The number 1.5 has assumed special significance in climate talk this decade. It is the temperature threshold above pre-industrial levels, in degrees Celsius, temperature beyond which the universe as we have known it for millennia might get scorched and begin its irreversible end. Which is why world leaders, at COP 21 in Paris in 2015, committed to not exceed it. It now appears we are hurtling towards that number that spells destruction much sooner than predicted. The World Meteorological Organisation, a United Nations body, reported recently that the world is almost certain to experience new record temperatures, likely to rise above the 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, in the next five years. Scientists reveal that more than half of the world’s large lakes have shrunk since the early 1990s, largely due to climate change and human consumption, and then warns that under climate change the world’s arid areas will become drier and the wet even wetter. Scary stuff. However, scientists can also be kind and caring people, not numbers-obsessed, insensitive creatures or bearers of bad news that they appear to be in the imagination of many. They are human, too, and sometimes find a way to cushion us against the shocks of their terrible predictions. And so they say that it will not be a permanent rise but will happen from time to time. Still, a rise is a rise and the effects will be much greater than the seemingly small figure of 1.5. We, in this region, are already experiencing greater destruction caused by landslides and floods that are occurring with increased regularity and fury. That is also happening in other parts of the world. Worrying times, even for us in these moderate climes where we have been living an Eden-like existence, of course, with the curse of hard labour our ancestors earned for their disobedience and bequeathed us. Obviously, we could have done better with inheritance. I hear people in Kigali complain when it gets to 28 degrees and claim it has never been this hot. At 30 degrees, they scream and swear the world is ending. Beyond that, they will probably howl and kick, and plead with their maker for a stay of execution. I suppose this is not new. It happens with every age when climate change occurs. Which it has been doing gradually and has always raised huge concern. Still, it is real and frightening. We have been warned about living in a greenhouse and asked to do something about it. Some have not taken heed enough. Now we must start thinking about how to cope with life in a furnace or floating on water if lucky not to be submerged, or even possible extinction. Please, do not let this information get to doomsday pastors, prophets, apostles or by whatever name they choose to be known, This sort of news is fertile ground for Armageddon cults. They will jump on it and hasten our end before it’s due. You see, they are fixated on two things. One is the sinfulness of their followers from which their only release and salvation is getting out of this world as quickly as possible. The other is the end of the world itself, which they are determined to bring about even if they have to go against the teaching of the one in whose name they profess to speak and on whose authority they purport to act. Didn’t he say no one knows the day or the hour, and by implication that no one can precipitate it? But they will ignore this. They seem to be impatient with the creator’s plan for the eventual end of his creation and so want to push his hand and speed it up. Again, they forget what is written in Holy Scripture. “...my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways.” You can be sure they will seize on the reported impending rise in the earth’s temperature and use it to attract followers and then whip them in the direction they choose. You see, scare mongering is their favourite conversion and control method. They will say this is the hell written about in scripture and that it is deserved punishment for our sins. Never mind that if we are to burn it is in the fire we have lit ourselves. However, they surely cannot be right. Even assuming it is punishment for the sinful, what about the righteous, for there will always be some? Will they also perish when they have done everything they can to keep our planet safe? I am thinking of Rwanda where we keep our place green and clean and do other green things to stay out of the greenhouse. There are places around the world, no doubt, with similar practices and intentions. Surely, for the sake of these, as Holy Scriptures promise, the world will be spared. Or perhaps these few green oases will be the equivalent of Noah’s Ark when global warming scorches the earth or inundates it and makes it uninhabitable. But as scientists have warned, we can still stave off this scenario with more responsible management of our earth. We can also keep away all the self-ordained prophets of the apocalypse.
