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Courtesy of UN Environment 
Climate change has been the talk of the town in recent years. Although there are some big names who think it’s a hoax, the fact shows otherwise. An unprecedented number of nature related disasters consistently occurred in recent years: tsunami, an unbearable heatwave in the summer and an unbearable cold in the winter, draught, ocean full of plastics, poor air quality and many more. 

If we go back and see what really takes us here and the explanation has to be the process of production and consumption. 

Ever since the industrial revolution, life has been considered to be easier and easier as we no longer had to endure the workloads of people who had lived before us. The invention of machines make the process of production even better. The repetitive jobs that used to be done by humans now replaced by machines which sound very good indeed. However, as anything in life that has to be a trade-off. But what do we have to trade for a more humane job?  

The machine can’t function without a support from electricity power. And what do use to generate electricity power? Majority of countries still use coal and oil to do so. Therefore trade-off for using coal and oil is an environment which gets worse and worse everyday. As human beings are very much dependent on nature, once nature is affected human’s life is also affected. The use of coal and oil cause air pollution. Sooner or later the poor air quality will become a problem for human beings. Unless we change our production method, air quality will get worse and eventually human beings will be fighting over oxygen. In jakarta the campaign to use a mask when you are outdoor has been started. What would be a worst nightmare than having to cover your nose every time you are in the outdoors. 

That’s just the power. We haven’t talked about how we produce our food. We have come along the way with food. Unlike the old days where we have to make food from scratch, now we have processed foods which are packed with single-used plastics. By the way, before we talk about how bad single use-plastics are, can we all agree that processed food also contributes to the environmental degradation? O.K., great! Now, poor waste management in most countries make the idea of using of plastic which were once a fantastic ideas turn to be a major catastrophe. Now when we turn our TV or read news, we are always exposed to how bad our ocean have become and many whales are dead packed with kilos upon kilos of plastics inside of its body. 

Those are just two examples of our bad production practices. Of course there are endless examples out there. 

What about our consumption? Similar to our production practices, we also do the same with our consumption. The planet earth is densely overpopulated and to meet the consumption needs of this overpopulation we use more natural resources than it can afford. According to “An EEA analysis of nine EU Member States (representing 268 million of the EU's total 501 million people) has found that the majority of key environmental pressures caused by total national consumption can be allocated to eating and drinking, housing and infrastructure, and mobility.”

Now knowing that the future of our environment is very dependent on us, what do we do to pay off what has already happened? And yes, we need to change our production and consumption practices. Government should use the alternative for the power supply as not to use the ones which obviously damage the environment. It is not an easy process; thus the small effort always count. At the individual level, we have to also be mindful of how we live our life. Make sure that we do not overuse foods with single-used plastics. Make sure that we use public transport as opposed to using personal car. Eventually, we have to watch our carbon footprint making sure that it is at the lowest possible. 

courtesy of higienis.com
Few days ago Jakartanese has been alerted by the shocking news that Jakarta has the
world’s poorest air quality. Well, does it really shock you? Do not pretend that we are in
shock. A, when could we see Jakarta with a clear sky without those grey pollution
hanging all over it? B, have we done anything to mitigate it? C, though we have been
seeing trees planted along with those new pedestrians, somehow Jakarta is still at its
worse it terms of air quality.

Why so? Jakarta as the center of everything for Indonesia : it’s where business
happens, it’s where many industrial factories are located, it’s where entertainment
industries are, and whatnot. The city is exhausted with a never ending energy
consumption and in return awarded with an endless carbon prints.

Who’s to blame? All of us. We take taxi over public transport. We order gofood as
opposed to walking out of our comfortable kost-kostan (which is an exaggeration as it
alone deserves its own critique), we are 24 hours in an AC room, our electricity is
coal-based, what else? There are just too many of them.

If we think about it, “business as usual” is the core topic of this conversation. We both
blame and are aware of its irreplaceable value.

Business should not suffer just because we want a better air quality and environment as
a whole. What we should do is to change our business model. All this time business has
always been known as an activity that hopes to use capital at its bare minimum and
gain as much profit. It never cares about the damage it causes to the environment and
the people around it.

Now if we really want the human race to survive, which we do, we need to start
changing our business model. Gaining profit should not be the only priority. More
important than that, businesses need to put environmental and humanitarian cause in
their business goal. And of course government who is mandated by the people with
authority needs to ensure that there is a law that protects the environment, as it is
closely related with human’s well-being.

Let’s see it this way! Air quality is poor (an understatement) and people start to have
trouble with their breathing system and what it leads to is all sickness imaginable.
Marginal society will be the first to face the consequences: no access to health or if they

do they will be treated in such poor service or poor health facility. Eventually, all of us
will face the side effects of this environmental disaster.

What should we do?

1. Advocate (raise awareness on the issue),

2. Pressure government to make and regulate an environmentally-friendly law along
with providing integrated public transportation which uses
environmentally-friendly energy i.e., solar based., and regulate a premium
quality of waste management that ensures wastes are recycled and upcycled,

3. And start moving towards an environmentally-friendly lifestyle (use public
transport, minimize consumption and be more mindful in the production process
if you are a business person, and since our waste is still very very poorly
managed, we need to minimize the use of single use plastic.

As long as Jakarta still holds its status as the business capital of Indonesia, it will not
lose its charm. People will always come and try to make a living in it. Our job is to make
this home (temporary or permanent) less hostile and ensure than we stay alive amidst
its hostile environment.