Its Earth Day today and I am making a pledge to my daughter

This is Nandhini my daughter. She is four and a half months old today, a baby blissfully oblivious to her surroundings with the most simple needs for now. To me she represents a generation who will be living full-on with the consequences of the lifestyle of my generation and the ones before mine who ushered the new world order after World War 2. The concern is that in a couple of decades when my daughter and the kids growing up now are in the prime of their youth they are going to be unfairly saddled with a tougher life.

The comes early to Malaysia because of burning tinder dry peat in forest caused by El Nino 2016

If you haven't caught up on the latest in global climate, last year was the hottest year ever in the planet since record keeping started but last year's record is going to be short lived. This year is already on the way to be hotter than last year. Multiply this trend by 20 years and the scenario that plays out in my mind–dangerous is the word that comes to mind. How much more of our planet will become desert? Will the tropics become so unbearably hot that our paradisiacal beaches will lose their charm? What about island nations like Maldives or Kiribati, even Hawaii, can we even dream of visiting these places anymore? What about Europe and the US, is spring going to become the new summer and summer going to become annual scorchers?

Then there is climate change economics which in most places means increase in the cost of living. Right now for us in the tropics keeping cool is a matter of comfort, the heat is a nuisance but when push comes to shove we can still do with a fan on full blast and a wet cloth draped on its grill. But if climate trends persist I think twenty years from now keeping cool in the tropics is going to be a health imperative. So energy costs is going to rise and if we are still powering ourselves mainly with fossil fuels then we will continue to feed a worsening loop in climate change. What about sea level rise? Twenty years from now I predict its biggest impact is going to be on the cost of staple foods like rice. Most of the world's biggest and most productive rice fields are on centuries old fertile river deltas–they are by the coast. The Mekong and Chao Praya deltas are already being affected by salt inundation caused by incremental sea level creep. That means these fields will have to move to less fertile places inland where it will cost more to produce the same amount of rice. Real estate is also going to be a challenge, finding a place to settle down that will be safe from the effects of sea level rise won't be easy.

If we are to buck the current trend of climate change there are only a couple of things we need to do. One is to simply stop using fossil fuels except in the most energy intensive industries. I think the only industry that can never do away entirely with fossil fuels is flying. Apart from that electricity production, ground transport, factories can all switch to renewable energy. Even if we need to do it incrementally the world can institute a complete ban on 100% gasoline and diesel engines for ground transport and switch to hybrid engines in five years. Then give a lag time of 10 years to completely give up internal combustion engines altogether for electric motors. In 15 years instead of 50 years we can reduce green house gas production by big percentages. The second thing we have to do is to leave nature alone and help it rejuvenate itself. We can help by planting trees, recycling our waste, switching to bio-plastics and regulating fisheries.

The pledge I am making to Nandhini is to make recycling and tree planting our passion. I will be looking forward to making tree planting our hobby and teaching her to enjoy nature the way I do and this is not only for Nandhini but her generation.