Climate-change impacts eat away 2-3 per cent of our gross domestic product (GDP). Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina revealed this startling statistic in an article on Independence Day, 2019, published by the World Economic Forum Newsletter. She reminded everyone of her 2012 commitment to pursuing a "low-carbon development pathway." Part of that helped Bangladesh become (as she put it), "the fourth largest [globally] in rice production, fourth largest in fish production, fifth largest in vegetable production, and within the top-ten in horticulture." Even then, she lamented, "hopelessness is gripping a population of nearly 160 million [sic: it is nearing 170 million now].
It seems we must return to the drawing-board to reinvent other pathways, first to survive, then to recoup the nature-inflicting losses, eventually to prosper, as every country must target at every moment. In short, without going outside the traditional box, it will be increasingly harder every day. In particular she pointed out how "the will of the more affluent segments of our societies to act ambitiously against climate change" had become a "crucial missing piece."
How can we insert that piece with minimum inconvenience and costs? Using our more religious festivals, when we pray to God most earnestly and publicly, to also pray for Mother Nature would be a start. Both blend so well together that adding a third environmental-friendly component should emerge as an anti-climax. Both of the dominant Eid festivities push annual shopping levels to the peak, and if we add to that the month-long Ramadan passage when, for physical, biological, and physiological reasons, we let down our environmental guard, a lot can be done between now, let us say April specifically, until the holy seasons descend from May.
At least 3 (three) easy steps can be taken to get the environmental ball rolling with Eid: cut back on carrying plastic packages with our purchases and, as much as possible, even purchasing plastic products; refrain from purchasing new clothes, particularly high-fashion items by instead "reinventing" newer versions of old clothing; and trimming food consumption, particularly by refraining from the thick tradition of sacrificing animals, but broadly from meat consumption.
First on that list is plastics. As an April 2018 Forbes article indicated, the biodegradable-defying plastic is everywhere on land, oceans, air, and the guts of 90 per cent of the world's sea-birds and more than half of its turtles, so much so, in fact, that by mid-century, there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans. Adding insult to injury, just as oil ranks as the planet's worst polluter and climate-change threat, shifting from the gluey dark fluid to squeezing it out from rocks, a process called fracking, is just as bad, if not worse. Since many plastics live forever and very few can be recycled, we end up inviting a killer into our home as a permanent guest.
What we could do forever from now would be to simply reject any plastic paper bag. Jute replacements might be an ounce or two heavier, but they are biodegradable, recyclable, and least threatening to our environment. Even the prime minister insisted we do so. "We also offer the world a magical fibre," she said. Jute, she continued, "can help thwart climate change."
In addition to changing the package (and thereby boosting the economy a little), plastic products should be condemned to a red-zone. Not as associated with Eid per se, but plastics enter our shopping list more frequently than Eid: for birthdays, presents for just about every other occasion, and in many of our appliances and furniture. It takes one bold decision to blot out plastic purchases, and thereby its production, knowing that whatever we turn to as a substitute (wood furniture, for example, or usage of wood-encased pens), also opens new industries, meaning jobs will not be lost over the long haul. Besides, every new item in the market also opens spaces for innovation, giving us a little extra social profile if we can project our brand new chair, pen, or stereo-holder into a "what's what" equivalent of a "who's who" directory.
Intimately related to plastic is fashion, particularly high-fashion, the second worst polluter, on land, sea, and in the air. It is, in fact, one of the sectors where plastic proliferates so unconsciously. Many fibres are not recyclable, in fact, processing many of the highly seductive ones, like nylon, rayon, polyester, acetate (and triacetate), or any static-resistant or stain-resistant, or wrinkle-free, or even permanent press, involves chemicals, detergents, and petrochemical dyes. These not only hurt our body directly, but also destroy rivers and lands (as our RMG factories along the Buriganga and Turag rivers have done).
In fact, restructuring our RMG (ready-made garments) factories would constitute one of the most admirable global gestures to dent climate-change threats. We have to encourage RMG owners to rely more on recycled clothes instead of importing expensive fresh raw materials (cotton, for instance), from China or India. Again, "reinventing" clothes can help give fashion-houses (and factories that make them, as ours increasingly do), another environmental-friendly face that is bound to boost sales, given the growing public desire to move in climate-control and sustainable directions. Even biodegradable raw materials, like cotton, consume so much water that they drive up final-product costs and deprive other more needy areas of water (such as residences and hospitals).
With under 8 (eight) billion people on this planet, we surely do not need to produce 80 billion clothing items every year. Something has to give, for us to survive: if not how many clothing items we individually purchase, particularly for Eid, then facilitating government policies (taxing non-bio-degradable, non-recyclable items out of existence) as the last-resort measure, if we cannot mend our shopping instincts or material bravado.
Carrying those instincts and attitudes to our food-plate should also be given more attention, the sooner the better, than when we run out of options and must cut back. We have to feed more animals each year than humans: a billion sheep, a billion pigs, 1.5 billion cattle, and 19 billion chickens. The numbers we actually consume are more staggering. Health considerations have helped cut back on these figures in certain parts of the world (mostly in the west), but the fast-growing other parts of the world (mostly Africa and Asia), witness a gluttonous growth.
Behind consumption costs lie production costs. With agriculture also accounting for over 10 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, we will have to rethink animal sacrifices. Cattle ranches require a lot of land, for which forests have been chopped (thereby hurting climate-change defences), while beef has the highest per calorie greenhouse gas emission among animal-meat (not to mention water consumption too).
We could downsize meat consumption. This could be encouraged by the government imposing taxes accordingly: jacking up meat price for most of the year, relaxing them for Eid. The country would be doing itself a favour too by lowering health costs, since a huge proportion of health problems are from food.
Hasina's "low carbon development pathway" should not be the road less taken. Slowly fitted in now, we can adjust our lifestyles (and fashion tastes) to these more sustainable needs before such a time comes when we will have no choice but to be forced to take that plunge, for financial, health, or survival reasons.
Dr. Imtiaz A. Hussain is Professor & Head of the Department of Global Studies & Governance at Independent University, Bangladesh.
