COP27 Climate Summit: « A Call to Take Back the Earth»

In an unprecedented move in November 2021, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change announced that Egypt would host the 27th COP, at that time I didn't even know the difference between weather and climate. In the same month of this year, a plan was drawn up to establish a new department at the Al-Dustour Newspaper under the name »Atmosphere« for climate change issues, and it will be treated as one of the main departments, so what has changed within a year?

·         What has changed?

In January of the beginning of 2021, the weather was unexpectedly cold. The strangeness of this was that the weather in general in Egypt was not so cold before. I remembered, with a smile, a lesson in the elementary school saying: »Egypt’s weather is hot, dry in summer, moderate and rainy in winter.« And I asked myself, what has changed?

The first thing I did was go to the search engines, I wrote: Why is Egypt getting colder? The answer was clear: climate change. I read quickly and did not understand, it was complicated. Then I read a Google report stating that it had detected a more than 1,000% increase in the search rate for environmental related concepts such as climate change, recycling, and solar water heating. I was definitely one of those researchers.

My relationship to climate change coincided with my relationship with documentaries. I went from someone who couldn't stand documentaries and consider them boring to someone who made a list of films related to environmental protection and climate. I drowned in a sea of ​​climate: greenhouse gases, emissions, global warming, fossil fuels, global average temperatures, and Nationally Determined Contributions. Mitigation, adaptation, and others.

One of the most important films I've seen, Before the Flood, which directly monitors the impact of global warming on the planet, was a thrill from the moment Leonardo DiCaprio said: "If the United Nations really knew how I felt (about being chosen as an ambassador for peace to talk about climate change), and how pessimistic I am about our future ..”I think they may have chosen the wrong man", I was feeling the same, completely lost.

·         climate issues

Hours and hours in front of documentaries, several training courses and discussion sessions, and links saved in the browser to dozens of local and international dialogues and reports on climate issues and the outcomes of previous conferences of parties, and an unprecedented interest in what I personally considered "something worthy of a person’s life" created from me, in the end, who puts Protecting the environment is his priority in any decision he makes.

·         value of «recycling»

Among the values ​​I've learned is the value of "recycling", The first lesson from a documentary called "The Minimalists" prompted me to re-filter things around me, get rid of clothes I no longer need, stop drinking caffeinated drinks, and walk more, And check the compatibility of the products with the environment before buying them.

·         A campaign to plant 100 million trees

I was impressed by what I saw on our streets, I sensed a real desire of the government to align with global standards and implement its nationally determined contributions, those initiatives were tangible for the ordinary citizen, a campaign to plant 100 million trees, another to rely on bicycles to reduce the use of fossil fuels, and a “green metro” working Electricity, projects to protect beaches and coastal residents, and many more.

And because I believe that individual knowledge may be sufficient to adapt to the effects of climate change, I launched an initiative to adopt the establishment of a special section on climate issues in press institutions, along with the departments of economics, art, sports, politics, and others, but in the end, mitigating those effects will only be done through International initiatives are large-scale such as COP27 and others, so I wish success to preserve our planet, after all, "we only have one Earth".

·         Conclusion

Climate change threatens the survival of the earth, and the measures that we can take will contribute to us regaining control over the earth and protecting it from destruction.