Save the planet

The most heartening news amid the gloomy projections of global warming at the climate conference in Lima, Peru, is that China has, on its own, decided to do something about it. The year 2014 is on track to be one of the hottest on record even as more evidence of rising seas, crippling droughts and unmanageable floods is quoted to warn the world it must act in concert to reduce the carbon emissions to try and save humanity from an apocalypse.

With an economy still growing rapidly even by today’s standards, China might not wish to pull back on development, but what it is proposing to do with its carbon footprint has to do with the massive air pollution of its cities. It is launching a $8 billion environment protection fund to help reduce pollution from the disastrous levels affecting the health and life expectancy of its people.

There is no chicken or egg analogy here to hide behind because we know the origins of global warming. The industrialised world caused it when it expanded in the last 100 years and scientists are 95 per cent convinced the temperature rise in the 20th century is mostly manmade.

China and India are late entrants. While not blameless in the current scenario, they face the prospect of having to sacrifice growth to help with the global problem of record-breaking heat combining with torrential rainfall and floods to destroy livelihoods and threaten the planet. Science believes the problem is real and the world has to tackle it together. If we cannot shape up, where can we ship out to?