Today i am inclined to write about something that has been bothering me, it has pricked me like a piece of needle stuck into my skin for a very long time. It is the subject that has caused a lot of alarm, worry and grief about the changing world. Climate Change! The conversation around it has seen lots of people both youth at national levels to regional and multinational corporations seeking for actions to mitigate the impacts of climate change. However, is what they are seeking for genuine?
The earth has undergone approximately five ice ages in its history , yes it has! All these events were natural and part of earth’s natural climate cycle, they weren’t caused by “polluting” factories because they never existed billions of years ago. It’s also very important to understand that weather is different from climate climate, it is the atmospheric condition of a place recorded over a short period of time while climate change is the average weather condition of a place recorded for over a long period of time.
I was born at a time where capitalism had taken its roots deeply in Uganda, every aspect of the environment was only viewed in terms of profit. This made our environment unhealthy, so did our people too became sick and undernourished. In the same event i also saw a generation thirsty for alternatives, better policies, technologies to counter this changing world. Fortunately, i was among those who took it upon them on social medias and several other platforms to share tangible actions aimed towards mitigating the impacts of climate change.
Since 1979 when the first climate change conference was held in Geneva, we have witnessed multiple conferences in several countries with leaders and multinational organizations signing agreements and pacts to address this bottleneck over the years. Why isn’t the problem solved?
Climate change has become a capitalist enterprise, a crisis for money. I will give examples based on Uganda, my country. I know of an N.G.O whose founder isn’t an environmentalist but saw an opportunity in the climate change crisis to make money. Yes, he and others of his kind have applied and won grants to support in the climate change campaign but have no tangible impacts on ground. No one audits them! I have also seen a bunch of young social media activists trapped in the fracas too. Several environmental agencies have also contributed to this challenge by recruiting non-technical personnel’s (environmental experts), it is about who knows you instead of your skill set and depth of knowledge.
Recently, F.A.O an affiliate of the United Nation skilled an organized group of farmers from Maracha, North Western Uganda in the making of “energy” saving stoves. Will this reduce on the reliance on charcoal? No! Regardless of how much quantities of coal it will use or not it won’t at any time. Commercial agro-forestry has also led to rampant logging and the emergence of “exotic” varieties of trees instead of the indigenous varieties, a shift that is advocated for by “experts”. So who is to be blamed?
Unless we trade-off carefully, we shall never solve the climate change crisis rather create more fear among the unprepared masses. Here! Main stream media is good at it. Keeping our planet clean and healthy is everyone’s responsibility, we need to work towards improving mother earth and harnessing it’s capacity to replenish instead of destroying it.
On the other note, i am not a climate change denier. I do however believe that it is not the only threat the world is facing currently, we need to address issues around poverty, drought, famine, wars/insecurities, diseases among others.
Ismail Hassan 
This is some nice writeup brother.
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