Thinking small to think big - Vital signs, Clean Air and Rice

Like the human vital signs, are you aware of the vital signs for our planet? How are we faring? Is it looking good or not? Do you know how many varieties of rice is grown in Bangladesh? and how does rice contribute to the planet’s vital signs? And what about terrace orchards? Join me on this podcast to know more about these vital signs and how thinking small to thinking big is the key. 

Transcript

Thinking small to think big - Vital signs, Clean Air and Rice

Hello Everyone and welcome to the podcast of the Ordinary Maverick. This is Ajey, your host, an ordinary Maverick sharing real life thoughts and experiences and Maverick tips. If you haven’t hit the subscribe button yet, please do so, and you’ll not miss another episode.

Todays episode is a very important topical one as I talk about things close to my heart and those that have an impact on all of you as well.

 What do the words ‘Vital signs’ mean to you? Well, am sure immediately one thinks of our pulse rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, consciousness, etc. right? Yes, correct. Those are the vital signs we look for in any living being, humans, animals etc. 

But what about the vital signs of our planet? Hmmm…what would these look like? Temperature, length of the frost-free season, precipitation patterns, heat waves, droughts, soil moisture, frequency of hurricanes, sea levels, ice levels – these are some of our planet’s vital signs.

The Earth’s average temperature has increased about 2 degrees Fahrenheit during the 20th century and there are increases in the length of the frost-free season as much as eight weeks. Intense heat waves lasting days to weeks are becoming more common everywhere and the global sea level has risen about 8 inches since 1880 and is projected to rise another 1 to 8 feet by 2100. It’s all interconnected, as higher temperatures result in added water from melting land ice and the expansion of sea water as it warms. 

Even though these changes seem small, they have tremendous effect on our planet and our lives. Storm surges and high tides combined with sea level rise lead to increased flooding and natural disasters.

Recently, the UN Climate change conference was held in Glasgow commonly known as the COP. This was COP 26 which means it’s the 26th annual summit. Why is it called COP? Well…it stands for Conference of the Parties. But I do feel the acronym is apt….COP or COP is also a word used for the police. And in a way that’s what this conference is supposed to do…Police the agreed actions that the world needs to take towards addressing climate change. Right…ha ha.. World leaders, agencies, businesses, partners, activists, civil society groups all gathered together to deliberate, take stock and come up with key actions. COP26 was critical in so many ways, firstly it was taking stock of country plans for reducing emissions by 2020 to ensure that global temperature doesn’t increase over 1.5 degrees and it was being held after a gap of 2 years due to the COVID 19 pandemic. Post COP 26 as it’s called in short, was a mixed bag of emotions. Many felt that more needed to be done. Action is needed and not just words and commitments. The Glasgow Climate Pact kept the 1.5 degrees limit in sight and recognized that this can only happen with concerted and immediate global efforts. 

This is urgent. As I saw NASA’s amazing time series video on the web that tracks these levels from 2002 to 2016… it’s scary. One sees how the world has gone from low levels …gray to high levels – red almost universally and that too in just 14 years! This is done by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder which measures the mid tropospheric carbon dioxide levels. New research shows that reducing emissions to mitigate climate change could yield dramatic health benefits by 2030. Now we know that emission reductions definitely help in the long term to avoid disastrous climate change effects…however, this takes time. Climate is slow and takes time to respond to change and show effect. 

However, the effects of improved air quality are dramatic and occur much faster. Clean air has massive impact on our health and wellbeing and many other benefits too. 

We’ve heard about the Paris Agreement which is a legally binding international treaty on climate change, adopted in Paris in 2015 and entered into force a year later in 2016. The goal is clear. To limit global warming to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre industrial levels. The main action calls for reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

The excessive use and burning of fossil fuels for energy and deforestation have increased the volume of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere – all leading to the global warming effect and the impact on climate change. 

