Let all men and women know that after we render the earth barren and desolate then we will surely die slowly and painfully. When we pollute all our oceans and when there are no trees to give us rain, then we will indeed be the last generation on this earth never to be seen again. Humanity will be blotted out because of what we have done to nature. There will be no forests and no rain and nothing will swim in our oceans, man and woman having killed them all. No creatures will move through our forests mankind having killed them all. And we will drown in our sins with the last of the ice caps melting. A dead world. That is the penalty of what we have done knowingly. Daily News recently visited the Good Market, where NGgage a company engaged in commercial communications have decided to try and to put a stop to this destruction of our planet. It was the FESTIVAL FOR OUR PLANET hosted by NGage.
NGage Founder and Leader Nimal Gunewardena, started NGgage 26 years ago and has now decided that it is time for someone to communicate about Mother Nature. He has realized that it is time for people to act otherwise we will fade away from this earth, slowly and painfully.
“I am using all my expertise to talk about environmental causes. It is vital that this issue should be addressed. Recently, in 130 countries worldwide, school children got on to the roads and skipping school, addressed their elders, companies, and governments and decision makers, telling them to act before we destroy ourselves and everything else on the planet. Sri Lanka and other countries need to wake up. We need citizen activism and not only leave matters to the government. The youth should take the lead. We can start small and then gather momentum. We need to join hands with governments,” said Gunewardena.
NGage is just one initiative, and there are many throughout the world that strive to make a change. We need to keep our cities clean. We need to protect our forests; we need to protect our oceans. Plastic pollution is in our cities and oceans. Tons of plastic debris are discarded every year polluting our world. Typically, plastic trash takes decades to degrade, giving off toxins.
CEO of Carbon Consulting Company, Sanith De S. Wijeyeratne, in his speech warned us about the very real threat that we are facing and said that the worst is yet to come. Wijeyeratne described the atmosphere that separates us from space, saying that it also serves to protect us from the radiation of the sun.
“Some of the radiation hits the planet, warming it and it bounces back. Some of this actually gets reflected back on to the planet and that is why it warms us. But because of an abundance of Carbon Dioxide and Green House Gases, we find that increasingly more of these gases are being released which means that most of this energy is coming back to earth. And that is what is causing global warming and climate change,” said Wijeyeratne.
We are now going to be in one huge mess with other issues in our world. One other issue is garbage. Garbage is also a huge problem in cities. The pollution runs into rivers and seeps into ground water. Flooding is caused by garbage clogging drains. Atmosphere can be poisoned by the toxic discharge from trash. The decomposition of your trash in the landfill will result in more damaging greenhouse gas emissions, since the breakdown of food waste may produce methane.
“If you take forest fires and methane from cattle, those too are contributing factors. They are very relevant. New Zealand’s National Carbon footprint is high because of the massive dairy herds that they support. CO2 is being released at a higher rate than over the last 66 million years. It is as much energy as 400,000 Hiroshima style atom bombs being exploded in the atmosphere every day. This is what is causing global warming,” explained Wijeyeratne.
He further elaborated by saying that during the 1800’s the planet was cooler. And then somewhere from the 1950’s we see it start getting warmer. During the 1980’s the warmth starts to accelerate.
“The extra heat goes into the ocean, and the North Pole this year was 28 degrees higher than normal. You can see the gradual rise in ocean temperature starting from the 1990’s. As hot air passes over water and water intensifies. Hurricane Harvey was particularly destructive. Another reality is that warmer temperature means the sun sucks up moisture from the earth. So on one side we have drought and then there are floods, wrecking havoc on global food sources and creating all kinds of issues. Air pollution causes premature deaths. Beijing is not a livable city anymore, and the life expectancy of Chinese children have been cut down by five years because of air pollution. Cities like New York and Tokyo are at risk with the severity of ice caps melting. Ice Glaciers melting means Sea Level Rise. It is happening at a faster rate than expected and worldwide sea levels will rise exponentially,” pointed out Wijeyeratne.
