Author: Hafiz Noor Shams

2003. What a year. Each and every passing day, the world seems to head towards chaos.

I remember earlier during the year, Europe suffered one of its worst floods in history. Eastern European cities were partially inundated; the river basins were being flooded by the water from the melting glaciers.

A few months after the flood abated, ironically an unprecedented heat wave and drought swept through the European Mediterranean coast. The heat wave was so great that they had to spray water against the wall of nuclear reactors in order to cool it down. Some of the nuclear plants were forced to shut down. Worse, death toll was high.

Looking at two of many events, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that something is wrong with the Earth. It is true that disaster strikes every now and then but noticeable, the frequency and intensity has risen steadily. Global warming and climate change are as real as you and me.

Down south, Antarctica ice shelves continue to disintegrate and despite of all this, Canada, Australia and USA seem to rejuvenate the old JUSCANZ alliance with Russia as the new member. Maybe the new alliance should be called RUSCAA.

Somehow, it funny to be obsessed with global warming while Ann Arbor is being covered with snow. It is as if I suffer from cognitive dissonance disorder but yet, the news from all around the world convince me that it is God who is suffering the metal disorder. Or maybe it’s just the Human as a species.

0.7 degree Celsius has risen since a century ago. Based on IPCC extrapolation, global average temperature will rise a few more degrees. A few more degrees might sounds nothing but those few more degrees would send many coastal cities and island nations to share the fate of Atlantis.

As the world average temperature continues to set new record each year, I wonder when people will start to seriously care about the environment. And lately, I’m starting to share the green extremist concern – why do we value commodities more than the Earth?

We could die if we were deprived of water or food or air but we could never die if we ran out of gold. Why do we value the medium of trade more than the goods itself? Isn’t the reason of trade is to obtain goods? Worse, why are we putting money above the very place that we call home? If the Earth were reduced to Mars or Venus, won’t money will worth terribly less?