Recently, what is considered as the world’s lungs, the Amazon Forest, was burning to the ground while media attention was focused on Brexit and Donald Trump. That was despite the fact that whatever happened in both cases would have very little impact on Rwanda or climate change. In California in the US, the annual fires are all the rage at the moment where hundreds of thousands of hectares are up in smoke and Trump has threatened to halt funding to fight the fires. Yes, the world is choking on smoke, beginning with India’s capital New Delhi where pollution has reached dangerous levels that the deep smog is causing planes to be diverted. One of the measures the Indian government has taken is that cars with plates ending in odd or even numbers will go on the road on alternative days. According to experts, motor vehicles are not the cause of the smog but farmers in surrounding states burning crop to prepare the fields. Fires are causing havoc to our ecosystem, the forest cover is depleting fast. But amidst all the gloomy news is some hope that if countries took climate change seriously and took concrete steps, they could reverse the approaching doomsday. But each will have to play their part. Rwanda is doing just that as the front-page headline in this paper over the weekend indicated. The country had set a 2020 target to have restored at least 30 per cent forest cover and the target has been met. It is just a drop in the ocean as far as making an impact on climate change is concerned, but if everyone did their bit instead of promoting selfish interests, then the world would be a safer place.
