DOES anybody feel the heat these days?
We have lived all our lives here in a hot tropical country so when I talk about the heat, I mean an extraordinary amount of it such that we can actually tell the difference.
It is not the humidity-laden heat of Port Moresby or Lae or any other of our coastal towns that we are used to.
It is a dry, energy sapping heat that seems bent on draining you of your sweat glands and seems to follow you into the room and under the shade and seems to linger long after the sun had sunk below the horizon.
It is not just the heat. Things around us are changing. Plants from the warm lowlands are growing luxuriantly in the higher lands, indicating that the conditions which they are used to and can grow well in, have changed from the lowlands to the highlands. Animals, birds and insects which were never traditional to some areas are today swarming there.
Global warming is more than just scientific discourses in some foreign places. It is here and affecting us every second of the day. It is not just changing our physical environment. It is also subtly changing our habits and temperament and shortly it will change the way we relate to each other and do business and it might redefine human destiny.
Never mind the rising water levels of our low lying atolls and islands. The heat will engulf and suffuse us before the water does.
The water we can escape from – by moving to higher ground. The heat we cannot run from because it comes from above. The higher you climb, the nearer you get towards it. Ironic it might be, but the rising water is actually a blessing when you look at it.
It is the increasing heat – the global warming phenomenon – that is contributing to the high water levels. The heat is melting large chunks of ice at the North and South Poles of the Earth which in turn is causing water levels to rise.
Poor Earth is melting the large reservoir of ice it has kept over millenniums to try to cool the heat that is suffusing the planet. The ice reservoir will melt down completely in time if it gets any hotter. And then Earth would just be exposed to the full impact of global warming.
The ocean’s surface currents would shift as the large areas of the North and South Poles which are presently solid, become open oceans. Weather patterns would shift; islands and atolls would disappear; water shortages would occur everywhere as rivers run dry; forest fires would rage throughout the world and massive carbon volumes released by these bush fires would open wide the protective Ozone shield around Earth, increasing Earth’s direct exposure to the deathly rays of the sun.
There would be heat waves; farming systems would collapse and wild life would disappear.
The most fragile ecosystems and most fragile creatures would disappear first. The food chain would collapse. In the end it would be back to the water we turn, if that is where we emerged from in the first place, for our comfort and sustenance.
The heat drives us to use more water and when we do, that increases the pressures on our dwindling water reservoirs. The heat drives us to turn on our artificial cooling systems such as ceiling fans, which uses our water-based electricity system, which also places pressure upon our water reserves.
We use more refrigerators and air conditioning systems, some of which are old and not atmosphere-friendly, so we in turn release fluorocarbon into the atmosphere to open up the protective Ozone shield some more.
Water and clean air – God’s free gift to Planet Earth - would this century, overtake oil and other sources of energy as the most valuable commodities of commerce and industry.
Oil is necessary to sustain our way of life. Water and clean air are prerequisites for life itself.
It is a precursor of what we are going to get more of in the not too distant future.
This generation is staring Armageddon in the face but it will be our children who will bear the full brunt of it.
No one can tell the full extent of the damage already done to the environment by the collective action of men down through the ages and especially in the industrial revolution and in our age. If the actions of men were to change, how long might it be until the full process has been restored?
It might get worse before it gets better or it might not ever. Still, we must take heart that some good things are happening.
Already, the environment is changing the policies of governments, business and commerce around the globe. However similar new Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd might have been to his predecessor John Howard on matters of socio-economic policies, he was head and shoulders above his opponent and very vocal in his views on the environment.
Be sure that the environment would be the focus at the next joint ministerial forum and might enter the aid picture for the first time in a big way.
Our own Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare is spot on in making the environment his big foreign policy concern, most recently with his statement to the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting.
In scenic Bali, next door to PNG, the global conference on the environment has again focused global attention on this issue.
The great regret I have is that none of those responsible for the environment damage would be alive to suffer the consequences. It would be our innocent children and their children to bear the full brunt of the global warming.