A new ethics for a sustainable planet (Climate change is transnational, not national)

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 A new ethics for a sustainable planet (Climate change is transnational, not national)

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Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

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• The lesson from Brazil : The intentional fires set in the forests of Amazon basin in Brazil are a reminder of the global nature of the climate catastrophe, though it may look like a local phenomenon.
• Internal v/s External : How tenable is President Bolsonaro's assertion that these fires are Brazil's internal matter? The whole world is terrified! President Trump has pulled the US out of the 2015 Paris Climate deal, effective 2020. UK is playing a double game, meanwhile.
• European heat waves : Nations of Europe are facing never-before heatwaves. Greenland glaciers are melting as never before. So three things happening - (1) Brazil's disaster, (2) US withdrawal, (3) UK's double game.
• What brought the GHGs : The increased concentration of GHGs is due to (a) energy, (b) transport, (c) changes in land use patterns, etc. Deforestation, industrial agriculture (large scale monocropping) and desertification too are harming.
• IPCC special report on Climate Change and Land : It mentioned how sustainable land use is the only way humanity can survive climate change. Since land is integral to human life - food, water, livelihoods, biodiversity - land use affects everything else.
• Depleted soils : Decades of poor land management has led to degraded soils all over - excess chemicals, low number of friendly insects, monoculture all have reduced the quantum of useful local crops. Water management issues are separate.
• Changes needed : First, reduce the use of chemicals. Then, go closer to agroecology-based methods of farming. Avoid turning grassland to farmland. Increase soil carbon and reduce salination.
• Food management : We need to cut down the 25% of wastage, in overall food produced. Lower meat consumption will help in a big way. 
• How to do all this :

1. Improve market access for small farmers
2. Empower women farmers
3. Expand agri extension services
4. Strengthen land tenure systems
5. Reduce the multiple stresses on land and cropping

• Nationalism harms : In combating land management and climate change, national lens is a bad idea. A planetary plan is needed for a sustainable Earth. Many movements have tried it - "Fridays for Future", "The Transition Network", "La Via Campesina" etc. Humans have to see that we are just a part of the planet, not its master.
• Summary : A planetary perspective and ethic is now needed, instead of a nationalism-based one, to evolve truly sustainable land use and climate action policies.

Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

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