Numbers of irresponsibility – Why we should take care in all scales

Thursday, 24 December 2020 

A surreal year is coming to an end with the cause for all the bizarre experiences, pain and lives lost not yet removed. If one activity had been quite common and visible as we moved through the year, it is the measurement of temperature. As someone indicated not even the doctor with the ‘steth’ jutting out could enter a hospital without the security checking their temperature – that indeed is a bizarre spectacle! 

The measurement system went from analogue to digital and even remote. This was a year where an invisible particle literally took each of us from within the throat. The social norms were seriously threatened. A case of the extroverts having to understand and experience introverts in real time perhaps! 

However, whether we did understand the dangers of getting too obsessed over one issue can give us a slew of negative developments is not certain. The obsession takes root when we forget the powers that we have in our midst. Our own obsession for a silver bullet via a ‘paniya’ was too obvious but ask yourself the question: if this was the display of our world class literacy in action as the year comes to a close, shouldn’t it have us worried over the future?

A matter of science

We live in a scientific age with vast strides being made every day. COVID-19 demonstrated the edge if science is allowed to understand and address issues with a scientific basis. For the very first time a vaccination – not one but 64 vaccines are today on stream – had been made available in record time and with deliveries taking place for application right now. It must be quite a proud moment for Vietnam when it started testing its own home-grown vaccine for COVID-19. 

Another year-end statistic is the generation of 74,000 plus scientific papers related to COVID-19 in the biomedical library PubMed. We know that by 31 December 2019 there was no research scientist studying COVID-19. So much research in so little time! If the numbers are seen in perspective this is twice as many as the research papers there are about polio, cholera, dengue that have plagued the society. With all the sciences available we have still observed systems straying away from science. Such deviations usually extract a heavy toll and this perhaps can be stated for Sri Lanka as well.

The virus has seriously has distracted our attention from quite a few issues and some actually may be much more serious unless you are in the ICU with COVID-19. 

The numbers

Look at the numbers presented facing an individual given in the figure. I am sure most can easily recognise – especially if you are over 50 years in age! Usually we do not understand just a number and we stress that the number should have units associated with them to give the true meaning. However, knowing the values what should be for oneself with values such as blood pressure, pulse rate, blood sugar, cholesterol content, etc.

I believe the moment the set of numbers meets your eye and the connection to medical data hits the brain, the numbers are quite familiar. We do not like these numbers to stray and we know any deviation spells trouble and over a period could be life threatening. That bit of knowledge is common. These numbers without any units are so important to an individual. Also we know that usual reasons to upset these numbers from the desired are when we are quite irresponsible about how we live, eat and drink. 

The second set of numbers that I have placed again by the side of an individual may not ring bells as quickly as the earlier set. The collection of data lists indicators that we must understand and work on to save our global home! If this home crashes there is really no use on ensuring your normal blood sugar or any other data. 

The first number indicates the overall average temperature rise that we must control over the century. The temperature is the only one parameter that both data sets share and also shares the result of marginal deviation being quite significant and adverse! This was the famous Paris Convention Agreement though there are many who were only interested in their body temperatures though they were leaders of nations. The breathing space available to achieve this is 80 more years as this 1.5 degree Celsius rise is to be controlled within the century. 

Of course the number 450 is carbon dioxide concentration, which science is measuring every day to see what progress is being made. However, the more stringent scenario is the 10 years – i.e. by 2030 – that we have to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. That is the number 17 in the list and these 17 lists all what we have to do quite explicitly.

Now our moral responsibility since 2015 had been this set of numbers yet time has gone by without many results to show. In Australia a city recorded the warmest month in history. In USA the wildfires are back again. We were however spared of the influx of pollution from Delhi air shed this year though there were some news of air quality becoming bit worse, though the situation faced in 2109 was not repeated. 

Take responsibility

It is important that we take a strong responsible stance on the second set of numbers and not merely looking only after oneself. So much is at stake if we all do not perform in this decade. In fact the UN came out with a statement on technologies in abating climate change that the previous window of opportunity to act of 12 years is no longer valid and that the world must act within 18 months. This was actually in July 2019 and with the virus in full flow I have not seen any more urgent calls for action. It is worrying indeed when you see that the 18 months have now gone. 

With the Paris Convention calculation what was indicated was that to prevent the world sliding towards climate catastrophe we need to keep cutting down 7% of our air emissions each year over the next decade. A curious data point that is coming out for year 2020 is that the world had witnessed almost a 7% drop in emissions this year. The issue is we all know that we did not achieve this by design or strategy. The virus ensured the result. However this global experiment courtesy the virus also demonstrated how difficult is to have a 7% reduction.

Now most if not all of us are itching to get back to the normal – ‘the show must go on’ is on many a person’s lip. The greater responsibility contained in the second dataset appears to be of lot less importance. With all the lockdowns, curfews and enforced travel bans the planet has not become healthier. This respite or time to heal was too short and too little. Decades of abuses cannot be reversed by the inaction of a year.

It is also instructive to see from places where data are available that when pollutants such as nitrous oxides have fallen due to loss of general vehicular travel, another pollutant particulate matter has gone up attributed to diesel burning truck movements delivering parcels courtesy due to increase of e-commerce!

COVID-19 has yielded results from an experiment that could never have happened in normal times. The result only indicates how difficult the task in front of us to save the planet.

Action and attitude

As we come to the end of a year – a year that certainly has given all of us a different direction – we have also witnessed innovation. Many had been associated with the disease itself. Most recent sci-news breaking is the approval of a genetically engineered pig by US FDA as suitable for both food and medicine. This pig will lack a particular sugar molecule that in its peers have given allergies as well as organ rejection issues. 

The technology breakthrough of the year had been light emission from silicon. Realising another ‘holy grail’ and computing is in for another overhaul. What these would lead the humanity time will tell. However one aspect is quite clear. The temperature of concern to us just cannot be 98.4 or 36.8. The global average temperature is even more of importance. 

Either way, it is our action and our attitudes that will shape the numbers in both result sheets. Year 2021 will dawn with a whimper minus much of festivities. The message is that we just cannot be overly concerned with just one set of values.