Sri Lanka’s recent experience with adverse weather moved the previous Government and the incumbent to improve the island’s weather prediction system, which had long been mothballed and underfunded. The urgency of the need to have a better understanding of how the climate and weather changes was highlighted by recent spate of rough seas, flooding, landslides, crop loss, drought and a recent food insecurity crisis.
However, there are many who include so-called leaders of the ‘free world’ like Donald Trump who spread scepticism and rubbish, against what science has been telling humanity for decades, that climate change is a fallacy. This type of blatant rejection of scientific evidence-based predictions threatens to undermine domestic, regional and global efforts to address climate change before the situation moves beyond a point of being irreversible or significantly changes the course of climate to something which we will all suffer catastrophic outcomes from.
New data from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has revealed a dramatic rise in the intensity of weather events such as droughts and floods over the past five years. The study shows that such extreme events are becoming more frequent, long lasting and more severe, with last year’s (2024) figures reaching twice that of the 2003-2020 average. The steepness of the rise was not foreseen. The researchers say that they are amazed and alarmed by the latest figures from the watchful eye of NASA’s Grace satellite, which tracks environmental changes in the planet. NASA says that climate change is the most likely cause of the apparent trend, even though the intensity of the extremes appears to have soared even faster than global temperatures.
With the clock running out for tangible action by humanity to reduce the impact of climate change, or at least to attempt to manage it, the globe is looking for global leadership to become a driving force behind what may well be the most dangerous creeping crisis for our future. With the Trumps’ United State beating a retreat behind the 1920s style conservatism and unilateralism, the global order built by the US and its allies post World War Two is increasingly threatened by its own creators. Trump’s move to abandon multilateralism, which has largely provided a ‘good’ environment for the rules-based world order and the democratic States.
A call to action about climate change and against denial of scientific evidence of it came from the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who addressing the recently concluded third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3) in Nice, France stated: “Friends, there is a tipping point approaching beyond which recovery may be impossible. And let us be clear: Powerful interests are pushing us towards the brink. We are facing a hard battle, against a clear enemy. An enemy which is named greed. Greed sows doubt…denies science...distorts truth…rewards corruption … and destroys life for profit. We cannot let greed dictate the fate of the planet. That is why we are here this week: to stand in solidarity against those forces and reclaim what belongs to us all. Governments, business leaders, fishers, scientists… everyone has a responsibility and a vital role to play.”
Sri Lankan leaders must also recognise the urgency of understanding climate change, how it impacts Sri Lanka and the world in the short term and long term. To do so, they need to improve our scientific understanding of our environment and the world around us. That means giving priorities to research and analysis, building local expertise and working together with other nations and regional bodies which can aid us in understanding the bigger picture. Such action is imperative to ensure Sri Lanka’s resilience to climate change, improve food security and protect our valuable biodiversity, both off-shore and onshore.
The global ecosystem knows no boundaries nor jurisdiction set by humanity, and we need to acknowledge that what happens to one community will impact another elsewhere. It is time for Sri Lanka and the world to get their act together and act on climate change. As a start let us listen to what science provides evidence for, and then act with better awareness. The clock is ticking.