The need of the hour is to study as to whether there is some relationship between the spread of Covid-19 and the devastation caused by climate change as both these developments are more or less taking place in the same advanced countries/regions, opines Soroor Ahmed
Very much like the spread of coronavirus, it is the developed countries of the world, and not backward-most ones of Africa, which are, of late, more in the news for the devastating impact of climate change.
Be it the coldest region of the world, Siberia in Russia, or Canada, the United States, Europe, China, Japan or the southern end of Australia all are in the news either for torrid temperature, fire, tornado, flooding, acute drought, serious water scarcity, avalanche or even blizzard.
If wild fires are causing widespread destruction at hundreds of places in otherwise snow-capped Siberia, California in the US, British Columbia in Canada, Italy, Greece, Turkey, etc. temperature has soared to record level in most of these countries, otherwise known for cold climatic conditions. In west US and Canada the temperature hovered between 50 and 54 degree Celsius in the month of July – said to be one of the hottest summer in recorded history.
The big poser is as to why such news is not coming from Africa, or other less developed pockets of Asia and South America? It is not that there is no impact of global warming in these places – but at least they are not making big headlines. This is obviously because the impact of destruction is much more pronounced in the developed world and leading to heavy loss of life and property.
A much closer look to India would reveal something interesting. Frequent news of devastation is coming from Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand and not from Darjeeling region of North Bengal, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Nepal and Bhutan. It needs to be mentioned that the highest peak of the world, Mt. Everest and the third highest, Kangchenjunga are situated in Nepal and Sikkim. It is not that climate change is not having any impact in the entire Himalayan region but it is taking heavy toll of lives and property in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
In the same way Bihar, North Bengal and Assam, historically known for annual floods, are being overshadowed by coastal Kerala, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, etc.
These facts reveal that the industrialised pockets of the world are paying much heavier price for climate change than less developed ones. Take the case of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand where the campaign of industrialisation started between 1998 and 2004, that is during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee regime. It is not that these two states had not seen the construction of big dams and power plants in the past; but during the Vajpayee years special attention was paid to industrialise these two states.
As they are – in fact Uttarakhand was a part of Uttar Pradesh till 2000 – they have sparse population and have substantial amount of land at the foothills, our policy planners encouraged the setting up of industries. As farmers in the plains were not eagerly parting away their land in the fertile north and east India, the government, without taking into account the warning by environmentalists, deemed it fit to provide opportunities for big business houses to set up industries in these two states.
Tax and other concessions were given to woo investors in the region. Though actually the purpose was to provide cheap land for the industrialists yet the poor people of these two states were duped in the name of providing jobs. The truth is that there already were substantial job opportunities in the region as they were famous for tourist resorts and pilgrim centres.
The region is also rich for horticulture. Massive construction boom as well as setting up of industries, big dams and power plants led to the choking of rivers which often causes massive flooding. Mind it, almost the entire Himalayan region falls in the seismic zone and landslides and earthquakes take heavy toll of lives.
Similarly, the coastal west is witnessing heavy rains in the recent years. But it is also a fact that we are provoking nature to retaliate. The massive and unplanned construction boom and urbanisation in Mumbai and cities of Kerala are leading to huge waterlogging and thus compounding the miseries of the people. In the same way, pollution is wreaking havoc in the developed and industrialised landlocked pockets of north India, for example the National Capital Region.
No doubt the issue of climate change is being highlighted greatly in the media, but at the ground level little is being done to check its impact – barring some conferences and campaign by a handful of environmentalists.
It may be argued that the wheel of development cannot be reversed, yet it can certainly be checked and properly controlled. The capitalist-driven development work certainly needs to be regulated. The time has come to ask as to why nature’s wrath is stronger in the developed regions of the world than in Africa and less developed countries.
The West has, in the last few decades, shifted many of its hazardous and toxin-releasing industries to the less developed countries of the Third World, yet with each passing day they are facing bigger challenge from nature.
The need of the hour is to study as to whether there is some relationship between the spread of Covid-19 and the devastation caused by climate change as both these developments are more or less taking place in the same advanced countries/regions.