Former Miss Sri Lanka, UN Human Rights and SDGs Advocate Eshani Diana Jayapala, stated that Sri Lanka is particularly vulnerable when it comes to Natural Disasters and the climate change is a very real threat that people seem to be turning a blind eye to.
“People all over the world have lost their homes because of flooding. In 2016 I assisted the Red Cross with their work. Sri Lanka too has faced such calamities. This is because of what humans have done to nature. We have destroyed our natural world by cutting down forests, and we have not loved nature which is a gift to us. Even more seriously we have not given a second thought to the next generation who will inherit the earth. We have behaved in a selfish and greedy manner running after profit,” said Jayapala.
She said that it is important to start recycling and using re-usable and alternative bags. She also pointed out that she feels that she has a duty towards her country and so do you! She feels a compulsion to give back to society and that awareness needs to be raised about these issues. The youth need to be interested in climate change.
CEO/Chairman Global Strategic Corporate Sustainability, Ravi Fernando highlighted the danger that we may very soon simply run out of water if we continue De-Forestation. He stated that the major reason for global warming is the burning of fossil fuels. We keep burning Petroleum, Diesel and Coal Power.
“When you keep on burning these, you release CO2. This warms the planet causing global warming. We need to put out this fire of global warming. If we keep on warming the planet nation after nation will drown as sea levels will rise. When we experienced the Tsunami in 2004 we experienced a 20 foot sea level rise. Next time we can surely expect a 140 foot sea level rise,” said Fernando.
He laments that Sri Lanka is going against the global norm by building 10 coal power plants, which will surely accelerate global warming. He lamented that our politicians are clueless. While the whole world is stopping coal power plants like China and Germany, Sri Lanka is trying to open up 10 new Coal Power Plants.
“I appeal to all Sri Lankans to resist this! Use all your strength to resist this! We need to exit fossil fuels – Coal, Diesel and Petrol. We need to move towards electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles and opt for solar battery solutions/ solar power. We need to move towards a green economy,” stated Fernando.
He went onto explain that water is a resource that we cannot live without. If we keep on cutting trees we won’t have water. That is the future we are looking at. Trees are a key element in the Water Cycle. If you don’t have trees releasing Oxygen into the air, it will not link with the hydrogen molecules creating H20 (Water).
“If we keep on De-Foresting we will not have water and we cannot live without water. The World has cut down on 70 percent of its forests and lost 60 percent of its species. Sri Lanka has cut down on 84 percent of its forests and is left with 16 percent. In another 16 years, our children will not know the meaning of the word –Forest. Development can be achieved without De-Forestation. Take Singapore for example. It doubled its population from 3.2 million to nearly 5.6 million people in the last 20 years.
But Singapore increased its forest cover from 37 percent to 60 percent in that same period. Costa Rica, Nepal and Bhutan retained 60 percent of their forest cover,” explained Fernando.
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DISASTER CHART ACCORDING TO WIJEYERATNE (2017 – 2018)
* In 2016 Indian Temperatures reached 51 Celsius (The Indian Government had to distribute drinking water)
* In Pakistan there was a massive heat wave and 1200 people died with the temperature reaching 54 Celsius.
* January 2018 Australia was the hottest place on the planet
* Because of Hurricane Harvey, it dumped 33 trillion gallons, equal to the flow of Niagara Falls for 509 days on the USA in a day (This was in Texas where you do not expect to save people from a flood)
* In 2017 floods devastated Sri Lanka destroying homes, lives and livelihoods
* 1/3 of Bangladesh went under water
* Other affected areas were Sierra Leone, Thailand, Malaysia, Phoenix Arizona, Columbia, China, Japan, Germany, England, Madagascar and Peru
* 1400 people in Mumbai died
* Sri Lanka is currently ranked as the 2nd most at risk country in the world for climate change.
Pictures by Siripala Halwala
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