In a few days, Europeans will stop talking about the record heat because the media will give them something else to talk about. This phenomenon has been repeated thousands of times in the past four decades. The climate denials rule the world and control the media. They buy and sell fossil fuel and are so rich, they can get us to believe what they want us to believe.

Even in the old monument zones of the Kathmandu valley, far away from the heat of Europe, the number of fossil fuel powered two wheelers are on the rise and clog up the narrow lanes. It has become impossible to take a quiet walk in these wonderful and globally unique spaces. The ones who have smoke emitting bikes think that those who walk are too poor to pollute or just stupid to be walking when the automotive technology exists.

In the meantime the President of the USA arrives at climate “talk” venues in a large motorcade of gas guzzlers and tells the world with a straight face about his and his country’s commitment to fight climate change. A few days ago he was in Saudi Arabia asking them to pump up more oil into the world market to offset what the Russians might do.

Then winter will come and the media will tell us that the extreme cold could be due to climate change from their fossil fuel heated studios. No one will believe this because cold could not possibly be the result of global “warming’. We do not seem to understand how difficult it is for non – English speaking people to make sense of these words. As Homer, the character from the Simpsons says, “I am shovelling six feet of global warming from my drive way.” This confuses everyone, even more.

In the meantime, many thousands around the world must be calling their travel agents and consular officers in their countries to find out the best way to get to Cairo for COP27. Most would not have seen the wonderful pyramids outside of Cairo and will miss a few sessions to take a selfie in front of these great monuments. These conferences may not agree on anything except the need to meet again for COP28 in some other country, some exotic site that climate change threatens.

The USA has been touting its model of democracy all over the world. Now it is time to ask a very simple question. What kind of democracy is the USA where these judges appointed by Donald Trump can reverse all the initiatives to fight climate change? What will happen if Trump is re- elected? I guess the media will help us to understand and tell us what we should believe.

Nepal may be on track to meet its goal to become net zero by 2045 AD, like California, USA; not because we are ruled by visionary leaders, but because of the price rise and disruption in the supply of fossil fuels. Nepal has no fossil fuel and a positive factor is that more and cleaner hydro power is coming on line.

We need to use tariff move creatively to help thirty million Nepalis to eat rice cooked with clean energy. Nepal also has a healthy forest cover that acts as sink for our emissions. This is also a good time to get business and industry to produce by utilizing clean fuels and not rely on coal and diesel. The methane from our rice fields and livestock were there before the industrial era.