Globally, the research shows reducing emissions over the next 50 years to meet the goal of the Paris Agreement to keep global warming under 2°C through the end of the century could prevent about 4.5 million premature deaths, 1.4 million hospitalizations and emergency room visits, 300 million lost workdays, 1.7 million incidences of dementia, and 440 million tons of crop losses nationwide and this is just in the US alone !

Many of us witnessed first hand the dramatic effects on decreasing air pollution during the lockdowns imposed to control the pandemic. Suddenly there were clear skies, we were breathing more easily, and one could actually see the stars! 

We lived in Dhaka in Bangladesh.

and during our stay one morning  I woke up to a scary headline ‘Dhaka is the world’s third most polluted city’. The Air quality index (AQI) is the measure to assess this, and anything between 101 and 200 is considered unhealthy. Dhaka’s score is around 182. It gets worse during winter. Based on work done, the three main sources of air pollution in Dhaka are brick kilns, fumes from vehicles and dust from construction sites.

You know, when we first moved to Dhaka, this was something that struck me. Every road we traveled through had some ongoing construction. While house hunting, we were advised to check if there was any construction happening close by as it not only contributes to air pollution but also adds to noise pollution!. It was actually super tough to find any place that didn’t have construction close by. Everywhere one goes, there is some construction or the other.

Dhaka and Bangladesh as a country is also facing the challenge of dust from brick kilns inspite of lots of efforts being done to address this. There are over 1000 brick kilns in Dhaka and thousands more across the country. All of this adds to the pollution, to the greenhouse gases emissions and ultimately to global warming and climate change.

Another big factor in Bangladesh is rice. Now one may wonder what has rice got to do with global warming? But you know, rice is a staple crop in Bangladesh, with over 75% of agricultural land used to cultivate rice. In fact, rice is eaten at all meals all across the country. 

Can you guess how many varieties of rice are there in Bangladesh? Ha ha…am sure not many can. It’s about 5000. Yes, 5000. We were amazed at the variety of rice when we visit a market – there’s the Chinigura rice, Nazirshali rice, Kalijira rice, basmati rice, brown rice, black rice, Jirashali rice, Atash rice, Miniket rice, Banglamoti rice, Tulshmaal chal, Ataish Chal, Brown rice, Katarivog rice, Chinikanai, Modhumala, Khorma – the list is endless.

That’s one thing we enjoyed there…sampling all the different types of rice but at the same time thinking. 

And coming back to the point on rice contributing to global warming. The common practice of continuously flooding the rice paddies creates the anaerobic conditions in which methane gas is produced. It’s also actually pretty costly for the farmers who need fuel to power their pumps and as much as 5000 litres of water to produce just one kilogram of rice. 

Research is ongoing to find different rice cultivation techniques so that the paddy rice emissions are decreased, and farmers use less resources and are more efficient. There is the Alternate Wetting and Drying method which has shown results but still needs to be implemented at scale.

Sometimes I wonder, there’s so much going on in the world. 

We even had our own air purifier at home! And an app to check the AQI. What the world has come to.

I recall growing up and spending time at a farm in a village, breathing clean air, eating vegetables plucked from our garden, just simple things that today seem impossible or a luxury to many.

So fellow Mavericks, let me leave you with a thought. Thinking small to think big.

Let me repeat it. Thinking small to think big. 

Meaning let’s do some action/any action however, small to contribute to the big 1.5 C goal of the Paris agreement, the Glasgow Climate pact. You know it’s easy to get lost in these big commitments but yes, we can do something small towards the BIG contribution. Walk instead of taking a car, grow plants wherever you can (in fact, that’s another amazing thing about Dhaka – all balconies/terraces have mini gardens! including fruit trees and vegetables.

And just as we keep a check on our vital signs, let’s start being more aware of our planet’s vital signs. Without our planet, there is no us.

So, remember, think small to think big.

Write your comments, share your feedback, I would love to hear from you. This is Ajey, signing off and wishing you have an amazing day. Keep well.