Climate change is real and it is pretty clearly visible, with the rising temperatures in subsequent summers and unprecedented pollution in the open streets, there’s no way to deny it.
While the science and technology is marching us towards the life of advancements and comforts, somewhere somehow we’re losing the grip over our mother earth. With unending progress in the facilities and opportunities, we’re abandoning the wellness of planet Earth. The resources on our planet are now endangered.
Scientists also said that people are literally testing the limits of the Earth and its resources, and to achieve a good life for everyone on the planet, they will have to share things like food, water, and energy in a more equal and sustainable way.
With over 1,000 researchers gathering in Stockholm this week, workouts to halt deforestation, protect coral reefs, avoid the collapse of fish stocks, make food healthier, and build cities that can cope with climate change are discussed. This meet is named as “The Resilience 2017 conference” which aims to chart a path through today’s turbulent times, where “resilience” means becoming more adept at living with pressures like a financial crisis or a flood and using that ability to transform societies and economies for the better.
Talking about the same, Johan Rockström, director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC), one of the organisations hosting the conference said, “If we are serious about our human well-being – from local communities to the global world economy – we need to now reconnect our entire world to the planet.”
As of now, there are signs that this is starting to happen among different groups, from policy makers to businesses, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview. For example, the global seafood industry has been forced to think about how to look after the oceans and sea life, as about 70 percent of the world’s fish stocks are on the verge of collapse, Rockstrom noted.
Meanwhile, the Sustainable Development Goals agreed by U.N. member states in 2015 as a route to end poverty and hunger, among other key challenges, signalled the “first roadmap” towards a more responsible approach to stewarding the planet, he added.
Rockström described Trump as “the voice of a dinosaur”. Under the Republican’s leadership, the U.S. administration is saying “we’re only concerned about our own short-term success, and … we’re not taking planetary, ethical responsibility for everyone’s right to have good lives”, the scientist mentioned.
Coming to the contexts of Energy and Food, Rockström said. “If we don’t succeed on the climate change agenda, we risk getting feedbacks that undermine everything else.”
Later, SRC’s science director, Carl Folke, said resilience work must focus on grappling with complexity and change in uncertain times when the world could tip rapidly in either a positive or a negative direction. “We can’t just incrementally adjust, we have to transform to be in tune with the Earth, it’s really a recognition that if we don’t start to collaborate with the planet we are living on, it will be really difficult, he added.
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