Will our future melt away?... By Umar
11 December, 2012
Are we heading towards committing global suicide? This could become the most critical question for the generations succeeding us. The theory of global warming, once viewed skeptically by a part of the scientific world, seems to have established its ominous credibility. The recent UN sponsored climate summit in Doha and the lofty prose regarding how we urgently need to do something to avoid a disastrous future, are all very timely. But, once again, we will only suffer disappointment because such calls for climate control are becoming too frequent and are losing their shock value — as far as any practical outcome is concerned the summit has failed. The summit was only, as Hamlet would describe ruefully, "words, words, words". Vague promises of unspecified aid without a timetable were the excruciatingly unhelpful outcomes of this recent exercise. However, the UN's efforts to make the occasion ironic by holding the talks in the capital of the world's biggest per capita polluter must be appreciated. It adds a fine tragic touch to the proceedings. Areas as large as continents are melting away, as those who hold the future temperatures of our planet in their hands (temperatures upon which our survival seems to depend) continuously fail to break the ice of political deadlock. We must remember that there is going to be a time in the future when our motives will be weighed and our actions will be scrutinised. What shall we answer when our future generations ask us about what we did when their future was melting away? Will we tell them that we were busy deciding who would pay what for saving their future? MUHAMMAD UMAR TAHIR
Okara
|
