Meanwhile, many European and other towns have never encountered elevated temperatures before. Heat waves in Greenland have also accelerated the drying of glaciers at unpredictable rates.

Nationalism and climate change-

• The Brazilian President has stated that the Amazon forest fires are an internal matter.
• The American President Donald Trump has withdrawn from the Paris Climate Agreement stating that it is against the national interests of the U.S. across the Atlantic.
• British Prime Minister has received funding from climate science denial groups while saying that he would lobby the U.S. to take climate change more seriously.
• The burning of the world’s largest forest reserves, the withdrawal of the world’s leading polluter from a major international treaty and the U.K.’s isolationist policies may appear to be the triumph of nationalist ideology.
• But these actions have consequences that far transcend national boundaries and impact all creatures that share life on the planet.

Way forward-

Better land use-

Changes in land use pattern and climate change-

• While energy and transport are mainly responsible for the accumulation of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere, changes in land use patterns too have made significant contributions.
• Deforestation, industrial agricultural systems and desertification are major drivers of climate change.
• Agriculture, forestry and other land use activities accounted for a little less than a quarter (23%) of the total net anthropogenic emissions of GHGs between 2007-2016
• A recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report makes it clear that unless land is managed in a sustainable manner, climate change can’t be tackled.

Measures that can be taken to solve this problem-

• Better land management for agriculture would mean more sustainable farming methods. This would, for example, imply a drastic reduction of chemical inputs and nearer to conventional agro-ecology techniques in food production, since these would decrease emissions and increase warming resilience.
• The IPCC report calls for the evasion of grassland to croplands, the equitable distribution of agriculture water, crop diversification, agro forest management and investment in high-temperature local and indigenous seed species
• It also recommends practices that increase soil carbon and reduce salinization.

An integrated policy on land use-

• To make these significant changes and reduce inequality and poverty, land use policy should incorporate better access to markets for small and marginal farmers, empower women farmers, expand agricultural services and strengthen land tenure systems.
• Sustainable land management can reduce multiple stressors on ecosystems and societies. It will also help societies adapt better to warmer climates and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

Establishing sustainable food systems-

• Reducing food waste, which is estimated to be a quarter of the food produced
• It also necessitates eating locally grown food and cutting meat consumption.
• Alongside these changes, it is important to put an end to deforestation, while conserving mangroves, peatland and other wetlands.

Addressing the transnational challenges of climate change and land-

• The narrow lens of nationalism is no longer serving us.
• We need a new planetary ethics that supports alternative systems for the future, for a sustainable earth.

Focus has to be on the following-

1. Growth of ecological sensibilities
2. Supporting pluralism
3. Enhancing quality of life
4. Shifting values away from consumerism
5. Creating new identities and cultures that transcend conventional boundaries

Taking a close look at the transnational issue of climate change is only fantastic. Instead of constructing the worlds of fortification, the route we are constructing requires to be established in a sense of solidarity across frontiers.