What would you do if somebody violates your mother? Or if you love your country, what would you do, if an alien army invades your motherland, raping your women, killing the children and pillaging your property?
Would you stand with folded hands and watch the tamasha?
Now something greater than your mother, women and possessions are being violated. The mother of all these is crying out for your understanding, your help. Mother Earth who gives sustenance to everything on this beautiful blue globe is being raped, gang raped. And you watch with folded hands and imagine that it is happening to someone else and you are not responsible.
To explain this fully I quote from a novel that I wrote recently. It is not a work about environment at all. Still I make the protagonist mouth the concerns that trouble me constantly.
I quote.
"‘The problem, the greatest single problem that humanity faces today isn’t anything that the politicians have us think. What is in question is our very existence on this earth, our very survival. Man has survived on this planet, even when the great dinosaurs had died out, become extinct. The instinct for survival is the strongest instinct in any living being. Man survived through the ages because of this and also using his superior intelligence and powers of adaptation.’
‘And now it’s as if man is bereft of his powers of reasoning, it’s as if he has suddenly succumbed to a death-wish. It’s as if, like the lemmings of the tundra, he is hell bent on committing suicide en masse. If we go on like this, by the turn of the next century, mankind as specie will have become extinct.’
‘If we take preventive action with immediate effect and a long term perspective in view, we can arrest this problem now. But the tragic thing about it is the fact that there’s only one group of people who can really help and those are the politicians.’
‘In a way, you can’t blame them. All their actions are governed by their tenure of five years sometimes even less in these times of political uncertainty. Their imagination refuses to stretch beyond this time limit, with the result that they can’t or are afraid to take any long-term decisions. In the meantime humanity suffers. In spite of the warnings of experts, the politicians refuse to see the problem that’s facing all living beings, for what it is. And in collusion with some greedy, grabbing industrialists, they’re hell bent on destroying life, the most fragile, the most divine of all things on earth. The warnings of the experts are just laughed off.’
‘BUT I INTEND TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!’
‘Before long, our atmosphere will become piss and shit. Depletion of the Ozone layer will cause skin cancer. It’s already evident in certain countries of the Northern Hemisphere. Millimeter by millimeter, the sea level is rising and cities lying along the sea - as most of them are - will be inundated, under water, in the very near futurre - this is already under way in the beautiful italian city of Venice. Soon we’ll have to wear oxygen masks as if we’re on a lunar landscape. The decimation of forests will bring down the oxygen level and the building of dams will release lethal doses of methane into the already dying environment. And the fact of the matter is that all these processes are under way NOW!’
‘The industrialist pollutes the environment, the politician pollutes the nation.’
‘And the world suffers in the meantime.’
‘I’ve already begun to do something about it. And I’m getting results, but in very slow measure.’
‘Environmental extremism.’
‘…the end does not always justify the means, but sometimes it does.’
‘Not that. That’s not an alternative. Its. It's even called terrorism.’
‘Yeah, maybe. Some dirty Jap used this term when certain daring individuals tried to prevent the hunting of whales by some cruel Japanese.’
‘Come to think of it, it is the terrorism of the future. Folk will die for it and they’ll be dying for a good cause too. Causes like religious and political extremism will die out. What relevance these forms of extremism have when the existence of the very specie hangs in the balance?’
‘Don’t worry. I hope that I’ll never have to resort to such a step. But the option is there all the time, wide open. I’ve the very persons to do it. But I’ll use them only as a last resort. May be I won’t use them at all. But the option is there, ready all the time,’
The protagonist ends the speech thus. 'And I promise you one thing. I’ll make it very difficult for people who are in power who turn a blind eye to the slow destruction of our beautiful, blue planet.’
I think this will do for a starter. If you feel what I believe is right, let us turn into a noble Protector of Mother Earth and fight those who rapes her incessantly.
LISTEN TO THE CALL OF THE MOTHER!
Labels: Environment, Extremism, Pollution
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Beware of Traitors
These days when many are worried about the deteriorating environment and its consequences, certain people raise their evil heads here and there, claiming that global warming is a scam, dreamed up some scientists who don’t know what they are talking about. They go on to say that the process of global warming is quite natural and not man-made at all, like everyone else seems to think. They assure us, heating up and cooling down of the atmosphere occur all the time. It only means that Nature is going about her business in her own way. Dontcha worry, old boy, there’s absolutely nothing to worry about.
