Global warming is serious ongoing problem in the world. People who are in urban area might know about the problem but mostly they do not take it seriously since they never experienced. Currently, earth is losing its “fresh water-bank” every second due to global warming and it directly affects people who are leaving in the Arctic. Rapid climate change caused unbelievable breakdown of Inuit’s society in Arctic, where have the highest suicide rates in North America. Ice and snow are their highways that bring them out to the supermarkets and key environment which link them each other and to other society. Due to losing ice and snow, land scape has eroded, contaminated drinking water, the coastal losses and causing animal species extinction. Currently, many or marine species dependent on sea ice, including polar bears, birds, and walrus are declined. On December 7, 2005, 63 Inuit from Canada and Alaska filed a legal complaint to defend their culture and their way of life. The purpose was not asking for the world to take a complete economic backward step but using appropriate technologies that limit the pollution which causing Arctic melting. Inuit people want to want to defend right of their culture, rights to lands traditionally used and occupied, and their rights to residence and movement (Moore, D.K., & Nelson, P, M. (2011).
Everyone in the world have a moral obligation to take action to protect the future of a planet in peril. It is not something can be solved in short time, since most people cannot live without technology. However, people need to know the fact, that people living in Antarctic having pain and losing their home, because of technology that people live in the world. After Antarctic experienced pain and become refuges, then next refuges will be everyone in the world. Recognize problem and take it seriously will be the first step of a moral obligation. Some developed countries have already taken a lead in implementing strategies for reduce carbon emissions, which is the main reason of greenhouse gas. For instance, the EU has implemented a successful carbon trading scheme used as a model by other nations. Indeed, the 2006 Stern Report proposed expanding the SU scheme to include as many countries as possible (Steger, 2009. P 95).
In New Zealand, there are five 350 organizations: Auckland, University of Auckland, Otago University, Christchurch, and University of Canterbury. They exist to let people know about climate change, reason and solution. The name of 350 came from the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide. Currently, earth is at 400ppm which is above the safe upper limit. Acceleration of global warming and melting glaciers were due to exceeded level of carbon dioxide emission. Global warming is caused by releasing what are called greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Which generated by burning fossil fuels like coal and oil. The 350 campaign focuses on making the connections between ones actions and climate change easier to understand so one can turn this around (350 Aotearoa).
In New Zealand, there are many environmental groups including Greenpeace, Clean Earth League, Wildlife Conservation Trust, and many other organization to preserve nature and animals. The biggest organization is the Environment and Conservation Organization of AOTEAROA New Zealand (ECO). ECO is a network of over fifty large and small environmental organizations based all around New Zealand, as well as several hundred individual friends. The core of ECO’s work is promoting and strengthening community environmental action, and working collaboratively towards better government policies and management decisions. Eco also contributes on global issues such as climate change, Antarctica, and oceans. Greenpeace is another active organization to protect nature in New Zealand, its main activities are preserve forests, defending oceans, agriculture and genetic engineering, eliminate toxic chemicals, and stop climate change. Greenpeace opposes the development and building of fossil fuel energy sources in New Zealand. They also promoting Marine Reserves which are a scientifically developed and endorsed approach to redressing the crisis in New Zealand oceans which work alongside a range of other measures designed to ensure that the demands they make of their oceans are managed sustainably. Despite of many organization’s effort to preserve New Zealand’s nature, lately, New Zealand government refused to support international marine protection which was approved by massive margin. Which seems like the government chose to listen to the irrational arguments of a few fishing industry lobbyists rather than to the science and the 96 percent of New Zealanders who want more marine protection (Howe 2016).
Moore, D.K., & Nelson, P, M. (2011). The Inuit Right to Culture Based on Ice and Snow. Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril (25-29). San Antonio TX: Trinity University Press.
Climate Change. 350 AOTEAROA. Retrieved from
http://350.org.nz/about/about-climate-change/
Steger, M B. (2009). Globalization: A very short introduction. (2Ed.). Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press
What We Do. Environment and Conservation Organization of Aotearoa New Zealand. Retrieved from
http://www.eco.org.nz/what-we-do.html
What We Do. Greenpeace New Zealand. Retrieved from
http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/en/campaigns/oceans/
Howe, C. (2016, September 10). NZ Government refuses to support international marine protection. SCOOP politics. Retrieved from.
Australia & Oceania 