41 concerning the seven years of plenty which was followed by seven years of famine. Was that story a tale about climate change? Regardless, there is one immediate problem to this rich harvest - rats. I see them coming out of holes, burrowing in drains and I can hear them in nooks and crannies that I never knew existed. With the warming weather affecting the health of people, thus lowering their immunity system, and the exploding community of pests things are not going to get better anytime soon.
Our parents, our leaders and even ourselves have worked so hard to make the world a better place than it was a hundred years ago. Exploitation has lessened, discrimination is scorned and in most developed countries, emission of pollutants has also decreased due to legislation and social responsibility. Life has improved, and it will improve more because the process is still ongoing especially in countries that have only recently come to embrace human rights. Yet my biggest concern is, since extreme climate change will affect crops around the world, our world economic system of inter-dependence will be hard hit. This might lead to large upheavals in the current social and political system. Exploitations occur because an individual feels that he is incapable of negotiating for better work conditions and better work pay. And if we look at his reason for timidity it is mainly due to the fact that he does not have a better economic choice available to him. In other words submission is better than starvation.
We all think that we are ready for the changes which are coming, however, a lot of that readiness depends on the kind of information we receive, as well as our willingness to adjust. Yet are we really ready to save our own lives. We are so used to a life of convenience that carrying our own bag to the market is considered a bother. Even our idea of good leadership means a person who leads us to wherever our whims and fancies wish to go. Hopefully, we will change in time.
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