Letter from Toronto: Of Global Warming and Polar Bears

A tad disappointed at not finding Bangladesh on the cover, I caught myself just in time. It was about Bangladesh after all! Only last year, back in Dhaka, as I was listening to the BBC on one of those rare occasions when I had the TV to myself, before my little one came and snatched the remote away to watch the endless re-runs of cartoons, I had managed to catch a piece of news. Within the next hundred years, Bangladesh and some other low lying areas would be under water. The news had caused me great anguish.

In my first year English class, I had mentioned it to the students. One of them queried me about the time frame again. A hundred years from now? He shrugged. "I won't be here," he said. I was aghast. "Your descendents will be," I tried to reason. He shrugged some more. "They can take care of themselves," he replied. Kids! They can be so self-centered these days! Sitting down with the Time, I skimmed through the pages where the worst hit places should be named. Just as I had thought, Bangladesh was mentioned there. So was Florida. I just had to smirk.

The effect of global warming is most felt in places where winter is supposed to be extreme--in Canada, for example. Before coming here, having had heard about the severity of the climate of these parts, we came prepared with our heaviest jackets in tow. Mentally, we had talked ourselves into gritting our teeth through the most inclement of weathers. We should not have worried. As winters go in Canada, this year's was one of the mildest in years. Our heavier jackets remained in the closets unused. Unless we plan to make a trip to the Yukon province or to Nunavut, I don't anticipate wearing those in the near future. There has hardly been any significant snowfall either. It did snow sometimes and because of below-freezing temperatures, piles of snow had remained accumulated besides the sidewalks or car parks. But my vision of wading through knee deep snow has remained unfulfilled.

A few months back, Global TV news showed people playing golf in Calgary in the middle of winter. In "normal" weather Calgary would have been buried under feet of snow. Idle snowmobile and trucks stayed parked as City employees took their salaries doing nothing. "Where has winter gone?" asked the news reader. To other places where it's not supposed to, it seems. The whole eco system has, apparently, skewed up. While Canada, known as the Great White North, wonders what's up with the weather, places in Europe, such as France and Russia, had to set up cold shelters for people caught off guard by the vagaries of nature.

How does Bangladesh figure into all these? It all starts with the polar bear. The picture of the sad looking polar bear is eerily significant. As big chunks of ice melt, polar bears cannot walk from one floating floe to another as gaps increase and cause the bears to fall off into the water and subsequently drown. This is the perfect example of how man-made menaces disrupt the delicate balance of nature. From the ever widening hole in the ozone layer, to tsunamis, to tidal waves and to melting glaciers, all disasters point to the gradual destruction of Mother Earth. The culprit? Man. More precisely, industrialized man. Unfairly, the more un-industrialized ones are having to pay the price as they don't have the economic strength or the technological know-how to deal with the colossal problem. The other unfortunate victims are the creatures of the animal kingdom as they gradually die out while unable to cope with the rapid transformation of their delicate eco-system.

One look at rush hour traffic in industrialized countries is enough to provide us with a rough estimate of the amount of pollution being generated. One long winded sentence in a Time's article sums up the situation well: "The U.S, however, which is home to less than 5% of earth's population but produces 25% of CO² emissions, remains intransigent." The reference was, of course, to the U.S. refusal to sign the Kyoto treaty, which was otherwise signed by 141 countries. The people of the U.S., however, seem to be more concerned than their government is. Even though President Bush refused to sign the treaty, cities in the U.S., through the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, are doing good work in cutting down greenhouse emissions in a bid to meet or beat Kyoto's original target. Frustrated by the lack of national leadership, city mayors have taken upon themselves to cut emissions, build light railways, construct energy efficient housing and even create regional bikeways. If only the mayors could take similar stance in disagreeing with the President on issues of foreign policy...

Canadians, for their part, are taking their environment much more seriously as climate change directly affects fishing, farming, forestry, lakes, rivers, coastal communities and the North. The Inuits (formerly known as Eskimos) being a hunting, fishing and gathering people, depend on the ice and snow for their survival. But while the rest of Canadians can be thankful for the balmy winters, for the Inuits "if ice is too thin to ride over and too thick to take a boat through, it is as if someone closed all the roads to the Inuits' grocery stores." Not to mention the havoc that is taking place among the arctic animals and fish as their food supply dwindle with the melting snow. The other long-term predicament anticipated is the possibility of an entire lifestyle change for the Inuits.

As our planet continues to get more sick, all the countries of the world have been meeting every year since the signing of the Kyoto Protocol to define the operational rules of the treaty, yet no country that has taken on a target has as yet ratified the Protocol. The new Stephen Harper Government of Canada, though committed to cutting greenhouse gas emissions, also realistically enough recognizes that it cannot yet reach the Kyoto target by 2012. Nevertheless, Canadians themselves are very aware of the dangers they face.

Can Bangladeshis contribute to the saving of the environment? I am sure they could. Our scientists need to chalk out ways for the ordinary people to follow that would lessen waste, produce more greenery and eliminate pollution. As Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels says: "If it's not going to happen from the top down, let's make it happen from the bottom up." We do, however, need to act immediately; otherwise, it will be a dismal future for our great, great, great grandchildren. If there is some consolation in the thought though, it is that we will take Florida down with us when we sink.

Rebecca Sultana teaches postcolonial studies at McMaster University, Canada.