Every drop counts

By Renton de Alwis

Written in October 2010, it was to inform my readers of the 10-10-10 Global Climate Change Awareness initiative undertaken by 350.Org, on social media. We also participated from the village of Kiula, where villagers affected by the Tsunami of 2004, came together to renew their commitment to protect the environment. So did several others in Sri Lanka. This is a reminder that there is so much individuals can do using the huge potential and power of social media today, to bring issues to focus, calling for action.  

 
I recall my fourth grade teacher telling us “the ocean is made of lots of tiny drops of water. It is when those drops come together we call it, the mighty ocean”. He was referring to small deeds. He impressed upon us that each of our contribution, even though we were tots then, mattered. I always remembered this vividly, held on to it tight and tried my best to focus on many of the small things one can do.

Mega-mania

Later in life, I also learned that it was the mega-mania that we embraced in our recent human history that has brought us many of the ill-effects, we witness today. Terms such as ‘Small is beautiful’, ‘Need before greed’, ‘Power of the many’, ‘miniaturization’, ‘nano-technology’, ‘the Titanic effect’ etc. become extremely significant and meaningful in this context while those such as ‘Greed is good’, ‘Having a choice from among many’, ‘Over indulgence’, ‘Over consumption’, ‘Big is better’ etc only brought in a questioning of that dominant system of beliefs.    

350. org

This weekend all over the world such ‘little drops of action’ are taking place to mitigate some of our follies of the past. On Sunday, the 10^th October 2010, in 181 countries, tens of millions of ordinary citizens of the world are participating in over 5,900 events, to do what little they can to mitigate climate change. Called the 10-10-10 movement, it comes under the banner of 350.org, tcktcktck.org and age- of-stupid.org and many other like-minded organizations on the virtual and real domains bonding together each doing their little bit.

Some plan to plant trees, care for mangroves, hold workshops and discussions to spread the word around, make policies at work places on reducing energy consumption, taking on new efforts at recycling, while others are exercising pressure on leaders to take more meaningful and assertive action.

The President of the Maldives, head of a most vulnerable nation of sea level rise and other negative impacts of global warming, is himself installing a solar paneled roof at the President’s House in Male.

Numeric that matter

In this effort 350 and 10 are significant numerical indexes. Up until 200 years ago the carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the earth’s atmosphere were at a healthy ratio of 275 parts of CO2 molecules per million (ppm). With the industrial revolution, use of coal, gas and oil to produce goods, emergence of consumerism and over-indulgence, the CO2 levels began to increase steadily and within the past two decades have shot up to intolerable levels for Mother Earth of 390 ppm. 350 ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere is presented by climate scientists as a threshold level of tolerance where our planet can have hope of rejuvenation and prevent further catastrophe. They also hold that a 10% reduction in the CO2 levels within a year to be a pragmatic target for mitigation action.

Growing disasters

The phenomena we know today as climate change and global warming began with the our world witnessing unprecedented melting of ice-burgs and glaciers in the Polar regions and at mountain peaks, increased incidence of natural disasters such as floods, raging forest fires, typhoons, desertification, earth-quakes and tsunamis taking place. The incidence of Malaria and Dengue is increasing with mosquitoes having new habitats, within a warming world. Food and water shortages are evident and once futile lands are turning into deserts in some parts of the world.

Even climate skeptics, who kept on claiming that this is a normal cycle of the earth’s warming, have now begun to wonder if this is indeed one of a cycle or a phenomenon beyond, what history had ever witnessed.

Lobbies against

The conventional energy lobbies of fossil fuel, coal and gas interests have been working overtime to ensure that governments postpone policies that discourage the use of these. Probes on climate scientists and questioning the validity of their claims is part of the delaying tactics they have adopted. Huge amounts of funds are used to create lobbies against the rapid adoption climate friendly policies.

The good news though, is that they themselves are now working on innovating alternative energy sources and modes to replace what they are doing now. There are some among them especially in Japan, who since the Kyoto protocol earlier this decade have taken the challenge head-on and through technological innovation taken meaningful action to meet the reduction targets set for them.

Citizen’s action

This all goes to show that what’s needed is the will and a push from citizens to show our policy makers and conventional energy cartels that they need to act and act fast. The objective of the 350 and the 10:10 movement is to create an alliance of grassroots climate organizers from all over the world with a call for little drops of action from all. The idea is to spread the word of the need to preserve the good health of the only planet we have to live in, through practical, visual and meaningful actions.

This weekend schools, universities, temples, churches, community organizations, teachers, students, other ordinary citizens will all come together to do their bit with the help of their constituencies to demonstrate the power of grassroots action on mitigation of global warming.   

Work Parties

The creators of the movement in a communiqué said “To build a movement, we need more than good ideas- we need to be able to gather our friends, neighbours, family, coworkers. What we do must be fun, but be meaningful… this is why we have decided to organize Work Parties of small communities on 10-10-10 in every corner of the world”.

I once again recall the lesson I learnt in school. It is the tiny drops of water that go to make the mighty ocean. Little bits of action of many, from all over the world will come together this Sunday, to make a mighty collective effort in overcoming the challenge of global warming. You only need to resolve to join in a Climate Work Party near you by visiting www.350.org and be part of that solution.

10-10-10 event, Kiula
Pix credit: Nalaka Lankadhikari