We are like sand in a glass jar being tossed around by a massive wind carrying all sorts of hard objects. When I say “we” I mean all biotic organisms on earth, and the wind is climate change. This is a mild metaphor for this human-made problem which has killed many. Some parts of the earth look safe now, but it’s only a matter of time before those at ease now go missing. I’m saying this after reading of the floods in South Africa where people lost their homes, and children. Imagine living where you have lived all your life and then one day, endless rain comes and drowns all you love away.

I’ve been thinking for a while now, how much climate invades my dreams. A while ago, I had a dream about my dad driving into a tree in a storm’s aftermath. I had that dream a week after I heard the news of my dad breaking his neck in a car accident that may have caused him his life or mobility. He was on a dirt road driving to the village, taking supplies to his extended family when out of nowhere it just started raining. The water eroded the sand off the dirt road and left a ditch which would send the car summersaulting and tossing my baby sister and all the supplies out. They all survived that accident and dad is now walking around like nothing happened. I have been thinking however of just how fragile humans are, how delicate our bodies are, and just how quickly a slight change in weather can snuff the life out of us. What are we doing to ensure the continuity of life? And how can we still be exploiting fossil fuels when we have decades of research showing the detrimental effects of industrialism, and oil and gas consumption?

We are biotic, and we have an internal equilibrium of gases to keep, and that equilibrium is dependent on the cocktail of gases we inhale. Biologists talk of homeostasis which is basically how our bodies regulate temperature, chemicals etc to ensure that everything is optimized to sustain our lives. Now imagine if the world were too hot and wet and turbulent, and if the air was full of methane and we didn’t get the right amount of oxygen… you know where I’m going.

All this to say, climate change affects us even if we think it doesn’t. We have only one world to take care off. There’s no going to mars or some fantastical planet, earth is where we live, and it’s were we perish. What are your thoughts on climate change?