It was late at night – for me anyway.
My sleep time stands at around 10-1030; it must have been around that time. I
switched off the lights, and was in the Balcony outside my French windows. The
Saptarshi Contstellation is visible just outside my bedroom window – from the
balcony. As is my habit, I looked up at the Saptarshi; only this time, there
was one difference. My eyes were in 2018, but my mind was in my childhood, in
the 80s, when I recalled the seeing the Saptarshi and the Mruganakshatr
constellations almost every night.
My mind’s eyes saw them as they were
seen then : bright, clear and easily visible. But now, as my physical eyes
looked up, I could see only the Saptarshi – but the stars were barely visible.
Most vital – I used to stay outside town both in the 80s, and now, with clear
skies above me, and lots of open space; both then and now. And, even more
critically, I could not spot one star in the 7-star constellation, try as I
might. I just couldn’t spot it!
That was when my mind thought of the
Human Footprint, and what we have done to the environment. And other realities
came to my mind readily, like the declining severity of the winters, to take
another example. The quality of the Air
we breathe, to quote a third example. Or the state of the rivers that abound
our ancient land, to give a fourth. Or the crowded roads, a complete difference
from what it used to be in my childhood, to give a sixth. A minutes thought,
and all of us can easily think of many, many other ways in which we Human Beings
are leaving an indelible footprint on the world we live in, the world that has
enabled and allowed us to use it in order to live.
Instead of adapting to the
environment, we are consistently, relentlessly changing the environment we live
in – frequently without any idea of the long term impact of our decisions. And,
even if we are aware of the impact, it is glibly explained away as being
necessary for life in the modern world. This is a perfectly facile, glib
explanation that is accepted at face value, and is used and misused by all of
us as we pollute the air, the water and the environment around us. The net result of these decisions taken over
long periods of time is that the current generation has precisely no idea just
what the world was in which I spent my childhood!
My heart aches for those clear airs,
those clear skies, those bright stars, those empty roads, those lovely greens
on our train journeys and car journeys; those clear pure rivers, those nice
memorable strolls, those nice walks in the evenings and the mornings – things we
took for granted. Not anymore; the current generation will never ever get to
see and experience the lovely beautiful world our generation grew up into and inherited.
And, sorry to state – spoilt it royally for the coming generation. Never has
any generation had as much an impact on the environment as our has…
In our crazy race for growth, for
development, for material welfare, for better, superior, faster, more modern facilities
– somewhere along the way the environment we all took for granted has paid a
heavy price. This is the world that gives us everything it has so that we may
live – and we have repaid it by systematically destroying or spoiling everything
that it has given us. It occurs to me
- what kind of world are we leaving
behind for our children?
This is a worldwide phenomenon; is
this pace of utilization of the planet’s facilities sustainable? That it isn’t;
of that there is no doubt. There is a dire need for us to move into a
Carbon-Neutral, more sustainable model of life, of development and of growth.
This isn’t the realm of Governments sitting and chatting in air conditioned
atmospheres {itself a scathing indictment of sustainability}; but rather of the
people – people like you and me. We all need to ask ourselves how can each of
us individually and severally make an impact, how can we each of us contribute
to make the world a better place?
We hanker after Cars, ACs, more and more water for wasteful usage;
we cut trees, we pollute rivers – is this sustainable? Imagine an India with a
net per capita income of twice what we now earn. That means twice the number of
Cars, ACs, double the water, double the pollution. Where will you drive your
car? On most roads, I already reach faster walking or by public transport! What
about water? Air? We dream of Urban India; where will we have an Urban population
of twice the now? What will the environmental impact – cities are already
facing water shortage or massive pollution, for example. What
kind of world are we bequeathing our children compared with the veritable
garden of Eden we inherited?
The constant refrain that we are a
developing country and that some price will have to be paid does not hold
water. Water shortage, pollution of rivers and the air is already a known issue
in some places. As the pressure on the land increases, this can only increase,
not reduce. We don’t have a choice, none of us. We simply have to change to a
far more sustainable lifestyle, one that can ensure that the quality of the
environment does not get depleted. We and our Urbanisation has already snatched
away the lovely mesmerizing beauty of a clear night sky; what other price must
our generations pay?
This is a question all of us have to
answer – and this has nothing to do with population pressure; it is a straight
function of our relentless and greedy exploitation of the land we live on, the
land that supports us. A fine way of saying thanks we have as a sentient people
… some say we are sentient, intelligent. Are we really sentient and
intelligent? Cant we see the writing on the wall – or have our desires blinded
us to every other reality? When the epitaph of the Human Race will be written –
what will we be remembered as – the people who destroyed the beauty of the
planet? Choice is still with us…
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