Who pays the bill?

The bill is a huge debate and an issue that's always feared. Here comes the beginning of the month or the end of the month and the bills piling up. It may be the electricity bill, the shopping bills, or maybe the grocery bills, the credit card bill, or school bills - all of which need to be paid immediately. The option of delaying payment only piles up debt and increases a problem created out of nothing.

Who pays the bill? A question that is asked in every family. And the bill has to be paid, there is no option because we can only spend from what we have.

Is there ever a bill that's not paid?

Sometimes we like to ignore some bills, and that is the case with the ever-increasing debts that we owe to the climate, thinking that we don't have to pay those bills or that there are no bills to be paid. There is always a bill, and if there is a bill then, it has to be paid. The question is that we have delayed paying it, have only accumulated the debt and made it voluminous, and we are paying the consequences of that pile-up.

According to Deloitte Global report, climate-related events are already affecting more than 1 in 4 organizations worldwide.

Some of the threats that climate change poses to businesses;

1- Resource scarcity

2- Weakened production capacity

3- Increased capital and operational costs

4- Reduced demand for goods and services.

But is it only businesses that suffer?

What about the drylands that we are losing and the animals that go extinct due to climate change?

To quote a pupil from Sgoil an Iochdair – "I am from South Uist, a small island in the Western Isles. A stunning island - Uist, and it is in trouble, however. With the sea level rising, sand dunes and machair lands are disappearing. The crofts beside the ocean are falling into the sea. It is frightening that the island I have grown up on is being eaten away. People and animals will lose their homes. Uist is grassland for many birds and flowers that cannot live somewhere else. If the island disappears, these species will be in frightful danger. To make things better, I would like the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference - COP26 - to make electric cars more accessible. Another idea would be to encourage people to use 10% of their land for trees or wildlife. We still have a long way to go until we can stop climate change."

*Sgoil an Iochdair - is a primary school in South-Uist