Climate change and Activism

Hey readers! Climate activism and racial injustice are 2 of the mainstream topics of 2020-2021. Most of you already know a lot about it, probably more than the content in my blog. But they say learning is good right. So, here is a daily dose of knowledge. Hope you enjoy it. 😉

CLIMATE CHANGE

Significant long-term changes in the climate are called climate change. The global climate is the connected system of sun, earth and oceans, wind, rain and snow, forests, deserts and everything people do. Global climate includes; for example, the rising temperature of the Pacific feeds typhoons which blow harder, drop more rain and cause more damage, but also shifts global ocean currents that melt Antarctica ice which slowly makes sea level rise.

GLOBAL WARMING

Global warming is the slow increase in the temperature of the earth’s atmosphere caused due to the high amount of energy from the sun being trapped in the atmosphere of the earth and not being reflected back into the outer space.

The earth’s atmosphere has been acting like a shield against the harmful UV rays that are projected by the sun and therefore maintaining the balance in temperature on our planet.

Causes and effects of Climate change/Global warming.

Due to high carbon emissions from factories, vehicles, deforestation on a large scale, intensive farming, mining, overpopulation, massive use of fossil fuels, etc. are among the major causes of global warming and rise in the levels of greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, etc. in the earth’s atmosphere has resulted in rise in temperature on the planet. The latter has caused the death of thousand and millions of animals and human beings, loss of habitats, extinction of numerous species, change in the climatic conditions around the world, untimed natural calamities, etc. Now, we don’t have an instant solution to stop the rising water levels neither we will soon and that’s why climate activism has become one of the globally dominant topics in the recent months

Climate Activism

The climate movement or climate activism is a movement done on a large scale by non-governmental organizations engaged in activism related to issues of climate change. It rapidly evolved in the first decades of the 21^st century and took the mainstream in 2020 after many tears of going unnoticed.

One of the largest single environmental events occurred on 21^st September 2014 when 400,000 activists in New York during the People’s Climate March came together to demand climate action from the global leaders gathered for the 2014 UN Climate Summit.

Various other communities like NGOs that addressed issues on climate change, school going students, started to raise awareness regarding this topic and the publicity increased when a Swedish pupil Greta Thunberg in August 2018 protested in front of the Swedish parliament with a sign in her hand that read “school strike for climate” in Swedish. Later in 2019, 2-3 global strikes were held that gathered over millions of strikers in the events that took place in more than 125 countries. The one that caught the most attention was September 2019 global strikes that were held between 20-27 September. This week is also known as the ‘Global week of future’ where a series of international strikes were conducted addressing the issue of climate change where nearly 7 million people participated in strikes that were held in more than 4,500 locations. These protests were likely the largest climate strikes in the history.

Links to check out

The climate movement gained momentum after the school strikes. New protesters from around the globe started participating and initiating protests. But due to COVID-19, majority of the activism is taking place online through various websites and social media platforms. For more information, donations, petitions and updates check out the links below:

“We are living on the planet as we have another one to go.”

Terry Swearingen

RACIAL INJUSTICE

What is Racism?

Diversity is beautiful isn’t it? Isn’t it fascinating how people of different skin color exist?; Dark, light, tanned, fair, etc. all together on one planet? So where’s the problem? The problem starts or we can say started when one race began to dominate on the other ones (White supremacy). Racism started in the late 20^th century entirely without any scientific explanation. Racism can take the form of social activities, practices, beliefs, political systems (like Apartheid) that rank different races as superior or inferior to each other.

Apartheid

Apartheid which means apartness in the language of Afrikaans was a policy that governed the relations between the white minority and non-white majority of South Africa in the late 20th century. During this system the non-whites especially blacks were discriminated brutally to the extent that they were prohibited to enter public areas such as beaches, bus-stops, markets, railway stations, etc.

Apartheid came to an end through a series of negotiations, strikes, protests that resulted in South Africa’s first Non-Racial election, which was one by the African national congress. One of the most popular persons among the many anti-apartheid was Nelson Mandela who was also elected as president of South Africa during the first multiracial elections and is also considered as a symbol of peace and an icon of resistance and perseverance.

Modern Racism

Modern racism does not operate with the concepts of “race” but with the concepts of ‘clash of civilizations’, ‘protection of indigenous cultures’, etc. Modern racism considers cultural diversity the biggest threat. The concept of race has been replaced by the concept of culture. Modern racism works through limiting the influence of the minority culture on the culture of the specific majority through violent acts. Therefore, the classic racist openly says that he doesn’t like the representatives of a certain race; but the racist of the twenty first century says, for example, that he doesn’t like mosques because they spoil the look of European cities

Anti-Racism

Anti-racism is a form of action against racial hatred, traditional and modern racism and oppression of minority culture. Anti-racism operates on continuous efforts and deliberate actions such as protests, strikes, marches, community/public speaking etc. to provide equal opportunities and rights for everyone, especially to the groups or communities that are racially discriminated. When people are subjected to racism, it can cause permanent/temporary harm to their mental and physical health which can lead to many negative consequences in their working environment, learning environment and to their overall sense of self worth.

Links to check out

Black Lives Matter movement

This movement is a historic anti-racist movement that gripped America in 2020. The Black Lives Matter movement spread across the country when protests began in the US after George Floyd – an African American was choked to death by a police officer. Protests erupted in other nations like Liberia and Nigeria, France, Australia, United Kingdom and Switzerland. This movement led to many major outcomes such as:

Wide-range conversations about racism in institutions, organizations and industries.
Announcement from The Grammy’s stating that they would no longer use the word ‘urban’ to describe music of Black origin.
Launch of ‘diversity commission’ in London mayor that would investigate which statues should be retained, which ones with ties to slavery should be removed.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.”

Martin Luther King