By Anil Netto
The other day, I checked out the movie 2012, which hit local cinemas in recent weeks, to find out more about this apocalyptic portrayal of the end of the world.

In the movie, the world as we know it, is supposed to end around 21-12-2012, which is said to be the end of the 5,125-year-long Mayan Long Count calendar. The sequence of events that triggers climate chaos and disaster is sparked by a massive solar flare.

It all makes for an absorbing movie, filled with spectacular side-effects, which portrays humankind as innocent victims of natural disasters beyond their control.

If only reality was quite as simple and humankind as blameless. We are now facing climate change of a different kind — not caused by planetary alignments or solar flares or other phenomena beyond our control.

The climate chaos we face does not make for a spectacular movie quite as thrilling as 2012, in which governments race against a two-year deadline to ensure the continuation of the human and animal species.

The reality is we do not have to contend with the large quakes, mega tsunamis, and volcanoes on the scale depicted in 2012 — at least not yet. But the threat is no less serious, though not as dramatic.

Instead, we are more like the proverbial frogs in a bucket of water, which is gradually being heated. We can’t feel the temperature rising - even as it creeps upwards - and by the time we do, it would probably be too late to reverse it or to save our environment.

Unlike the ignorant frogs in the bucket and the uninformed public in the 2012 movie, scientists in the real world and the UN climate change panel have told the people of the world what is happening. Last week the Copenhagen summit to work on a new deal on climate change got underway, though few expected any dramatic breakthroughs.

Now, I know a few of us may be global warming sceptics, who believe that the recent temperature change is merely part of a cycle of change over millions of years. In fact, the proportion of those around the world who are worried about climate change seems to have dipped a little.

But if we don’t believe the scientists, then listen to the farmers who look out for the weather every day. Recently a climate change and food crisis conference was held in Penang. I interviewed a Malaysian rice farmer, an Indonesian peasant activist leader and a Filipino scientist-farmer who works with traditional farming communities — and they all told me the same thing. Farmers were reporting a blurring of seasonal weather patterns, which have gone haywire and become unpredictable. Previously farmers could tell more or less when the dry season ends and when the wet season begins. But now the seasons have gone topsy turvy, and it has become increasingly difficult to detect when the optimum planting and harvesting times are.

The difference between 2012 the movie and the real world is that in reality, we can do something to mitigate the impact of global warming and climate change.

It is not enough to leave it to national governments, which continue to bicker and pass the responsibility around among the various blocs of poorer nations, developing nations and developed nations.

As they bicker, rainforests are being cleared, hills are being levelled, emissions continue to soar and chemicals and gas emissions pollute our environment. All this is part of the economic-growth driven, neoliberal corporate-led globalisation model which makes spectacular profits for a few and leaves the majority of the human race impoverished.

We cannot leave it to the politicians, who are unable to get the world to reduce their consumption nor can we rely on the profit-motivated corporations to slow down their greedy depletion of natural resources.

Unlike the movie 2012 where the governments try to save a small remnant of the human species from the imminent destruction of the world, we have a choice.

We can continue with our unsustainable life-styles and allow the degradation — and ultimately, the destruction — of the environment.

Or we can reverse the tide — by cutting back on consumption, emissions, pollution, and the depletion of raw materials and water resources — and save the human and animal species from long-term extinction. In this struggle, the words of Jesus that exhort us to renounce riches and materialism and embrace simplicity is highly relevant.

If we really believe Jesus’ words that the kingdom of God is within us, that it will keep growing like a mustard seed and that we are stewards of Creation, then we have a moral responsibility to protect the planet from imminent degradation and destruction.