The World Environment Day
(WED) on 5th June every year has become a popular worldwide event.
In fact the whole movement for protecting the environment has grown
tremendously over the last forty years, having been started by the United
Nations Organization in 1972. Environmental consciousness, concern and action
have now reached every nook and cranny of the world. From the periphery to the
centre. From the margins to the mainstream. It is, and ought to be, on the top
of the global agenda.
It is an irony that we speak
of protecting the environment. On the contrary, it is nature that protects us
with all her abundant endowments and motherly nurturing. We humans are the
primary cause of nature’s destruction. Nature tolerates till a certain point,
and then we become the victims of our own action. If we have to play a
protective role, it must be to prevent our own destructive actions which will
eventually rebound on us. We must
respect nature. Respect our environment. The so called protection will follow.
Because we will not harm what we respect. Not patronage but awe.
Forty years after starting
WED (1972), and twenty years after the first Earth Summit (1992) in Rio, the world
is now looking forward to Rio+20 summit to be held this month. Things don’t
seem to be moving in the right direction if the on-going preparations are an
indication. We can only hope that something positive and definite will emerge
from this summit to take the global environment agenda forward.
In between the global and
the local, there are the national, regional and state policies and programs.
May be we can and should pressurize our elected representatives to always keep
the environmental concerns first. Speaking for myself, I have put forth my
concern for the environment before the candidates for the State Assembly
elections, both in 2007 and 2012, when they visited me for support. The
response has been appreciative of my point of view, in fact noted
affirmatively. It works in a small way because no politician can be on the
opposite side of the growing number of environmentalists. The numbers must grow
and the politicians will respond. That is the power of democracy.
A big number of us have also
backed a candidate in the recently held Panchayat elections on the main
consideration of environmental concerns in our village Aldona. The candidate
has won. We are now watching.
Environment is very
important. Individuals, schools and colleges, temple and church committees and
councils, social and sports clubs, non governmental organizations, panchayats
and municipalities, corporate organizations, state and union governments – all
have a role to play. I don’t think humanity can survive for long if we don’t
‘protect’, I mean respect, our environment at all levels. It is the need of the
hour. And if you think you can run away to other places in the world, you are
mistaken with a capital M. Nature is a great leveler and the consequences will
be global. So as environmentalists say, think global, act local.
Some practical suggestions
at the individual, family and neighborhood levels may help. First, we have a
tendency to clean our houses, and throw the dirt and waste on the road or in
some nearby quarter. This includes the plastics which fly with the wind
becoming ubiquitous. In some places we find toxic smoke emanating from plastics
that are burnt in the vicinity, specially late evening. We find a growing
number of people covering the mud ground in their compound with cement, tiles
and concrete slabs. This stops the rain water from percolating in the ground.
Vegetation is decreasing even in the villages and the consequences are felt specially in the summer. There is quite
a temperature difference in the various zones of a village depending on the
foliage. In places characterized by concrete jungles, the heat is unbearable.
But in places with large shade giving trees, no air conditioning is required.
These are just a few examples I’ve given to show how we are harming the
environment by our own actions. In small matters like these, the initiative is
in our hands. No global conventions and international statutes are required.
Much needs to be done to
bring awareness at all levels, beginning from the grassroots. The numbers of
environment conscious citizens has to increase to take on the mission of
environmentalism from local to global, and global to local levels.
Published in The Navhind Times, Panorama 03.06.2012
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