This is good piece. What are we waiting for as development practitioners? Climate change is here with us and a collective approach is needed to address this issue.

Nature is human and human is beautiful. Nature is asset and is our natural resources which show the way and manner we use it. Our world, our environment is blessed and our daily living to large extent is determinant on it. How we treat our environment determines how healthy and beautiful we are. Interestingly, everybody lives in an environment and that environment is made of natural resources from land to minerals, water to air, plants and animals amongst others in the web of life. Life is beautiful.

But as beautiful as life could be, life can equally be ugly too. Depending on how we use our world cum our environment. The beauty of life is in natural state of things, while the ugly side of life is typically man made. And I explain. When we begin to use natural resources in unsustainable ways, like felling down trees, burning fossil fuel, flaring gas, use of chemicals as fertilizers on the soil, depositing indecomposable materials like leather water bags, and batteries into the soil, oil exploration on sea pollute and kill sea foods etc, what do you think we are doing? By that, we are creating the ugly side of life by ourselves and for ourselves. Whereas, the beauty of life is for us to protect, preserve and share natural resources so we wouldn’t wake up to see them no more.

It is disheartening to know that natural resources are not equally shared among everyone anywhere in the world, which you should know too. It is the poor that uses the least and the rich the most. Don’t ask me why but how? And you explained. As powerful Corporations and Nations continue to take large share of natural resources, they also continue to pollute the water, the air, the land and the sea unabatedly. Poor nations will continue to suffer from their actions. Poor nations can not speak up, unaware of the effect of such action to our environment. From their weakness and ignorance, rich nations are hurriedly intensifying their acts, while poor nation’s ignorance lasts. That’ just how we are hurting the earth for all! Could it then be assumed that hurting the earth is deliberate or neglect? We shall answer in affirmative to one, and that one is neglect. It is that neglect that result into climate change. Meaning that the earth is reacting and reconsidering it kindness to human! That reaction is manifested with flooding, storms and drought in the land.

Do you still remember Mahatma Gandhi? He said “there is enough for everyone’s need, but not for everyone’s greed”. And I pondered philosophically on it; to opine that climate change is caused by greed, greed from rich nations at the detriment of poor nations. And if am cleared, have wondered in the first place why we cut trees than plant trees? Don’t we know cutting down trees is cutting down lives? Don’t we know that human and trees are in symbiotic exchange for survival? Don’t we inhale oxygen free as waste from trees? Sometimes am forced to consider if the amount of water, trees, minerals and other natural resources on earth, is not limited as per the increasing number of people using them? And I answered myself, no. You see, the problem is not the number of people using natural resources, but in the way and manner we distribute and use them. Come to think of it, when one person or a group of person uses natural resources more than their fair share, or cause excess pollution without considering the health risk of others in the name of industrialization, profiting and commercialization? What do you call that? When the use and derivation from such activities are used to develop developed nations at the detriment of poor nations that is not greed? But I know one thing in nature, it abhors greed.

Now to the point, global warming is a global warning for the rich nations to reduce harmful effect on our environment by using fewer resources and using them in sustainable paths that conserves for the future. But it seems they haven’t taken this warning seriously? If they have, why are we still flaring gas? Why are we still in high use of fossil fuel? Again, how many rich nations that signed COP21 have domesticated it in action? To my mind, the whole thing looks more like paper work that doesn’t walk, like more talk than action.

Climate has changed. It is poor nations that is and will be worst hit. Most of poor nations are in Africa, and are least informed about it. Can you see a timed bomb in Africa? There is flooding, flooding, and flooding. I see storms and drought in Africa deepening poverty and increasing hunger with attendant health risk. May be Africa is waiting till the earth explodes to realize climate change. But before I forget, the other day I was watching on television, about a big corporation that came to my community. When they came, they paid our locales money to clear our forests. The clearing made us to loose trees that kept our soil healthy and protected from storms. Not just that, we also lost plants-herbs for medicine, fibers, animals and foods etc. The corporation came and stole nature from our community and the locales never knew. So I kept watching the documentary, and I noticed that the corporation gained much profit to themselves and have no reason to protect or improve the lives of our people who relied on those natural resources to survive.

Though, the corporation provided short term jobs and income, but when the resources were gone and drained, I noticed that the corporation hurriedly left our community too. Leaving our community in deeper poverty than before! Then I remember what my teacher told me about climate change when I was a child. She said, “When they have cut down the last tree, polluted the last river and cooked the last fish, then we will realize that we can’t eat money we collected”. As I give a thought on this, I wept.

I began to ask, what can I do as an individual to salvage my community and save the earth? And I am asking you today, what can you do to help spread the message of climate change? I mean climate change and sanitation.That was my meditation till I find answer. Answer to educate and enlighten my family members, friends, colleagues and community members what climate change is, and what it is not. How to mobilize locales in non violence ways to demand corporations coming into our communities to respect web of life when doing business in our communities and do it in sustainable ways that whenever they leave the community, our environment is intact and save.