‘What the world needs urgently is dispassionate research programmes that are free of any agendas and do not favour one theory over another.'


On June 5, which is World Environment Day, we will once again drown in the cacophony of the dark forebodings of environmental experts as they reel out the latest statistics to support their arguments about global warming—the single biggest environmental issue confronting the world—as most of them would have us believe.

And the world’s media will merrily play along with features and pictures of melting glaciers, icebergs and rising temperatures all across the world. Analysts will prognosticate saying what disasters are in store for us in 10, 20, 50 and 100 years from now.

Islands will sink without a trace, thousands of species of animals and plants will be driven to extinction, and we will sweat ourselves to disease and death, many experts will tell us.

Yet, be assured, no views to the contrary will come our way, faced as we are with this much-touted fait accompli, as global warning votaries desperately want the world to believe.

No one will tell us that soon after the Kyoto Protocol kicked into effect early this year, India’s northernmost state of Kashmir received the highest snowfall in 30 years, killing over a hundred people. 

No one will tell us that some of the western parts of India recorded the lowest temperatures in 40 years.

And no one will tell us that six glaciers in Argentina’s Andes Mountains have shown little movement with one of them actually having expanded over a nearby lake—but they will tell us how much one glacier in the group—Upsala made world famous by institutional environmentalists like Greenpeace—has receded.

How many of us have been told that another glacier from the same group that spills into neighbouring Chile has expanded by as much as 60 percent?

These recorded but poorly publicised events fly in the face of the global warming theory and point to the fact that these may actually be the result of intensely local, micro-conditions that cry out for detailed studies and analyses. This is now gaining ground among a growing number of ecologists. In the months to come, this will be the new ‘inconvenient truth’ the proponents of the global warming theory will have to face.

The global warming theory and the concomitant media blitz that continues unabated—most of which a little more than statistics-laced fear mongering—has helped to establish a multi-billion dollar global industry involving thousands of professionals from a range of disciplines. This powerful, well-funded lobby is now increasingly intolerant of any evidence that points to causes of climate change other than their pet theory.

In fact the global warming lobby has grown to be so powerful (aided by the media) that nearly every new environmental anomaly that comes to light in the course of research is attributed to it. Indeed one could be forgiven for believing that all ecological ills in the world today are because of global warming—that is the extent of the hold of its proponents on the media.

To say this is not to deny the scientifically assayable effects of industrial activities—such as carbon emission—on the environment. Climate change is today an undeniable fact of life. It is measurable along several parameters—and we in the islands region, especially from the atolls, know for certain how the oceans have been encroaching on discernibly receding coastlines with each passing year.

But by attributing it all to one single factor—global warming fuelled mainly by industrial activities—we may be shutting out other potential causes like improperly understood local factors that may probably better explain phenomena like the Andean Glaciers which show such divergent behaviour, something that cannot be adequately explained by the global warming theory.

Besides, a theory like global warming tends to put the blame on intangible, faceless factors like far-removed metropolitan and rapidly developing countries and their ever growing, increasingly polluting industrial activities. It tends to undermine the important role of the local populations and their efforts and actions in preserving their own immediate ecological domains.

What the world needs urgently is dispassionate research programmes that are free of any agendas and do not favour one theory over another. More importantly, expertise, research and funding must be channelled to local communities that are affected by their own set of ecological problems that may or may not be related to global warming.

For instance, from the point of view of the Pacific islands region, it is of paramount importance that coral reefs are saved from damage especially from human activity. The reefs, besides being a teeming repository of colourful littoral life that add valuable dollars to the tourism industry, provide a natural barrier against storm surges, and even sea level rise.

Increasing pollution on our shores has put a strain on the humble mangroves that are indeed the very lungs of islands and coastal environments. Growing volumes of untreated effluent, discarded non-biodegradable packaging and, of course, the ubiquitous plastic bags are all threatening to choke mangrove swamps notably around tourist locations. There need to be programmes that educate and promote not just the planting of mangroves but their care and maintenance.

It is heartening to note that the Apia-based Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) is promoting exactly that for this year’s World Environment Day. Such initiatives are tangible in that they are very observable being local, and can be managed with comparatively fewer resources by involving affected communities.

Local, bottom up initiatives towards ecological issues are a step in the right direction and must be encouraged at all levels. For it is only meaningful local action repeated across communities that can meaningfully contribute to make a difference to the ecology of the entire region and beyond.

While keeping a watchful eye on global warming and its much-touted effects, it is our communities’ local action on helping preserve reefs and mangroves that will bring about immediate and tangible benefits to them.

While ‘think global act local’ is a mantra as valid today as ever, regional organisations like SPREP must proactively encourage local action. The ‘think global’ part may be left to armchair ecologists.