27 April 2013

We together can create a new dawn
We can make wonder…!!!

     Yes, a magician is hiding inside every one of us. With a little more effort, collectively we can make a difference -- a real difference.
     All is not well with the health of our environment -- an uneasy truth that some of us already know and some don’t believe at all. Rest are yet to decide which way to go.
     But the reality is palpable. The world is getting hotter, temperature is setting the bar higher every summer, the monsoon patterns have been disturbed, agricultural output is dwindling (though, not to an extent that can make us sit up), glaciers are melting fast, droughts are intensifying and a turf war over water availability does not seem a distant dream anymore.
     Baffled...?? While the world leaders are fighting in order to eke out a consensus to find a way out of the problems those are intensifying with every passing day, what a wonder can we, the so called “cattle class”, can do…!!! And how...!!!

     True, we are busy, very busy. Every day, we have to reach office fighting with co-passengers in public transport, have to make boss happy with extra hours in workplace, need to take care of the family, and overall, not accepting the spirited demand of your child to play with on holidays is simply unpardonable. We have such a crammed schedule to follow. Where is the time to think green...!!!
     Still we can do a lot…

     Just out of the bed and brushing the teeth while racing with the live machine called clock, can’t we give our day a “wise” beginning by just turning the running tap water off while not in use? May be we have to do nothing beyond pressing the electric motor switch to get running water, that too hot in winters, in our washrooms, but who cares for those fellow countrymen, mostly women, who have no way but to walk down (remember barefoot, not with shoes or chappals) daily somewhere around 5 to 10 miles on an average to collect water.
     Are you listening…???
     There must be days fresh in some of our memory when we forgot to turn off the fans or the lights while living for office and on the mobiles responding to some frantic calls from bosses. Fine, forget the money you have to shell out for the electricity consumption, because you might be a highly paid white-collar executive, but how can you forget the news (must be read in some newspaper or shown by one or the other TV channels) that some crucial surgeries had to be stalled or the pregnant women with labour pain had to wait (sometimes even die) only because of interrupted electric supply at health centres in some other corners of the same country?
     If we don’t care about the “big words” like environment or energy conservation (you have the right to), can’t we act in a bit more sensible manner just to show that we do remember the condition of our fellow citizens (no one is asking you to do anything more)?
     Are you listening…???
     More left. 
     Stuck in traffic jam, how many of us bother to let the engines of our cars take some rest?
     You say, “Who the hell are you to give me speech?” But, experts (not me, I am not an expert) say, collective shut-downs of motor engines in all traffic signals or while in traffic jams across the country, forget the world, can save expensive fuel worth billions of dollars, let alone doing some good to the city air that we breathe in.
     Are you listening…???
     “Energy conservation or care for environment should start at the individual level. If every one of us can take initiative to stop wastage of energy, the overall scenario is going to change certainly. But that is not what’s happening,” an internationally acclaimed environment activist recently lamented while talking to this author.
    
     Office is the place where majority of the time is spent and the work pressure is enough to make you forget all other problems of life, and sometimes you don't get the time to even remind yourself that there is a mid-day meal called lunch.
     Everything said and done, how can we forget to shutdown the computers at our workstations while leaving for home? You don’t bother because it’s the spending of the company after all, not yours. Even if you don't have intention to do any good to your environment (simply because it’s company’s duty), just think about the amount your company can put aside every year if all the 3,000 odd computers are not left running throughout the nights. Can't you smell more profit triggering a better monetary appreciation?
     I don't insist that you think about those rural people yet to enjoy their first brush with electricity.
     The list simply goes on with numerous incidents, trifle or seem not-so-important otherwise, scattered here and there in our daily life though fail to grab attention more than often, but can make a big difference if taken care of collectively. We know, better resource management means a better environment. 
     However, it depends whether we want to bring about a real change around us or are eager to close our eyes and pass the buck to other’s table.
     It’s all in our outlook. If the outlook changes, we can save the earth and its environment; otherwise, a status quo would lead us to our peril.
     After all, it’s the same story of water half glass full or half glass empty. Look either way.

23 April 2013

Earth Day: Have we ever thought..???


     So, another Earth Day, on April 22, has passed by. But to us, does that signify anything beyond just another busy day in our routine life, especially when it falls on the first day of a week, or on any weekdays for that matter? Do we have even time to stop for a moment and think about the day, forget about making any pledge?
     The answer is NO.
     But we need to. Yes, we need to.
     Frankly speaking, one Earth Day in a year is probably not enough to remind us what we, the human beings, are doing to the environment of the only planet that supports life in the universe (none other found yet, at least).
     The world population that stood at around 1.6 billion in 1900 and 2.6 billion 50 years later, has now -- in somewhat more than 50-year time –- crossed the 7 billion mark, and the planet earth is projected to host a total of 8 billion human breathing on its surface by the year 2025. 
     The threat is looming large, simply because only breathing is not enough. People -– presently living as well as the ones who would be coming sooner or later -- will need food to fill their stomachs, houses as shelters and clothes to wear, among many other things.
     But where all these are going to come from while the mere number of human beings and their activities (polluting more than often) are routinely stretching the environment to its limit and testing its patience…!!!
     Some say, the population is asset and not a problem. 
     But I wonder, with limited and still fast depleting natural resources -- due to overuse as well as misuse -- how an ever-growing population would be seen as asset in the days to come, especially in the developing and under-developing countries…!!!
     Please, don’t think about India or the Indian sub-continent only; it is not the time to remain confined. Today, we badly need somewhat broader an outlook that would make us realise the actual condition of the world as a whole and not only our sweet home, because we, individually, are nothing but small parts of the whole scenario called “world ecosystem”.
     13 years into the new millennium, life expectancy of people might have increased in some corners of the world, but the number of people who die due to lack of basic health care or simply awareness, due to malnutrition, due to contaminated water or no water availability, or from killer diseases like malaria or dengue is still easily overshoots the number of people enjoying the extended life expectancy, in especially urban areas.
     Certainly, all blame should not be put on population growth, and we need to give a rethink to our resource management approach as well.
     I am not trying to draw a disappointing picture but trying to make ourselves remind what a big task is left yet.
     Devastating earthquakes, intensifying droughts, growing number of storms and arrival of more unpredictable diseases all across the globe is probably the warning letter issued by the planet earth that it’s time to wait, think and act in a new direction. We need to show the will to make it happen.
     Only a couple of pledges on every Earth Day –- do you think it is enough to bring about any visible difference? The answer is a clear and loud NO.
     Don’t you think everyday should be an Earth Day so that we can renew and embolden our pledge to save the planet and every one of us should keep working with an eye on making it a better place to live in, at our individual level at least?