Out in the bush, far from the ritualized political federation, culture is changing. A red and black Giriraj is being scorched by sun: neither eats or lays efficiently. A black and white patchy Holstein doesn’t lactate potentially. Sahar is suffocating in the warm water of the river. Similarly, women have to walk a long way to fetch water. People who used to wear jackets during the monsoon are now tanning under the sun. The glaciers residing in the high Himalayan regions are melting, pouring itself deep down into the ocean. The fishes of the ocean are tackling with the uninvited guests like plastics and solid. All of these creatures are changing their habit and adapting to the rigorously fluctuating pattern of the climate change.
Impact of climate changes has been accounted from the world’s highest peak to the very depth of the ocean, right from the North Arctic region to South Antarctica. The changes are attributed to the insane activities of the human. Every inch of the progress is catalyzing the change. From the rocket expedition to hiking the motor vehicles and from the molecular conflict to industrial emission, every single activity is contributing to the change. Not only artificial human activities, but the natural activities like rice agriculture, livestock activity, and decomposition of manure contribute to the production of harmful carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and other gases.
Pollution released by farming was directly responsible for the global warming equivalent of 5.8 billion tons of carbon dioxide. International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) estimated that flooded rice contribute 15% to the total greenhouse gas emission. After rice agriculture, methane emission from ruminant livestock represents the biggest man-made methane source and currently estimated to be around 100 million tones of methane each year. A sheep can produce about 30 liters of methane each day and a dairy cow up to about 200 liters. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that livestock production is responsible for 14.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Currently, the world is stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea. Progressive change is the must for this technocratic era and the responsible citizens are toiling from the knees to hit the target. However, the progress comes along the drudgery of pollution leading to climate change. The sophistication drags the filthy pollution with it. We are struggling hard to achieve a resident with the air-conditioned room but on the contrary, are being gifted with the increasing global temperature.
Since the Industrial Revolution, world temperatures have risen by nearly 2°F, causing seas to rise, heat waves to intensify and corals to bleach and die. More than 90% of the global heat goes to the ocean while less than 3% goes into increasing the atmospheric and surface air temperature. El Nino which is an abnormal warming of surface ocean water in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. El Niño that recurs in two years to a decade boosts global temperatures and redistributes weather patterns worldwide in a pretty predictable way. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Columbia University predicted that world will face another El Niño by the end of 2019, which could lead to a cascade of dangerous weather around the globe in 2019. It is an inevitable yet troubling situation for the globe which has not still recovered from 2016 El Niño. The United Nations estimates the 2016 El Niño directly affected nearly 100 million people worldwide, causing permanent damage to the world’s coral reefs, a surge in carbon dioxide emissions from a global outbreak of forest fires, and the warmest year in recorded history. The normal temperature and monsoon that we are facing today is the consequence of the La Niño, which is exactly opposite of the El Niño.
Though the issue of climate change has been coined these days in a hyperbolic way, the improvements for it are going in a nagging way. We need to change the lifestyle and should contribute to mitigating the changes. Planting trees are the best way to mitigate the effects of climate change as it provides a sink for the noxious gases. Similarly, cutting off the pollution from individual level is the only alternative for a greener and safer future. Use of solar equipment, practicing dry seeded farming for rice and altering the feed composition of livestock, giving them biological or chemical inhibitor for inhibiting the methane production can be practiced to cut off the emission of harmful gases to the atmosphere.
Arati Joshi is an undergraduate student at Agriculture and Forestry University, Rampur, Chitwan, Nepal. She is an active feminist and climate change supporter. She has also penned many articles on hunger and food security. Her article on these topic has been published in national daily newspapers and international online magazines. She is also an associate member of Ascendens Asia International Young Researchers Club. Currently, she is also working as Ambassador for Women in Agriculture at International Association of Agricultural and Related Sciences.
