Focus on technology
View(s):Earlier this week, scientists reported that Sri Lanka’s northern Jaffna peninsula would face rising sea level and polluted groundwater resources. In a worrying scenario, scientists have said the peninsula, once the scene of bloody fighting, would be battling a different war: how to keep the land above water.This is however not the first time scientists have warned of the perils and impact of climate change in Sri Lanka. It was as far back as 2007 when scientist and environmentalist Prof. Mohan Munasinghe told the Sunday Times in an interview that the LTTE and government troops were actually fighting over land in the north that would be soon submerged as sea levels rise. He said that a major part of Jaffna and other northern areas (of Sri Lanka) will be submerged when the sea level rises.
“No one takes it (warnings on climate change) seriously because it is something that does not happen today or tomorrow,” he said adding that one of the weaknesses in raising public awareness on these critical issues is the inability of scientists to translate their jargon into a language that is understood by everyone, including politicians. Technology can help this process.One of the most frightening prospects of climate change for Sri Lanka is agriculture, he said at the time. “We have done some studies with the Meteorological Department which show higher temperatures and less water. This will result in paddy farming output falling by 20-30 per cent in the next 20 to 30 years. The output will begin to drop gradually over the next few years.”
Another impact of climate change is that mosquitoes will be more rampant in hotter areas (like Colombo) and even move into the more hilly areas.Some of these predications and scientific assessments are already coming true. For example, the month of December this year was not as cold and chilly in Colombo as in previous years. Elsewhere in the world unusual weather was witnessed in many countries. Last month’s Paris summit on climate change struck a deal to limit rising global temperatures and a pact committing all countries to cut carbon emissions.
Climate change should be the new manthra for countries like Sri Lanka which will suffer the consequences of carbon emissions from the richer, industrialised world. But are the politicians and society paying attention?
Unfortunately as seen over the years, no one pays attention to a hidden problem until it hits you in the face viz Tsunami (another creation of climate change and global warming). For a few years, there was attention on the issue and then it vanished off the radar.While Sri Lanka and other countries that suffered losses to life and property in the 2004 December Tsunami have every year diligently focused on the tragedy and that of affected families recovering from the disaster, no one – least of all the media – discusses climate change, global warming and its impact on such natural disasters and what the world and back home – countries like Sri Lanka – should be doing, nay speeding up measures, to avert further disasters.
Rather global conflicts with the ISIS and other terrorist groups (some would label them rebel or freedom fighters) creating chaos across the world and natural disasters with severe flooding in Europe and tornadoes in the US drew most of the attention last year. However there is little attention and focus on the causative factors which are in many ways connected to the twin problems of climate change and global warming. These issues are also triggering new health and medical problems for many. Sri Lanka, as prominent hotelier Hiran Cooray says, is a green destination for tourism and should be aggressively promoted that way. He believes it’s time to push the ‘Earthlung’ concept mooted by environmentalist Renton de Alwis when he served as chairman of Sri Lanka Tourism in early 2000. Technology can help drive this process.
Perhaps the country’s biggest winner has been the advances in technology, particularly in the medical field, that has benefited many ordinary people. Most of these advances have been profiled by the Business Times’ e-Health columnist Prof. Vajira Dissanayake in the ground-breaking ‘TechKnow” pages. Other major advances in robot technology and drones (its usage in the medical field included) have also been reported.
The number of ‘hackethons’ (an event where computer programmers and others involved in software development come together) that has led to the creation of many products and recognised the ones already in place; creations by the Moratuwa University (profiled in the ‘TechKnow’ pages) and the aps developed in the IT industry, many of which are helping society in simple ways like channelling a doctor,
drying your clothes and in sectors like garments and retail marketing (buying products online which is catching up fast in Sri Lanka), clearly shows the extent to which technology has helped the country’s development into the new age. The strides made in the mobile telecommunication sector and Internet, again making life easier, are too numerous to mention with apps being developed almost weekly. Technology and its positive impact on daily life, natural disasters, global warming and climate change and wars (improving intelligence and fostering peace and harmony) should be one of the main priorities of Sri Lankan policymakers for 2016. Also on the wish-list is that scientists, engineers, doctors, researchers and other professionals tasked with making a better world will speak in a language that is understood by ordinary Sri Lankans.