written by Amanda Ramaningrum, Content Writer Intern at Project Child Indonesia
I think we all agree that climate change is getting worse year by year. Extreme weather changes, heatwaves, floods, animal extinctions, and many more have happened this year. Did you feel the air is getting hotter these days? Well, it is actually caused by global warming effects, where now the earth is 1° Celsius warmer than pre-industrial times.
According to Intergenerational Inequities in Exposure to Climate Extremes research, the next generation (The Alpha Gen) will face extreme weather 7 times worse in the future if we don’t take serious action to decrease carbon emissions. Not only extreme weather, but they will also experience heat waves 36 times worse than their ancestor’s generation, the boomer’s.
If this condition continuously happens, is there a future for our child?
Well…
Gladly, nations all around the world have made a commitment to increase earth temperature by signing The Paris Agreement on climate change in 2015, 6 years ago.
The goal of this agreement is to strengthen the global treatment of climate change, by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. 197 countries participated in this agreement, such as big power countries–U.S.A and China, as the largest carbon-emitting countries.
Climate change became the main topic too at the last United Nations General Meeting Assembly (UN GA) that was held last September 2021. China shows great effort in dealing with this crisis, by stating that they would refrain from constructing new coal-fired power plants overseas.
On the other side, a big IT company–Google, also shows their support towards this problem. By October 2021, advertisers, publishers, and YouTube creators can no longer monetize content that denies the existence of climate change.
It’s a relief that they took some action. Then, how about Indonesia?
Sadly, Indonesia still needs a big effort in reducing carbon emissions. Did you know Indonesia is included in the list of the top 10 largest carbon emitters in the world this year? Yes, with 615 tons of CO2, we successfully join the top 10 together with U.S.A and China.
Actually, some actions have been taken by Indonesia’s government, such as officially changing the sales tax for luxury goods, in order to reduce carbon emissions from motor vehicles. But, we need more serious action from the government to face this crisis.
As an ordinary citizen, what can I do to help?
Worry not! As an ordinary citizen, of course there are so many things we can do to save the earth. Remember, small things matter. We can do some tiny acts like bring our own shopping bags when we go shopping for groceries, use public transportation, or if you want to do a bigger thing, you can join some campaign about climate change.
Together, let’s take better action to fight the climate crisis. Wish for a speedy recovery for our lovely earth! We can do good, for a better environment~
References
China headed towards carbon neutrality by 2060; President Xi Jinping. (2021, September 22). UN News. Retrieved October 25, 2021, from https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/09/1100642
Indonesia, C. (2021, October 18). Aturan Baru Sri Mulyani, Pajak Mobil Kini Mengacu Emisi. ekonomi. Retrieved October 29, 2021, from https://www.cnnindonesia.com/ekonomi/20211018133758-532-709187/aturan-baru-sri-mulyani-pajak-mobil-kini-mengacu-emisi
Peters, J. (2021, October 7). Google and YouTube will cut off ad money for climate change deniers. The Verge. Retrieved October 25, 2021, from https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/7/22715102/google-youtube-climate-change-deniers-ads-monetization
Thiery, W., Lange, S., Rogelj, J., Schleussner, C. F., Gudmundsson, L., Seneviratne, S. I., Andrijevic, M., Frieler, K., Emanuel, K., Geiger, T., Bresch, D. N., Zhao, F., Willner, S. N., Büchner, M., Volkholz, J., Bauer, N., Chang, J., Ciais, P., Dury, M., . . . Wada, Y. (2021). Intergenerational inequities in exposure to climate extremes. Science, 374(6564), 158–160. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abi7339
