Two years ago, the nations of the world
descended upon Paris for a matter of grave importance to the world – the 2015
United Nations Climate Change Conference. The conference aimed to achieve a
legally binding and universal agreement on climate change from all the nations
of the world. Yet last week it was dealt a crippling blow by the government of
the United States, when its President, Donald Trump, announced that country was
withdrawing from the accords.
This when, as a country, and as a region,
we’ve been feeling the effects of global climate change ourselves over the past
few years. Both Namibia and South Africa has been struggling with a drought
that has only recently been somewhat offset by better rainfall, but with the
US’s withdrawal, we can expect to continue to see increasing weather
abnormalities that increase in temperatures globally has led to. In particular,
this involves atmospheric circulation, which greatly determines precipitation,
or rainfall.
Specifically, atmospheric conditions are
determined by three circular patterns of winds that determine cloud movements
and rainfall. The first of these is called the Hadley cell, named after George
Hadley, who explained the trade winds that blow towards the equator low in the
atmosphere (where the rainclouds are), where after it heats up, and thus rises
high up, cools down, and has high atmospheric winds blowing outwards from the
equator. Similarly, the polar cells operate in the opposite direction. Hot air
from the 60th latitude line rises, and is blown high in the
atmosphere to the poles. There the air cools down, drops, and results in low
atmospheric winds blowing out from the poles, with the attendant snow storms
etc. that is common near the polar regions.
The third cell, named the Ferrel cell after
William Ferrel, who theorized it in the 19th century, exists in
between the polar and Hadley cell, in the sub-tropical semi-arid regions such
as Namibia. This cell, however, is not a closed loop like the other cells, and
depends on them. And unlike those cell that have north-south winds, the Ferrel
cell is characterised by westerly winds. It is from these winds that break away
from the Hadley cell, that we get our rainfall.
The increases in global temperature is
causing the polar and Ferrel cells to weaken, and cause the Hadley cell to
grow. In effect, this causes dry regions to become even drier, with wet regions
becoming wetter, with more storms. We can already see the effect in our own
experience with more prolonged droughts, as well as the drought affecting the
Western Cape to the south, alongside its attendant storms that is at time of
writing wreaking havoc across the City of Cape Town.
Yet the Climate Change Conference only had
a stated aim of trying to limit global temperature increases to 2 °C. This
in itself will still cause devastation, as that will still entail the global
sea level rising between 3 and 6 meters. Even in Namibia, this will displace
between 2 000 and 28 000 people along the coast. With the United
States withdrawing from this agreement, temperatures could rise by 4 °C,
raising sea levels by 7 to 10 meters. Along the coast, that will displace
48 000 to 56 000 Namibian citizens.
On President Trump’s recent foreign trip,
his advisors opined that “the world is not a ‘global community’ but an arena
where nations, non-governmental actors and businesses engage and compete for
advantage.” On withdrawing from the accords, President Trump said, “the United
States will cease all implementation of the non-binding Paris accord and the
draconian financial and economic burdens the agreement imposes on our country.”
The world, however, is not an arena. It is,
due to cuts in funding for space programmes across the world over the past few
decades, still our one and only home. Ensuring the ability of our species to
survive on this planet is the ethical and moral responsibility of all. This is
even recognized by the large businesses, which previously operated under Milton
Friendman’s maxim that “The social responsibility of business is to increase
its profits.”
Instead, corporate governance codes like
the new King IV Report emphasize that any organisation is part of its society,
and needs to create value for it as well – financial performance alone is not
enough. It represents a move from financial capitalism to inclusive capitalism,
from a short-term capital market view to a long-term sustainable capital
market. Corporations are now aiming towards sustainable development which, as
per King IV, involves “development that meet the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs,” and sets
it as a primary ethical and economic imperative.
The United States is currently the second
largest producer of carbon emissions in the world, with just over one sixth of
total global emissions coming from a country with just 4% of the world
population. China, of course, is the largest producer, with just over a quarter
of global emissions attributable to it. China, though, has 18.5% of the world’s
population, and thus per capita its emissions are lower than the United States.
Yet, through the short-sighted aspirations of the United States, it is now on
China we must depend if we want to prevent catastrophic climate change. We live
in interesting times.
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