I recently saw a meme being shared on Facebook that made me feel a bit sad, and, if I’m being honest, caused me to chuckle a little at how nonchalant we are when it comes to connecting the dots to global problems. The meme featured a large tent covering the entire coast with the caption ‘Yall could thank me later’. A bit of satire, I suppose, to cushion the discomfort of rising temperatures and what people are facing when it comes to conducting their everyday business in heat that feels fit enough for frying an egg on the road.
It’s normal to overlook rising temperatures in a tropical country like Guyana because indeed what other seasons do we have to compare it to? It always felt to me as if we were made for the heat because we were born into it. But this is excessive heat, which isn’t an exaggeration on anyone’s part.
As NASA recently reported, July 2023 was the hottest month on record since 1880. The wildfires and flash floods understandably capture the attention of most in comparison to a hot day, but nothing is to say a disaster of similar nature isn’t around the corner or the long-term effects of so much sun exposure won’t have an effect on our health in months or years to come. In addition to this, when it comes to climate change it can sometimes feel as if it’s lower on the hierarchy of problems. To a certain extent I can understand this rationale, because it is only after basic needs such as food and shelter are consistently guaranteed that we can be motivated to care for and take care of the environment and those around us. It is only when the social contract is respected that we can respect each other.
But with that being said it feels as if now, more than ever, we have become so incredibly comfortable with detaching ourselves, failing to look at the bigger picture even when the basic needs have been met. Shortly after the recent wildfires in Hawaii, there was heightened demand by outsiders and tourists that tend to flock to Hawaii, to buy destroyed property and the remains of what was left. There were so many videos and stories of vacation goers complaining ruthlessly about their lost time and resources as locals tried to cope with the reality of loss of their loved ones and their property.
Sure there is temporary shock and outrage, but it’s almost performative in a sense. We feel it’s enough to just recognise it as a problem and that should be enough for it to go away. Factor in race and politics and these problems spiral so that a positive result appears unreachable.
We see it too with the Chinese Landing issue as it relates to illegal mining and how locals have been intimidated and pushed out and around. Here, too, we can see the environmental damage that mining causes and how it disrupts the naturalness of the environment and contributes to pollution. We can observe how sparsely concentrated care and concern are.
We have become so okay with our first response being to joke about the heat (yes, I understand it’s a coping mechanism) as opposed to really interrogating why the problem will persist. We dare say people in our backyard are actively contributing to it.
We have become so comfortable with living in our bubbles, we fail to understand that sooner or later we will need each other. We have become so okay with detachment that we now see ourselves as indestructible because tragedy hasn’t come knocking at our doors as yet.
It isn’t just global warming, pollution and capitalism, it’s how entrenched we have all become in the system to not realise it is forever altering us and the way we care; even when our basic needs have been fulfilled.
