The Wake up call: Global Warming: What can we do?

Rtr. Dilhan Jayasinghe

We have been discussing the causes of global warming and its exponential increase during the last few decades. What are the consequences of global warming? 

Often observed direct and indirect consequences are spanning from health to economic and social effects. The extreme weather conditions are resulting in causing many health issues and natural hazards. Health issues related to polluted water and food are few major headlines and many others such as diseases spread by mosquitoes (dengue, malaria) and pathogens are also observed to severely fluctuate throughout the year in certain countries. 

Due to climate changes, extreme floods and droughts occur & changes in rain patterns affect the persistence of clean drinking water in some areas. As drinking water becomes scarce as a result of global warming, people are compelled to depend on polluted and contaminated sources. This also increases the number of diseases spread by water and is a cause for many health issues. 

The agriculture sector is also affected by global warming due to changes occurring in rain patterns. The poor harvests in certain sectors result in inadequate supply of food to the markets and this results in the scarcity of food in some countries. The WHO is highly concerned about the health issues resulting from undernutrition due to the change in the food systems in such countries and special attention is drawn in this regard, spending millions of Dollars. In addition to all the health issues, the economic losses are seriously affecting the lower and middle class families in most parts and they worsen the social issues due to the health problems. 

Psychological consequences are also arising due to drastic changes in the climate. Recent studies had revealed that the mental problems developing in humans due to these sudden & momentous changes even lead to an increase in the number of suicide cases reported annually. This aspect is often forgotten by people due to the highly materialistic life patterns. But it should be highlighted as one of the most serious indirect effects of Global warming.  

 But have we really addressed the roots of all these causes in our attempts? This is a question for our readers to ‘Wake Up’ and think about, and to prompt ourselves to think differently and start changing ourselves. Because conferencing, arguing and researching alone cannot change the situation. Our actions will only make an impact.  As we mentioned from the beginning of the series of these articles, the change should first happen in You.