An Inconvenient Truth

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This year, as usual, Bangaloreans are complaining of an even hotter summer. Even as the trees were felled to make way for wider roads. Wider roads so that more traffic can be accommodated. More cars, scooters, autorickshaws spewing fumes and choking lungs.

Twenty years ago, a couple of sparrows built a nest in my home. I would sit in the room for hours and wait for the baby sparrow to peek out of its makeshift nest.

Now we don’t see too many sparrows. Nope, not in my home, at least.

I wonder how many of us in Bangalore switched on the TV this Sunday morning to watch ‘An Inconvenient Truth’. After seeing this movie, my respect for Al Gore and the makers of the movie increased manifold.

‘An Inconvenient Truth’, tells the truth like it is. Global Warming – the cause, the consequences. The policies and politics.

It’s the story of melting of glaciers submerging coastal cities. Of old ecological niches giving way to bizarre new ones. Of changing climatic conditions giving rise to new diseases like SARS, Avian Flu. Of the dreaded Malaria bug literally scaling higher altitudes due to global warming. And of an embarrassing truth called the rising population.

The story slowly unfolds as Al Gore narrates it. The players: The corporates vs the governments vs the common man. Did scientists team up to trivialize the problem to suit the big giant companies? What is the Kyoto Protocol and who is really following it?

‘Political will is a renewable resources. Each one of us is a cause for global warming but each one of us can reduce it as well with making the right choices.’

Al Gore speaks about how technology keeps changing but with it, habits must change too. Technology must cater to increasing energy efficiency and at the same time reducing Carbon dioxide emission – along with this there must be a corresponding change in habits.

‘Humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb. If the vast majority of the world’s scientists are right, we have just ten years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tail-spin of epic destruction involving extreme weather, floods, droughts, epidemics and killer heat waves beyond anything we have ever experienced.’

Yet another gore-y story doing the news rounds is the world hunger crisis which would actually occur as a result of global warming scare. In an attempt to reduce the petroleum consumption, more and more corn crops in the US are being diverted into the production of ethanol, and this is directly influencing the food chain. So if it is not global warming per se, it could be the world reaction to global warming that can create a change in global ecology.

So what’s in it for us? It’s time to carpool to work, folks. Say NO to plastic bags and reduce non-biodegradable waste accumulation. Plant more trees. Enjoy the breeze from the bio-friendly fan rather than the airconditioner. Take a little rough-riding on the non-A/C car. After all, you want your kids and grand kids to enjoy this world for a long long time. Right?

Now for a few astonishing facts from the movie:

	The number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has almost doubled in the last 30 years.2
	Malaria has spread to higher altitudes in places like the Colombian Andes, 7,000 feet above sea level.3
	The flow of ice from glaciers in Greenland has more than doubled over the past decade.4
	At least 279 species of plants and animals are already responding to global warming, moving closer to the poles.5

	Deaths from global warming will double in just 25 years — to 300,000 people a year.6
	Global sea levels could rise by more than 20 feet with the loss of shelf ice in Greenland and Antarctica, devastating coastal areas worldwide.7
	Heat waves will be more frequent and more intense.
	Droughts and wildfires will occur more often.
	The Arctic Ocean could be ice free in summer by 2050.8
	More than a million species worldwide could be driven to extinction by 2050.