Here, I wish to point out certain home truths to these misguided apologists for carbon emissions – they might even claim like the ignoramuses that they are that since carbon dioxide and monoxide contain oxygen, it will compersate fot the carbon molecules spewed out into the atmosphere. So what’s the problem!
I happen to live in India and have seen the melting glaciers of the great Himalayas. My friends in Europe tell me the same thing is happening there and soon there won’t be any ski slopes left in the Alps and other such areas, fit to ski. The inhabitants of the scenic Maldives are looking elsewhere to migrate when their lovely islands are submerged under the sea forever, through no fault of their own.
A friend of mine, a devout Christian tells me that the end of the world is nigh. All the pestilences, famines, floods and other calamities mentioned in the good book are coming to a pass. He even exhorted me to prepare myself with constant prayers.
Hollywood issues some prophetic movies at regular intervals, depicting what it will be like in the years to come. Such movies show the Earth as bleak, barren and inhospitable – some even say that NASA is looking for worlds to which humans can migrate to, once our planet becomes unfit to live. And many industrialists and politicians watch these movies. But they watch them as something merely entertaining, figments of some scriptwriter’s fertile imagination. But the real fact of the matter is that such scripts are well researched for the fellers who wrote them in the first place, know what they are talking about.
May be the skeptics will believe it when the world becomes ‘The Water World’.
It’ll like Noah’s warning to the world at large. Those who ignore it, do so at their own peril.
Here, I wish to point out certain home truths to these misguided apologists for carbon emissions – they might even claim like the ignoramuses that they are that since carbon dioxide and monoxide contain oxygen, it will compersate fot the carbon molecules spewed out into the atmosphere. So what’s the problem!
I happen to live in India and have seen the melting glaciers of the great Himalayas. My friends in Europe tell me the same thing is happening there and soon there won’t be any ski slopes left in the Alps and other such areas, fit to ski. The inhabitants of the scenic Maldives are looking elsewhere to migrate when their lovely islands are submerged under the sea forever, through no fault of their own.
A friend of mine, a devout Christian tells me that the end of the world is nigh. All the pestilences, famines, floods and other calamities mentioned in the good book are coming to a pass. He even exhorted me to prepare myself with constant prayers.
Hollywood issues some prophetic movies at regular intervals, depicting what it will be like in the years to come. Such movies show the Earth as bleak, barren and inhospitable – some even say that NASA is looking for worlds to which humans can migrate to, once our planet becomes unfit to live. And many industrialists and politicians watch these movies. But they watch them as something merely entertaining, figments of some scriptwriter’s fertile imagination. But the real fact of the matter is that such scripts are well researched for the fellers who wrote them in the first place, know what they are talking about.
May be the skeptics will believe it when the world becomes ‘The Water World’.
It’ll like Noah’s warning to the world at large. Those who ignore it, do so at their own peril.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
A Glimmer of Hope?
According to a recent United Nations report, major investments are being made in renewable energies like solar, wind and such. A whopping 110 billion U.S dollars have been invested against the 110 billion dollars ear marked for power generation using fossil fuel. Some comfort indeed!
It is really heartwarming to know that developing countries like India and China are at the forefront of this very welcome phenomenon. Like many developed countries they too want to bring down the dependence on fossil fuels for power generation. If they do this with sincerity and commitment they will be making amends for the harm they are presently doing to the environment.
It is happy to note that this process is slowly turning the tables on fossil fuels. A lot of capital is brought in to further this activity. Let’s hope that the trend will continue in the face of the prevailing economic depression and diminishing fresh investments.
Investors found wind energy more attractive with bio fuels close at heels. Other forms like solar and wave energies are also getting to be attractive.
All this hectic activity is fine of course, but a word of caution! The time hasn’t come to heave a deep sigh of relief. We are only looking at the future scenario. But many of the prevailing practices continue unabated. Still we can take satisfaction from the fact that a change is slowly being made.
Let’s hope that the trend will continue until renewable energy sources replace fossil fuels altogether or at least to a considerable extent.
It is really heartwarming to know that developing countries like India and China are at the forefront of this very welcome phenomenon. Like many developed countries they too want to bring down the dependence on fossil fuels for power generation. If they do this with sincerity and commitment they will be making amends for the harm they are presently doing to the environment.
It is happy to note that this process is slowly turning the tables on fossil fuels. A lot of capital is brought in to further this activity. Let’s hope that the trend will continue in the face of the prevailing economic depression and diminishing fresh investments.
