So they say today is World Environment Day. Good!
But I am confused. "Environment Day" - Isn't the phrase just ironic? It has been my understanding that environment ( or nature or big bang or small bang whatever that is) created "day" for us just like it created night, air, water, fire etc etc.
Environment creates day for us and now, we create a Day for the Environment - June 5th. Nice, ironical though.
Of course, it is us who are the reason for this irony. Because without our greedy consumption of natural resources, one would never have to worry about the depletion, the climate changes and the least about making movies about global warming and such like and the very need to have a day in calendar wouldn't have arisen. A day, to remind people that we never 'give back' to the environment what we have been draining from it all along.
When I think about this, the environment day and the awareness about saving it, it reminds me of the Indian Independence struggle. Imagine the Environment as India and the whole Mankind as the British. Just like the British ruled India and decided what to do with India against the Indians' choice, Mankind rules the Environment using it the way we want, paying no heed to what the environment wants and draining out every good thing that is there and never bothering to refill.
At least the Indians had a voice, in the form of the leaders, but here, environment can't even resist loudly and the resistance is too small for many of us to even hear it. If you put your ear out carefully and listen, the trees/air/sea/earth around you are crying out to be saved from the people, just like we Indians did for independence. And for once, lets hear the cry and do what we can.
If you think this is like any another "Day" [read Fathers/Mothers/Friendship/Valentine's] and decide to go buy a card and give it someone on this occasion, you are mistaken. Because the very idea of this day is not to give cards.. Card -> Paper -> Cutting Trees -> Kills environment. So no cards please. And if you are thinking of calling your friend and wishing him "Happy Environment Day", you are not allowed to that too. First, there's nothing "happy" about it. Second the cellular waves, the sound.. all of them cause pollution which again is bad to the Environment.
So think twice before wishing someone about today. The best you can do is go plant a tree, avoid plastic, slow down on using your mobile phones, give your vehicle rest some times, and if possible, reduce your power consumption. Not just today, but everyday. It will do good for you, me, the environment and we will be saved in more than one way.
Save the environment. Save the world. We do not want tsunamis, earthquakes, melting Himalayas, rising Indian Oceans and people like me writing about it.
2 comments:
Interesting comparison about the Environment's struggle for survival against Mankind's oppressive colonialization! I guess it's only a matter of time before the environment actively starts fighting back, and succeeds in kicking us out, like we Indians did. Oh well, Mars, here we come :)
Seriously, if we continue down the road we're on right now, I can only think of one possible outcome: the earth will be depleted by us all the way down to its bones. It'll wreak havoc on us wiping out (most of) mankind. But given the shamelessly tenacious holders on to life that we are, a small number of us will find a way of surviving. But hopefully, we will have learnt a lesson by then and will finally stop abusing natural resources. On the bright side, if there is one, it'll be thousands more years before it comes to that, and so our generation can happily shrug our shoulders off and let things run their course.
On the other hand, if we, collectively, are indeed smart enough to foresee this outcome (it's good to know that some people in our generation are), we'll stop our razing of nature over the next couple hundred years or so and perfect technologies that use renewable sources - solar, wind, ocean waves, etc. At that point, we can hope to postpone our perdition at worst, and avoid it at best.
By the way, no matter what happens, we definitely need people like you constantly writing about such things that matter. If your post can convince one single person to think twice when he/she has the tap running while brushing teeth for one single day, you've won.
Finally, time to show off. I'm proud to say that, over the last one year, I've changed my lifestyle in a number of ways to reduce my personal carbon footprint. I'm prouder to say that I haven't done these things out of guilt, rather, I've done them out of a sense of responsibility.
Looks like someone thought they should dust off their writing (key)board finally. So my post has served more than one purpose. Good to see you back, -w !!
> it'll be thousands more years before it comes to that
I agree. But the smaller changes are visible even now. High prices, low produce, frequent floods and cyclones.. these things might not wipe off civilizations but they can make life tough and it is already happening!
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