Are we going about climate change the wrong way?

This has been going on for so long. People are always being told to off the lights when nobody is around. We have been told not to use plastic bags as they cannot be disintegrated for 1000 years. We have been told to use catalytic converters to cut down emissions coming from the cars.

The problem with this method is very simple : People do not listen! How many kids would not eat too much candy after they are told not to? How many people jay walk when they are told not to? In the same way, people may agree with the message that we need to take measures to save the Earth like they agree that smoking is bad for health, but they are not willing to change their bad habit. It is just human nature!

For how long more must we go about preaching to this choir? Can people recognize already that this method is not going to work. It is like preaching abstinence to prevent HIV/AIDS, people just would not listen.

Time is running out on Earth. I am no scientist but when I see coastlines in Eastern India receding 20 meters after 5 years, I know there is something wrong. When my friend see that coral reefs in Australia are no longer there where he saw them 8 years ago, he knows there is something wrong. When there are record heat temperatures coming every few years and the average temperature from 2000-2007 is 2.2 degrees Celsius higher than those from 1990-1999, you know that there is something wrong. We really need to do something quick.

I feel that it is time to look at this problem at the macro level and abandon looking at it at a micro level. We should be thinking of how nations become carbon free and not how an individual can lower down their carbon emission.

It is not like there are no good examples to follow already. There are countries like the UAE that are creating green cities where all energy used would be created from green sources such as solar panels and wind turbines. There are countries that are already 100% running on green energy, the best example being Iceland which runs on geo-thermal energy.

I feel that this should be a government initiative. For example, get governments to ban plastic bags already. Lets only use plastic bags when we have to. Lets resort to paper bags which would require trees.

Lets force cattle farms who are responsible for so much of our greenhouse emissions to grow plots of bamboo to counter carbons that they release. Let countries like Australia to shift from beef to kangaroo meat as mass to mass, kangaroos belch much less than cows.

Lets go all out on nuclear power. Nuclear power is clean today. It would not be a long term solution as uranium would run out one day but it can buy us time. It is high time that countries like the United States and Russia that has a lot of Uranium to start using it to harness energy and not upgrade their nuclear weapons.

A tax on carbon would not be that great an effect. This is because people would get use to it and pay for the tax. It also places too much burden on the consumer. I believe that we should rather ban some items outright.

Lets work together to save our earth. I think the world should take part in the global initiative on 28th March, but let it be an election and not a solution. Let it be a message to politicians all around the world, we are ready to save our Earth.