Investors found wind energy more attractive with bio fuels close at heels. Other forms like solar and wave energies are also getting to be attractive.
All this hectic activity is fine of course, but a word of caution! The time hasn’t come to heave a deep sigh of relief. We are only looking at the future scenario. But many of the prevailing practices continue unabated. Still we can take satisfaction from the fact that a change is slowly being made.
Let’s hope that the trend will continue until renewable energy sources replace fossil fuels altogether or at least to a considerable extent.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Imja, The Himalayan Glacier…A Lake Now!
Himalayan glaciers are slowly turning into lakes. It was in the 1950s that Erwin Schneider and Fritz Muller braved the extreme hazards of a Himalayan winter to map and measure the Imja glacier, a major glacier that has been there for thousands of years.
Half a century has passed when the famous mountain geographer Alton Byers reached the very same breath taking location. But the photographs he took of the region and exhibited at Bonn, Germany tells us a different story, shocking in its implications. The famous glacier has all but disappeared and a lake stands in its stead. Small glaciers at the lower reaches have vanished altogether and only half of the larger glaciers remain.
Now most of the awesome glacier has become a lake and keep on declining at an alarming rate. Sadly the same trend is repeated all around the globe, in the Alps, Greenland and the poles.
Nepal, home for most of the Himalayas is getting increasingly warmer as a result. At certain points the banks of the lake is vulnerable. If any of these points is breached the toll of destruction it will exact will be cataclysmic.
Poor Imja Glacier! Can we turn ironic and call it the Imja Lake?
Half a century has passed when the famous mountain geographer Alton Byers reached the very same breath taking location. But the photographs he took of the region and exhibited at Bonn, Germany tells us a different story, shocking in its implications. The famous glacier has all but disappeared and a lake stands in its stead. Small glaciers at the lower reaches have vanished altogether and only half of the larger glaciers remain.
Now most of the awesome glacier has become a lake and keep on declining at an alarming rate. Sadly the same trend is repeated all around the globe, in the Alps, Greenland and the poles.
Nepal, home for most of the Himalayas is getting increasingly warmer as a result. At certain points the banks of the lake is vulnerable. If any of these points is breached the toll of destruction it will exact will be cataclysmic.
Poor Imja Glacier! Can we turn ironic and call it the Imja Lake?
Friday, June 5, 2009
Requiem for An Auto Giant.
Bob Lutz, vice chairman of General Motors was said to have stated that global warming is ‘a crock of shit.’ Now that the company that helped to pollute the environment with the millions of vehicles his company has produced and sold through the years is breathing its last, ‘the crock of shit’ as the V.C flippantly termed it will be reduced considerably and the air is all the more purer as a result.
The era of gas guzzling, pollution-spewing internal combustion engine is slowly but surely coming to a close. While the Western manufacturers are still obsessed with the idea of ICE and keep on producing the evil-product, some far sighted entrepreneurs in Asian countries like China and India have slowly started to deviate from the well-trodden path. India’s electric vehicle Reva and China’s rather advanced BYD are forerunners of this coming revolution.
Talking about India, the Tatas are going to fill the highways with their cheap little trinket called the Nano. They will soon be visible on the highways around the world, belching carbonic gases like nobody’s business. Such ventures are bound to be short lived, for the days of petrol and diesel driven vehicles are numbered.
The writing on the wall is there for all to see. Auto makers will have to wake up from their rigid mindsets from petrol to ‘green’ cars very soon or they will have to give up the ghost like the ubiquitous GM.
The era of gas guzzling, pollution-spewing internal combustion engine is slowly but surely coming to a close. While the Western manufacturers are still obsessed with the idea of ICE and keep on producing the evil-product, some far sighted entrepreneurs in Asian countries like China and India have slowly started to deviate from the well-trodden path. India’s electric vehicle Reva and China’s rather advanced BYD are forerunners of this coming revolution.
Talking about India, the Tatas are going to fill the highways with their cheap little trinket called the Nano. They will soon be visible on the highways around the world, belching carbonic gases like nobody’s business. Such ventures are bound to be short lived, for the days of petrol and diesel driven vehicles are numbered.
The writing on the wall is there for all to see. Auto makers will have to wake up from their rigid mindsets from petrol to ‘green’ cars very soon or they will have to give up the ghost like the ubiquitous GM.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
June 5 – Environment Day.
