Knowledge of the climate crisis

Climate crisis is a serious disturbance to the earth’s climate caused by human activities—such as greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels.

Letter to 2050

 Dear Son,

It is 2050 when you are reading this letter. I hope you can avert climate disaster and achieve a truly regenerative, resilient climate.

 

I just want to remind you that this climate didn’t happen automatically. Many people and organizations have worked hard to achieve it. You can proudly say that your mom also contributed to achieving a better climate for you and for the rest of mankind.

 

After graduating from college, I joined an organization fighting the climate crisis. With that organization, I pushed the government and power to take good care of fresh water. I also ensured that companies responsible for polluting water stopped their activities.

 

Now, I also ask you to be aware if you find any power or organization polluting natural resources, be organized and speak up. Every step matters.

 

I wish you all the best.

Shahana Shafiuddin

The Climate Crisis

 Brym believes that the explanation of natural disasters is a myth. Discuss how human activities led to or worsened the environmental disaster(s) in the reading.

 

Brym explained that a robust and elite group made all the plans and decisions of people for centuries for New Orland and the poor black community who lived there. These powerful groups of people left the black community at high risk of death during the hurricane. For centuries, these powerful groups of people didn’t let charge the American Government for not taking responsibility and ensuring every citizen’s welfare responsibility. Because of this attitude, the Government didn’t take the relatively less expensive actions to save New Orlando, which other countries generally do and get good results. Some of these general actions could save and significantly reduce the number of deaths related to the hurricane. So, the writer believes that natural disasters are not myths, nor should we blame one person.

We can call this Environmental Racism.  Here, poor decisions had been made for the Black People during Hurricane Katrina.

 

How human activity minimized or prevented the impact of natural disasters in another context, i.e. Cuba.

 

Though the Cuban plan of action to take precautions for a natural disaster like a hurricane is relatively poor, it is somewhat effective, too. Let’s discuss them; first, they started educating people about the precautions against hurricanes in schools, colleges, and universities. So, the young generation started learning from an early age how to cope with hurricanes, like how to interpret the news broadcasts on storms, how to update themselves with the continuous broadcasts and how to measure its strength.

 

Next, Cuba arranges two days of yearly hurricane training sessions every May. In this training, they educate people on risk minimization, do some exercises that help evacuation and rescue events, measure future problems and encounters like trimming trees, check any weak points in a dam, and finally review and update all emergency plans.

 

Third, they organized a civil defence network to coordinate evacuation and rescue events at the neighbourhood level. One of the sister organizations of the Civil Defence Network is the Federation of Cuban Women. This sister organization goes door to door to ensure that the families have filled their bathtubs with water, taped windows, kept cars in the garage, unplugged electrical appliances and arranged adequate supply of batteries, radios, candles, matches, drinking water and food. The Federation of Cuban Women also creates lists of vulnerable people so that they can help during the evacuation.

 

Fourth, during the evacuation, the neighbourhood doctor also evacuated with the general people so that the doctor could help if needed. People take their valuable items with them during evacuation.

Fifth, the evacuation route or transportation and temporary housing facilities are set up in advance. Buses, trucks, ambulances, vans, helicopters, and even horsecarts are used to evacuate people.

 

Sixth, stores also prepare emergency food, water, and medicine in advance.

 

Seventh, the regular water supply was turned off to avoid spreading diseases.

 

We can call this Environmental Sociology. This means people understand environmental issues and take necessary steps through social structures.

 

COVID-19 has not only "lifted the veil" on injustice but has also revealed what is possible as we envision a new normal for a post-pandemic future. Discuss at least one way in which communities (local, national or global) can prepare for or prevent the devastating impacts of climate disaster.

 

From the Covid-19 pandemic, we understood that we couldn’t stay protected if we only thought about our protection. We must think about the world human community. If we can solve a problem everywhere (Like Covid-19), then only we can be safe from that problem.

The immediate solution to any climate disaster would be to be aware of the crisis. And to generate this awareness, we must educate people about it. Otherwise, neither the general people nor the government (Or elite group of people) will understand the importance of the climate crisis. As the Cuban government acted, we needed to educate from the beginning. That means we must educate young people in school and adults in the corporate world.