Muslims and Climate Change

The climate watchers are questioning the silence of Muslims in condemning the polluters who are found to be the major contributors to the global warming and the havoc unleashed by the changing pattern in climatic behavior. Some of them feel that Islam has nothing to offer for climatic problem and that the Qur'anic verses on the cosmological issues have no relevance to the current predicament. One may ask why Muslims must be blamed for all this. In fact the root cause of all this is the depletion of ozonic protection that sheltered the earth from the direct effect of the sun which has certainly caused the melting of the arctic ice and which in turn has raised the water level. None of the Muslims have sent any manned spacecraft to the outer space despite some Muslim countries showcasing the presence of space research institute as part of their defense infrastructure. Few countries have sent satellites as well. This is what the Muslims have done so far as the higher atmospheric research is concerned. Certainly they cannot be blamed for sending few match boxes up. 

The accusation that many of the oil producing Muslim countries are the real culprits for increasing the pollutants in the atmosphere which the West has found to be one of the cause for the global warming and the chaotic nature of climatic misbehavior. History records that it was the Western greed to dominate the world that they end up digging everywhere for natural resources beyond their needs. As a result they have polluted lands which they conquered to exploit thereby polluting them. Thus progressed the West. But now when other countries are fast trying to improve the lots of their people through economic development independent of Western tutelage the calls for environmental and climatic concerns are getting louder. Al-Gore is now championing the cause for protecting the environment from global warming. During his snatched Presidential bid he said that America should produce for the world consumption. What he meant by that is that Americans will develop all the needs of the world and supply them to the rest of the world. That would have made the world indebted to it for all perpetuity and enrich few Americans to lord over the world.

My firm belief is that it is high time that every country focuses on its own development path by assimilating all the new technologies at reducing their emission of unwanted substances that may pollute the environment and thereby increasing the chances for global warming. And there is a need to conduct an independent and impartial assessment on the causes for the damage done to the environment and penalise those countries that have polluted the earth in their effort to become economic superpower, since this has been skewed in favor of the developed countries which are using this to discourage and at time threatens developing countries with sanctions if they do not comply. The developed countries must lead by example. Muslim countries must play their responsible role in leading this discourse. It is good that Qatar has taken the bold step to organise this international conference, with full understanding of the expected no positive outcome. This is a commendable effort. More such meetings should be organised to raise the awareness of the Muslim world so that they will be equally held responsible for the upkeep of the environment.

READ: Climate Change