The Politics of Climate Change

By: Sauro Dasgupta
Climate change refers to change in the global climate pattern, in particularly beginning from the 20th century and which is mainly caused by the use of fossil fuels and nonrenewable energy sources.
In the past few months we observe that here the climatic conditions of Delhi have suffered a very horrible blow and it has been seen that the conditions have worsened after Diwali. The burning of Crop stubble by the farmers has lead to more air pollution in Delhi.Unfortunately due to the vote bank politics this issue has not been given more importance .
Due to rising air pollution and various climatic changes in many parts of the world we observe mechanism to reduce climate change have not been effective. Sadly politicians often call the climate change a hoax and accuse India and China for the same, especially in case of some US politicians.
In Delhi we observed that the number of air purifiers is the number of air purifiers is the highest in the Prime Minister’s office and in the RashtrapatiBhavan, while people are suffocating in the horrible atmospheric conditions of Delhi.Unfortunately many politicians are ignoring this ,saying that they don’t have time for mitigating the crisis. Accusations by parties at one another are worsening the matter and no relief is being provided to the people.
It’s gratifying to note that all is not bad in India. In West Bengal, the government has made it mandatory for people to travel in electric vehicles from 2030 and has banned the plying of other vehicles from that date. The concept of ‘Green Cities’ in West Bengal, i.e. balancing greenery with urban development gas has benefitted us all. Pollution has reduced and the environment is becoming better day by day.
These developments lead us to believe that everything is fortunately not bad. Steps been taken to ensure that the climate changes not affect the Indian people and we have also. Odisha,West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan are doing a lot in this regard. Sadhguru’sIsha Foundation has started a programme called Cauvery Calling wherein they are planning to plant 1.3 crore trees along the Cauvery basin so that the water does not dry up and that the environment remains unaffected. Many more initiatives by the politicians, the community leaders, NGOs and ordinary citizens must take place. We must come forward to do something for the environment otherwise it will be too late.
(The writer is a PG student, Department of International Relations, Jadavpur University)