On this day, pregnant with meaning, let us rededicate ourselves to the protection of our Environment.
The very first thing be done is to make the Presidents and P.M’s of this world realize the urgency of the very situation. And this fervent request to the powers that be:
Oh, those folk, entrusted with the administration and well-being of people all around the world, only you can save the planet Earth for the simple reason that only you have the necessary power to do so. The way things are going on now, we can just about preserve ourselves on this beautiful blue planet for some little time.
Now what about the coming generations that are going to live here? Don’t they have the right to continue and take part in the drama of life? Do your children and grandchildren have to suffer for what we failed to do?
Oh, world leaders with the power of life and death over all in this world! Have the foresight to act now. If you do so, you’ll go down in history as the protectors of Mother Earth. Future generations will look upon you as latter day saviors. But if you keep on procrastinating in the name of progress and GDP, at the cost of your own people, there won’t be any folk around to enjoy the benefits of both.
Think what will happen when you do nothing about it and pass the buck to the next government! Most of the great cities are situated on the shores of the seas that surround the continents. When they are inundated with flood waters, the industrialists who support you now will be the first ones to call you traitors, so great will be the loss in the field of real estate. When all those beautiful islands to where you go on holidays are no more a reality, what are the poor hapless inhabitants going to do? They can’t undergo instant evolution and become amphibians, for God’s sake! Should they lose their home turf for no fault of their own?
What will happen if the balance of the atmosphere goes haywire and carbonic gases become the order of the day? Surely then, we will have to wear oxygen masks as if we are on an alien planet! Should we let things come to such a pass?
Why can’t you decide on a time frame as short as possible and start the holy duty of cleansing the Earth. Please bring about a ban on pesticides. Tell the auto makers to take it easy on the Internal Combustion Engine and establish alternate ways like hybrid motors, electric vehicles and hydrogen-powered autos. Let us do away with fossil fuels as much as possible. Close down the electric utilities run on coal dust as it is widely done in India and China. Those leaders, who are fortunate enough to have rain forests in their respective lands, please don’t support deforestation. Such forests are a heavy responsibly as they are a great boon. Don’t decimate them please for short term ends and quick cash.
There are many things you can do for you have the authority and means to do so. So why wait?
The very first thing be done is to make the Presidents and P.M’s of this world realize the urgency of the very situation. And this fervent request to the powers that be:
Oh, those folk, entrusted with the administration and well-being of people all around the world, only you can save the planet Earth for the simple reason that only you have the necessary power to do so. The way things are going on now, we can just about preserve ourselves on this beautiful blue planet for some little time.
Now what about the coming generations that are going to live here? Don’t they have the right to continue and take part in the drama of life? Do your children and grandchildren have to suffer for what we failed to do?
Oh, world leaders with the power of life and death over all in this world! Have the foresight to act now. If you do so, you’ll go down in history as the protectors of Mother Earth. Future generations will look upon you as latter day saviors. But if you keep on procrastinating in the name of progress and GDP, at the cost of your own people, there won’t be any folk around to enjoy the benefits of both.
Think what will happen when you do nothing about it and pass the buck to the next government! Most of the great cities are situated on the shores of the seas that surround the continents. When they are inundated with flood waters, the industrialists who support you now will be the first ones to call you traitors, so great will be the loss in the field of real estate. When all those beautiful islands to where you go on holidays are no more a reality, what are the poor hapless inhabitants going to do? They can’t undergo instant evolution and become amphibians, for God’s sake! Should they lose their home turf for no fault of their own?
What will happen if the balance of the atmosphere goes haywire and carbonic gases become the order of the day? Surely then, we will have to wear oxygen masks as if we are on an alien planet! Should we let things come to such a pass?
Why can’t you decide on a time frame as short as possible and start the holy duty of cleansing the Earth. Please bring about a ban on pesticides. Tell the auto makers to take it easy on the Internal Combustion Engine and establish alternate ways like hybrid motors, electric vehicles and hydrogen-powered autos. Let us do away with fossil fuels as much as possible. Close down the electric utilities run on coal dust as it is widely done in India and China. Those leaders, who are fortunate enough to have rain forests in their respective lands, please don’t support deforestation. Such forests are a heavy responsibly as they are a great boon. Don’t decimate them please for short term ends and quick cash.
There are many things you can do for you have the authority and means to do so. So why wait?
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