REPERCUSSIONS: CAUSE AND EFFECT

Creator: Heinrich Böll Foundation.. This image is licensed under Creative Commons License.

Sometimes, the weather gets erratic and the chills descend. Harmattan winds pierce through the skin. Temperature nosedive below zero. The polar freezes up and the frostbites harshly descend on the populace of Moscow. Icebergs rapidly multiply in the Pacific and the thin ice sheets on the Euphrates won’t melt until summer.

Sometimes, the weather gets annoyingly erratic and the heat is escalated. The crops burn out to browns in the fields. The water dries up in the lakes in Kenya. The crocs recede into the deeps of the drying Nile. Buffalos on the plains of the Serengeti collapse under the toll of drought and sadly, no one in sight on the coasts of Mogadishu.

Sometimes, men commit heinous crime against Nature. Men catalyze climate changes. Bushfires in America, dredging of the Straits of Gibraltar, wildlife poached to endangerment in Africa and to extinction in Asia. Oil spills on the Adriatic have had its toll on aquatic life and the Cedars of Lebanon are now only read about in the Holy Book.

Sometimes Nature gets angry and our world comes crashing down. Like avalanches in Alaska, she's deadly. Like tsunamis in Japan, she's costly. Like Forest fires in Alabama, she's expansive, and like earthquakes in Venezuela, she massively upturns the Richter scale.

Sometimes these are the consequences of our choices. This action has a cause. This cause has an effect. To every effect, there is a reaction, pleasant or unpleasant. According to Newton, action and reaction are equal and opposite. The power to change the world and restore aberration to normalcy lies in the hands of men. Be the change you want to see.

By Moshood Azeez