Global Warming-The Last Warning!
The summer of the year 2024 makes it very clear that Mother Earth is not going to tolerate anymore of human depredations and the unusually long summers with hot temperature together with humidity sounds the last warning. Mend your ways or perish-this is what nature wants to tell us. We have been hearing about the apocalypse coming. Well the apocalypse has already arrived. We have had enough of activism ever since the world leaders thought of saving the earth in their gathering at Stockholm in 1972. It is time for some concrete action. And every member of humanity, all 8 billion of us will have to come into action. Hitherto, we have been talking, discussing, blaming one another but little action followed. We have almost reached the brink.
Long back there was a Halifax declaration, a mile post on the issue of climate change. It said- “human demands upon the planet are now of a volume and kind that, unless changed substantially, will threaten the future well being of all living species”. Though it addressed the universities and the elite, it was meant for the entire humanity. The conference of December 1991 on University action for Sustainable Development had a select gathering of the educated class from 33 universities and 10 countries and other professionals from different sections of the society at Halifax, Nova Scotia. Needless to say that little has been achieved except that some courses on the Environmental Science have been floated, and seminars and symposia have become a part of our routine. But what about the results.
Mean temperatures rising, summers stretching beyond the normal duration, groundwater vanishing, flora and fauna disappearing, rivers drying and erratic monsoons is what we have got. The pressure on earth has far exceeded the carrying capacity but we fail to realize where we are heading for. Bland sloganeering and popular catch phrases lead us nowhere. Where to look for the answer? We need to go back to Gandhi once again. He was very right when he said that the world has enough for every man's need, but not sufficient for even one man's greed. Imagine what will happen when the entire humanity feeds on greed. We are witnessing that scenario. It is no longer about the developing world, the developed world and the third world. It is about the entire humanity. We are paying the price of unwarranted consumption.
Instead of teaching Environmental Science we need to focus on Values and Ethics. The answer is conservation and only conservation. The so called development feeds on vulgar consumption and it's time to reverse the tide. The meaning of development has to be understood in the right perspective. Prosperity also pollutes and poverty also pollutes. This cardinal truth has to be understood. And the time is running out. Every philosophy, every religion talks about the apocalypse by different names. In the Hindu scriptures it is called ‘Pralay’, in the Islamic Holi books it is ‘Qayamat’ and the Holy Bible names it ‘The Doomsday’. But the names don't matter. The fact is simple-it is now or never. And action with all sincerity. Amen.