Climate Change - Do We Need To Say Our Prayers?

I read this article on Climate Change in Africa and how the people there believe that the power of God is responsible for the healing of the climate disasters. As one female pastoralist from Kenya states, "How can man change the climate and make it stop raining: it is God's will that has brought the drought". Here is where the line is drawn. Faith in God for things together is one thing, but not knowing what has happened to us and having false faith that things will get better? Thats False.

What I mean to say is, we, as humans, still cannot admit our faults and change our mentality to solve problems. Psychologically, we are just used to blaming. I think if we relate to animals, we are better off understanding, because we are a kind of species. If we take a look at animals, who don't know what is going on around them and are unable to evolve, we can see that even in groups there are conflicts. Groups = Social Circle (in human terms, lets say). We evolved in troops in large numbers where everyone knew everyone. There were the ones with low status and high status in the social circle. Only the dominant ones hung out with all the females and lived by their own rules that everyone in the group would follow. Now I don't mean to say that we haven't evolved because the fact is we have. I am not point a problem with Africa or Africans. My point is that we need to be learn something in order to do something. An in relation to the dominant - high status whose voice is heard and low status who have to follow the rules, we can see that in the world there are dominant countries.

After the cold war in 1950s, the world, for the first time started to do business globally, countries started to elect presidents, and the economy began booming in these countries. However, in this process, where it was all about the who had the most money to play the game, the countries with no money and slow growth started to get left behind. No one cared until the activists began and people who made a lot of money, such as Bill Gates began to donate and help in these countries with slow growth. Then United Nations and governments from stable countries started to help these countries out too. One of these countries was Africa. The people in countries that are financially strong have the voice and power to rebel against the government and change things the community dislikes. However, in Africa the people's voices are unheard and they don't have power to go against their governments. This is why a lot of other countries stepped in to help. But in order to change, whether the problem is the climate change, pollution, and/or poverty, citizens need to take initiative along with the people who are from the other countries that are trying to help. Communities should learn from each other and people should have voice and the power to change things in their communities. Relatively, the article has a statement, "But to deal with the global phenomenon, Kenya's "wananchi" (citizens) need to understand the complex of challenges they are up against, including a range of home-grown factors." (Whitehead) Learning from the wrong things that has had a negative impact in the world and molding the mindset of children to help them take initiatives in order to take action and build a better future. And Africa is truly starting to show changes, as one of the statements from a 17 year old was, "The only way to curb climate change is through action now for a better tomorrow" (Whitehead)

However, the climate change is a global effect. I think that if countries keep focus on earning more and more profit and keep looking for cheaper manufacturers, building more factories, and production plants, around the world, then we are all going down together. However, from what I have learnt in science, Everything on Earth consists of carbon and carbon based compounds, and the world has been strong enough to be surviving a lot of different chemical being produced such as greenhouse gas effect. I believe that working together to solve a problem that has had an effect on the whole world can surely solve problems and the meeting at Copenhagen was surely a great start but we humans must step in and help out within our community instead of creating riots and wasting time on debates.

References:

Clinton, Bill. Giving How Each of Us Can Change the World (Random House Large Print (Cloth/Paper)). New York: Random House Large Print, 2007. Print.

Whitehead, Greig. "BBC News - Do we need to say our prayers?" BBC NEWS | News Front Page. Web. 06 Jan. 2010. .