Asian Geographic2017

{ EDITOR’S NOTE}

“It is not the strongest of the species that

survives, nor the most intelligent that survives.

It is the one that is most adaptable to change”

Charles Darwin

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Earth is feeling the heat – and there's no getting out of the kitchen.
Scientists are in consensus that global warming is worse than originally
thought, and that emission reductions are crucial to stalling the crisis.
The message is clear: If we do not act quickly, collectively and effectively,
life on Earth will change fundamentally within our lifetimes. The “distant”
future is in rapid rewind mode.
That future seems all the more ominous since Donald Trump took
the White House. The world braced themselves like a bell awaiting the
sledgehammer wielded by a bully on a high-striker.
And strike he did, the ring resounding in our ears. The ink on the
Paris climate deal has barely dried, and the world’s superpower is
now helmed by a leader who is set to shred it into non-recyclable bits.
Will the international community intervene? Or will they silently succumb
to ill-informed, coal-mongering rabble-rousing?
The picture on the ground is bleak: Communities in Bangladesh flee
rising salinity (p20), farmers take on hand pollination in response to a
dying bee population (p62), and families rely on pollution to survive (p54).
But all is not lost: Vigilante factions combat illegal deforestation in
Cambodia (p34), monks ward off the rising tide in Thailand (p48) and
wildlife warriors work to save Borneo’s critically endangered species (p80).
Grassroots communities are leading the charge in change.
It’s the time for new resolutions: Cut down your meat consumption.
Support fair trade for marginalised women farmers. Implement renewable
energy solutions. Reduce your carbon footprint. Plant a mangrove tree.
Change starts at home – and our home is, in the grander scheme of
things, shared by all of us.

© Mohammad Rakibul Hasan

ALEX W. CAMPBELL

a

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