Climate Change and Policy Dissonance

I'm not too good at watching and keeping up with series. It's not like I have an aversion towards it but, I don't know, it's just the way it is. But, I've just started watching the new miniseries, Chernobyl, well, because of my affinity for world historical events and just the horror associated with this one in particular. And holy shit! I have to tell you, I'm just two episodes down and it's intense as hell. I mean, obviously I can't even ever  come remotely close to apprehending what it was like on the night of April 26, 1986 and the years that followed. But it is bone chilling and ghastly, the sheer horror attached to the experiences of the victims that fell prey to mankind's probably biggest disaster ever is maniacal and unfathomable. Just trying to picture what was it like sends cold chills down my spine.

Also, it does annoy me the dissonance that has always been there between politics and science. As the series show, the erstwhile Soviet Union tries its best to hide the disaster from the world by not paying a heed to the scientific facts and the reality that fell upon on them, only for the sole purpose of keeping the Soviet integrity intact and thus forwarding their political agenda. Look, at what this obsfucation by the Soviet lies did to the people there. It made Chernobyl even worse and a larger human catastrophe. Cancer explosion, radiation contamination, mutated new born offsprings which to this day crop up since the disaster. Had the Soviet taken the hard pill and paid heed to the truth told by their nuclear scientists, the disaster's consequences could have been controlled, at least to the slightest of effects.

And this is what I always keep telling, this dissonance between science and policy still exists. Similarly with climate change, tell me how many governments and parties prioritise climate mitigation and adaptation policies into their manifestos. How many candidates ensure you clean air when they blabber about their "promises" on their rallies with utmost fervour. We've seen perfect examples of statesmen unaware of the science behind climate change and still going forward with their nonsensical climate change denials and stupid policies. The orange buffoon both in the States and in India make ludicrous claims about climate change, the science backing it. And seriously, this just denies and slows down climate action. We have less than 20 years to limit global temperature rise well below 2°C than 1990 levels. And thirty more years till 2050 to achieve net zero emissions all across the world, according to the historic Paris Agreement of 2015. And honestly telling you, we're no way closer to achieving that in the nearest of the near future. Sea level rise, incessant droughts, radical change in weather patterns, crop yield, health issues, just about everything underneath the sky is poised to affect us if we don't take radical climate action. And to add salt to our wounds, we have leaders who put eco sensitive zones and vast amount of land up for sale for the corporate overlords. This kills the entire ecosystem, it's indigenous people who are always the ones that are subjugated and so are their livelihoods. You probably have a clear idea of what I'm talking about at this point. Pretty relevant times.

The re-elected Modi government should mainstream climate science into their policy and prioritise this issue over everything else. When you're a third world country and more than half of your population is under poverty, your entire country is agrarian in nature and dependant on it, that's when you know you're more vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. That is why read about climate change, the science, the policies and start a discourse about it with your friends and families, get the word around. We need people who are at least aware, that's the first step towards change. We're looking down the barrel of the gun and if we don't act NOW we are doomed. Yes, you!