This is indeed a great long-term ambitious plan of Europe to reduce emissions by 20% by 2020 although it remains to be seen how effective an example Europe will set. The EU leaders have set various action plans to achieve their target in next 13 years. It seems that it’s not only an agreement among European states but also an example to follow by every nation. As a nation of nearly 15 million people, we do have a lot to do to combat global warming.
Where global warming is the most serious threat to the earth, big economic nations like USA, China, Japan, India etc. are more responsible than other nations as they together create more pollution than rest of the world. But unfortunately, the leaders in these countries have not given appropriate importance and priority to this serious issue in their agenda. For example, USA has not yet signed Kyoto agreement. President Bush clearly said that it would have massive impact on their economy if they sign Kyoto protocol. It’s not my intension here to assess how USA will be benefited economically by not joining with other countries to combat global warming. But this is recognized by every scientist that disasters like Katrina are the effect of global warming. It happens due to unexpected temperature increase in the deep Atlantic Ocean. Natural disaster like Katrina causes death of thousands of lives and damage of billions dollar in hours.
Scientists predict that global warming will take many of the present mega cities and part of the cities under the sea by 2100 that include New York, Los Angels, Shanghai, and cities in northern Europe etc. This will happen when half of the ice in Greenland and Antarctica will melt due to global warming. We are also not safe at all! One third of Bangladesh will be under the Bay of Bengal, which includes some coastal districts of Khulna, Barishal and Chittagong divisions. Temperature will increase from 1 to 7 degree centigrade. So, highest temperature will likely be nearly 50 degree centigrade during summer.
We are already late to understand this serious threat which is much more serious than any other threat such as epidemic or terrorist threat. As a nation, we need to prepare our own action plan and combine action plan in SAARC to reduce pollution as soon as possible. Individuals like you and me also should reduce pollution by saving energy in our everyday life.
This is the time for new generation to understand this serious problem, which is not that far away from now. Governments need to include issues like environment pollution and global warming in the high school textbooks to aware this generation about the upcoming natural threats.
From
--Faruk Ahmed, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand.
