The world has already entered
unchartered zone of climate that is having detrimental effect on biodiversity
this in turn is putting pressure on resilience of ecosystem eventually food security
and survival of life. Democratic institutions and social cohesive values are
facing severe pressure. Eventually vulnerable population will have to pay a
heavy price while growthism extremist fatten themselves on carcass of arguments.
In disparities driven poor societies desperate people will die in millions while millions more pushed
into worst of living condition, and as expected these will be easily managed and
manipulated into insignificant matter in the mainstream narration. Witness how ‘developed’ country with
high standard of living and awareness like Britain is being dealt by utter
scoundrels as politicians. It is not an accident, these are systemic, and these
very deviant value systems severely damaged fledgling democracies of
post-colonial exploited nations across the world, which in turn infected
international institutions. If this is how critical institutions are framed then how will the world deal with existential
threats? Feudal value systems were actively nurtured into democratic
institutions reducing it to a farce, easily susceptible to nepotism, corruption
and manipulation. From Africa and Asia, the extent to which sun never set,
democratic institutions are being used for control and exploitation. Economists
work out the detail while market media chisel the liberal sounding semantics
for the audience while common people see the world collapse around them. The
wanton colonial hypocrisy of rule of law by racist colonial monarchist christian civilizers became a compelling ideal for local charlatans. Hence democratic
institutions and values of freedom and liberty were curtailed in the
initiations itself. Egalitarian values are sidelined while humanitarian
concerns dealt in posturing. Even amazing possibilities of technology is
reduced to worst of dealing. Humans are actively sought to be dehumanized into
herds for exploitation. Herds happily dull in Huxleyian entertainment while
being told by guardian posers to fear Orwellian incursions. Distraction and
manipulation, and containment, is how history repeats for herds. Charlatans
worked critical debates as juvenile skirmishes of adolescents to keep the
entertainment going. Attention economy is how homo sapiens have collectively
worked to value itself.
There are enough signs that
climate systems are collapsing faster than anticipated. Earth is heating at an
unprecedented rate. As the Indian subcontinent moves towards summer this year
El Nino is expected to make it worst. We are facing serious dangers of heat
waves and forest fires. Though one hopes authorities are prepared but I really
don’t see much action. Market media and herd controllers are excited about
elections. Election Commission of India seems to be least concerned about
plight of people, and expect them to come out to vote during heat wave
conditions. It seems officials at EC are incapacitated to anticipate (like cricket
wastrels surprised at rain in the venue during monsoon!). Understandable when all
your life you were manipulating, conniving, genuflecting, for power and
position. Mediocre society lacking intellectual class or tradition of probity or critical thinking also values these petty bureaucrats as reservoir of
wisdom carefully emulating the template of colonial masters. COP28 cosmetic approach includes
‘cool pledge’, a ‘commitment’ to reduce climate impact of cooling sector and
also universal access to life saving cooling. Meanwhile Heat Action Plan are
only guidelines while NDMA initiated ‘Cool Roof’ seems to be the only action taken with some seriousness, ofcourse it is life saver in congested areas of cities, and will reduce
heat island effect. Kerala has taken initiative to create cooling centers, but
converting makeshift pandals into permanent structures in congested areas will
need air-conditioning. AC/refrigeration already contributes to about 7% of
GHGs, and then there is issue of continuous power generation during peak
demand. What is needed is sustainable strategies. Before electric fans were introduced
people in this region had many traditional methods to keep themselves cool that
includes the way buildings were designed. These could be explored, like for
instance, well ventilated high raised ceilings tend to be cooling. I read that some
churches have shown enthusiasm to be converted into cooling centers, the way
churches are designed provides natural cooling. Meanwhile citizens must
make themselves aware of increasing temperature threshold of the region they
are located in. They must take action to create off grid source of power as also natural ventilation and building design with vast resource of
traditional knowledge and latest technology. Devious power structure will seek
attention and keep you distracted as they amass and satisfy their ever burgeoning
greed. When push comes to shove -as it happened during pandemic, you will be abandoned
in the streets to die. Beware people retrieve your humanity from the herd. Technology
is offering transparency and with collective action much can be worked out.
*In the low-lying regions where
water logging has become frequent people have started to construct adaptive
buildings. This I saw on my walk.
