Ignorance could often be considered
a significant factor of influence in the wise of the low-level perception of climate change
among the common people of the developing world, but a more obvious pointer is
their decried poverty state which has negatively influenced their take on the
climate issue.
The fact is that their common orientation towards devising a
more or less daily surviving strategy way outweighs their relative concern for
the inevitable change which in most cases they tend to term as not relevant
considering their relative state of living. In a lot of respect, the premise is
not that they do not feel or perceive the dangerous changes, in fact, these set
of people, who make up the larger proportion of the developing countries’
population have come to recognize the fact that there are changes already well
obvious around their respective environment and which in a way have been
impacting their respective livelihood support systems.
The recent report released by the
IPCC calls for a timely intervention as climate change has started affecting
food security and a worst-case scenario has been predicted as an inevitable
future occurrence if nothing is done. Now the perception is a call for global
interventions, which would include individual responsibilities as a precursor
to a complimentary alliance of stand.
As important as this preceding
premise may sound, it has not yet resulted into a significant move of change by
the average citizens of the developing world most especially the people of
sub-Saharan Africa where the average living standard is categorically low on
the global scale. Additionally, it is a common fact that the regions are well
susceptible to political insurgencies, civil/social unrest and poor
governmental system.
All of these factors have been sort of prevailing problems
which have greatly subjected this category of population to untold hardship and
pains and in a lot of way have influenced their adopted attitude to their
environment as issues they term as secondary.
In my field experience as a climate
change activist and a social change maker in a developing country, I have often
noticed a biased sort of mindset and attitude among my audience in the regards
of their respective take on climate change issue. Most times the responses have
been a little disturbing as they all tend to be on the indifference side.
On a
point of inference, they tend to accept the notion of the changes around them
as a phenomenon that goes beyond their human reasoning and could be attributed
to as acts of God in probably punishing the humans race for their sinful nature
and in another wise they tend to accept the changes as normal and as one of
those proposition of the west.
Of course a general inference can be
deduced from these responses; ignorance and a common base of poverty, which
only allows for a one way thinking of making ends-meet first before any other
issue.
However this biased notion and perception is not limited to the ignorant
or the illiterates but also the educated and literate lots. Often they claim to
have heard or come across issues concerning climate change but often I tend to
obtain a general conclusion of ‘it’s the responsibility of the government to
intervene’.
This obviously leaves out the option of personal or individual
commitment. The youths are not left out as their attitudes records a more
disturbing response of indifference, the general notion has been to make a
living first and strive to live out of the reach of poverty. So in most cases,
the much expectations of optimism from the youths is often quite discouraging
and in the end, just a few youths are found taking a stand and making the move
for the desired changes.
The average socio-economic situation
in most developing countries has rather made it difficult for the general
acceptance of a common and individual stand to combat climate change and its
impacts. In a way they tend to bear more pains under the impact of climate change,
although their respective population contribute less to the global green house
gas emission, their quota of responsibility is however low compared to the
impeding danger.
Of course, there could be a level of supposedly injustice as
they have contributed less to global warming and yet they suffer the most, but
a notion worthy of taking cognizance of is for the fact that the impact of
climate change is going to be felt by everybody on this planet and no
population would be left unaffected as the threat becomes more real. So the
time calls for a unanimous move and intervention by the lots around the globe,
despite the differences and prevailing problems, we have a much bigger problem
that will claim the future we are trying hard to live in.
To make a lot of difference the
governments have a major responsibility, a feasible level of commitment that
will reflect in the well being of the society to maintain a standard of living
that would help fast track a significant attainment of mindset with the rest of
the world in ensuring a global stand against climate change.
As the world prepares for yet
another climate treaty come 2015, a serious outlook towards making a concrete
and legal binding agreement is very necessary now, the issue of non-compliance
and stand-alone should be matters of exclusion and a well charted way forward
is greatly expected to help save our future.
Even though the developing world
may not have the capacity and the technologies to adapt in this era of climate
change, yet there are lots of alternative means that could easily be adopted to
ensure a meaningful level of commitment toward a global stand. Also the
developed world should fast track the delivery of their respective commitments
and leave up to the global expectation of doing rather than stalking.
The world is done with waiting and
procrastination, a bit of tarrying could only mean one thing ‘Disaster’
Bamidele F.Oni is the Executive Director of
Green Impact International.
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