The climatologist drew the future of Lithuania and the entire planet: if we live as we do now, it will become uninhabitable by the middle of the century

Young people are the future of all of us and our planet. However, even young people themselves admit that they could take more responsibility for their actions. As Edita (name changed, real name known to the editors) stated, certain sustainable and Earth-friendly habits have entered her life by themselves, but there is still room for improvement and change.

“I couldn’t say that I don’t pay attention at all to sustainability, ecology and the problems that arise on our planet. In recent years in my life, I have given up certain habits and replaced them with more planet-friendly solutions: for example, I take a lot of public transport and walk, I try to buy as few non-essential items as possible, I don’t waste food, electricity, water. All this happened quite organically, but there are places where I could try harder,” said the girl.

She was seconded by another interlocutor named Miglė (name changed, the real one is known to the editors). The young woman admitted that she thinks that her contribution to the preservation of the planet is not very big, but, as she herself said, today she tries to think more and more often about the situation on the planet and pay attention to her habits.

“My specific actions that help to fight this problem are several: first, I try to use as little as possible single-use, plastic containers for food and drinks and exchange them for reusable containers. Second, I only travel by public transport or on foot every day. And thirdly, sometimes I buy second-hand clothes and always, before buying an item, I try to think about whether I really need it, I choose such clothes and shoes, the price of which is higher, but the quality could also allow them to serve for a longer time”, shared Miglė.

In order for people to change their habits that have a negative impact on climate change with more environmentally friendly solutions, European and global leaders are also taking action. True, Miglė said that she was critical of some of their decisions.

“I think that some solutions that are intended to reduce this problem are not focused on the problem itself, but simply want to make money under the guise of climate change, especially in Lithuania, which should not be the case. This is done so obviously that the opposite effect is created and people may not want to make efforts to reduce climate change, because the state itself makes such illogical decisions”, the young woman shared her opinion.

And here, the young interlocutor Edita shared somewhat different observations.

“It seems to me that world leaders are doing and acting in this context a lot. This is both welcome and at the same time natural, because there are obvious problems on Earth that are simply impossible to ignore. The big climate activists would probably say that most of the decisions are taken rather slowly, that there is a lack of initiative by politicians, a greater involvement of people in the changes, but I am naively inclined to believe that with small steps we can all still move forward and at least somewhat reduce the impact of various threats both for ourselves and for the planet,” she said.

True, Edita admitted that although she is inclined to believe that we can still achieve positive changes, the anxiety about the situation in her mind is only increasing.

“Perhaps I am not the most exemplary inhabitant of the planet myself, but what I see in my environment, what habits people follow, makes me doubt a little whether we all understand what serious problems we may face in the near future.” It might sound a bit selfish, but I’m a little scared to think about how I will create a family in the future, raise children, in such an environment where the situation worsens not even in days, but in hours,” she said.

Interviewer Miglė also shared her thoughts about the future.

“When it comes to climate change, it always seems that its obvious effects will not reach us so soon, but maybe it is naive to think that way, because research shows otherwise, but I believe in the awareness of the world’s population and I think that obvious changes have already been made, so the situation should not deteriorate so drastically quickly,” she said.

Certain positive changes in society are noticeable. More and more people see and understand the problems that prevail on Earth, more and more of them start to change their habits that are harmful to their planet or at least promise to do so in the future, but many probably wonder – is this enough? Are we starting to move in a better direction? Climatologist Donatas Valiukas answered these questions.

“So far we are not really moving in a better direction. On the contrary, last year was the warmest in the history of meteorological observations. A whole series of recent years have been very warm, and if we look, all the warmest years in a few hundred years have been practically in the last decade. So, we are only heading towards a warming of the global air temperature, and that situation is not really improving yet,” he said.

In general, according to the interviewee, greenhouse gases, which promote climate change, are created by almost all our daily actions.

“The products we buy, the goods – let’s think, is what we buy really necessary?” They are expensive to produce and carbon dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere during production, it is expensive to bring them, store them, and sell them. Each of us contributes to this through the purchase of goods and services, through the use of transport, through our daily habits – whether using electricity when we don’t need it, or leaving the water turned on when we can turn it on. Basically, even something as minimal as sending an SMS – it also creates a very small but CO2 emission into the atmosphere. Thus, the warming of the climate is determined by human actions and those actions are present in almost every step of our lives”, explained D. Valiukas.

The climatologist also said how the situation on Earth can change and develop in the future.

“If we didn’t do anything, the planet would become completely uninhabitable very soon – by the middle of the century or towards the end of the century.” The climate system is unpredictable, chaotic, and the consequences are difficult to predict. What is happening now means that we will have more and more extreme phenomena in the world that bring losses – be it heat waves, be it rains, droughts”, said D. Valiukas.

According to him, these are global issues, but they affect us all.

“We, being in Lithuania, where it is relatively safe, may not care much that somewhere in Asia or Africa the land is drying up, that people are losing crops, starving or their health is suffering, but, in reality, the world is bound by various ties and what happens somewhere in the South In America, Asia or elsewhere, for example, due to drought – this is reflected in the prices in Lithuania. In principle, climate change is a rising temperature, an increase in extreme events, which causes various losses that can affect not only that region, but also the whole world”, said D. Valiukas.

As noted by climatologist D. Valiukas, the European Union has taken quite a few decisions in recent years that lead to the improvement of the situation, but there is still room for improvement.

“Probably, the European Union is leading enough here and the goals of the European Union are ambitious enough. However, on the one hand, the goals of the European Union are ambitious, but we still have a lot of goods that come from Asia, China, Southeast Asia, where we do not contribute directly, but by buying goods that are produced with enough pollution, we already contribute to the greenhouse gas emissions,” he said.

So, we can all contribute to the necessary changes.

“Each person can contribute a little, and when everyone contributes, then a mass is formed. Both public transport and smart purchasing of goods, not buying when you don’t need them, better less, but better quality, not wasting various goods and especially food, which is a big problem in Europe. This is such a balanced and rational life”, pointed out D. Valiukas.

According to him, first of all, changes should be born in society, and only then they move to politicians’ decisions.

“Politics, first of all, starts with people. From people’s attitudes, their expressed thoughts and preferences, and then it all moves to a higher level. Thus, with our daily actions, we can not only show how we can lead a planet-friendly life, reducing the impact of climate change, but also transfer the formed approach to politicians, who later shape state policies that move into global politics. In principle, everything starts with a person and his small actions”, said climatologist D. Valiukas.