COMMENT | Climate change is single largest existential threat

COMMENT | Despite scepticism and denial by certain quarters on the subject, I believe that the recent flooding – a catastrophe said to have not been experienced in the past 50 years – is enough evidence that climate change is the single largest existential threat that the Malays and Muslims might not be that aware of.

Whilst the Malay populace are quick to link floods with deforestation, many do not connect it to a wider framework of discussion, and thus missing out on the few intricate and complex issues pertaining to the subject.

Even if we did, many focus only on its economic aspects and not so much on its specicidal threat. Whereas in reality, it warrants much more urgency and sits within a larger perspective of how we do things.

The more secular West are quite advanced in their apprehension of the problem. The conception of ‘anthropocene epoch’ - a time where collective human activities are significantly impacting the Earth’s geology and ecosystems, which among many results in climate change – by the late 20th century was a demonstration of the extensiveness of studies on the subject.

This insight is actually consistent with the warning by the Quran on the fasad (destruction) that appears on the planet due to corruption caused by our own hands.

Whilst the West used to frame the relationship in the antagonistic ‘man versus nature’ perspective, Islam was readily cognisant of the interdependence between...