Every time I read a report, or an article, or watch a documentary about the worsening effects of climate change, I’m always left speechless, and all I want to do - probably all I can do - in that moment is just to break down and cry because I feel so helpless in all of this.
In where our world is heading.
Why don't political institutions seem to care enough about climate change? How is it possible that Donald Trump can go in front of millions of Americans, saying that climate change is a "hoax" invented by China, and people believe him? Why are people criticising Greta Thunberg for her impassioned speech at the United Nations' Climate Action Summit, calling her "mentally ill" because of her Asperger's and relegating her words to that of a "melodramatic" child with an obsessive view that the world is going to end? (#piersmorgan on #goodmorningbritain)
Meanwhile in Canada, Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party (a supposed champion of climate change) has just bought the Trans Mountain pipeline for $4.5 billion Canadian dollars "to ensure that the expansion would proceed." #reuters
Let's not even talk about Bolsonaro who has no qualms stating that "the Amazon is Brazil’s" and hence "No country in the world has the moral right to talk about the Amazon."
All this 'talk,' while the Amazon continues to burn...
"More than 80,000 wildfires have broken out in [Brazil] this year, an increase of more than 84% on [2018]" #nationalgeographic
As of now, only 2 countries are actually meeting their climate goals set during the Paris climate agreement: Morocco and Gambia. (While 4 others are "stepping up.")
I suppose talk is cheap.
How can we talk about becoming a global society when nationalistic views still hold? When nations are striving for "continual economic growth" for their country and for their citizens, at the expense of other countries and their citizens?
How can we call ourselves 'global citizens' if we can't even realise that the Amazon does not belong to anyone? It belongs to everyone.
The world isn't ours.
We've just been given (rightly or wrongly so) the ability and the responsibility of taking care of it — and it seems like we're abusing that power for a fantasy; a pipe dream.
We are biting the hand that feeds us.
“The science is both chilling and compelling. The impacts on our oceans are on a much larger scale and happening way faster than predicted,” said Taehyun Park, from Greenpeace East Asia. “It will require unprecedented political action to prevent the most severe consequences to our planet.”
Miami is flooding.
Here in Singapore, $400 million dollars is being pumped into "upgrading and maintaining [Singapore's] drains over the next two years" and $10 million dollars more is being channelled to "studying sea level rise." #thestraitstimes
We already know the effects of climate change...
We can feel the heat. We've experienced the floods.
Is that not enough?
Today in Singapore, it is raining...
It is raining very heavily.
Staring outside the window within the sheltered comfort of my room, I wonder if this is going to be the same world I see in 8 and a half years...
What would life be like then?
I know my tears are useless in the face of political action (and inaction), and my heart will continue to break for everything and everyone who's suffering because of human action.
One day, we'll have to reckon with the reality of it all: Rising temperatures, rising sea levels, an increase in hunger and water crises — and that's just the tip of the iceberg.
A day of reckoning will come, and is it then that we'll finally wake up?
