When asked, in a huge gathering, to use the word ‘garden’ in a sentence, the first person replied that he had a beautiful garden in his house. Second person said there are many gardens in our city and the third one said that garden balances ecosystem.
If we analyse these three sentences then we will be able to assess the thought perception of these individuals. The thought capacity of the first person is limited to his house. The second person’s thought has expanded a little bit and is confined to his city only. But the thought level of the third person has touched global dimension. It is therefore necessary to develop global thought to meet the challenges of global warming, environmental hazards and pollution in order to make this world a better place to live in.
In earlier times product was made or manufactured without considering its aftermath effect on environment but today most of products are manufactured, keeping in mind that the product must not further worsen the already polluted environment. From automobile product to even the cup that we use for tea are these days designed as eco-friendly. At local level there has been a significant change in our approach towards purifying our environment. But that is all not enough and collective and unbiased globalised effort is required to deal with the hazards of environment.
Prof. M.A. Haque, in his article in Radiance on 27 Jan 2008, has written that way back in 1996, approximately 7 billion metric tons of carbon was released into the atmosphere, more than 50% of it by United States and Europe, a massively disproportionate share. The most stunning fact is that current carbon emissions exceed the amount that environment can absorb. The Inter-Government Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has estimated that at least 60 per cent reduction in carbon emissions from 1990 levels (i.e. down to 2,800 million metric tons) is necessary to stabilise or reduce the risk of further climate change.
The greenhouse gases accumulated in the atmosphere might have resulted from the changed weather patterns such as hurricanes, floods, droughts over the years. Global warming has led to the rise in sea level. Out of human greed the over exploitation of natural resources, degradation of land and soil, pollution caused by the manufacturing process, contamination of the atmosphere and hazardous chemical is concern for one and all.
The “World Environment Day”, which falls on 5 June, is the day to ask ourselves what we can do to safeguard our environment from further degradation and avert future disasters. That generic erosion continues globally is a stark fact staring us in the face. More than 12% of birds, 21% of mammals, 30% of amphibians, 27% of coral reefs and 35% of conifers and cycads face extinction. In fact, according to the world conservation union, over 47,677 species may soon disappear. Given this, a convention on biological diversity (CDB) was adopted at the 1992 UN conference on environment and development in Rio de Janerio whose goals are conservation, sustainable use and equitable sharing. As of December 2009, 192 countries and the European Commission were signatories to it. To generate awareness about our sadly depleted resources and badly mutilated environment, 22 May is observed as the International Day for Biological Diversity. The UN declared 2010 the international year of biodiversity. (Sunita Vakil, 13 June 2010, Radiance).
Therefore, we need to preserve biodiversity in forests and coastal ecosystems in our own neighbourhood in order to maintain our life support systems. But it is disturbing that we as humans have been responsible for the extinction of natural fauna and flora. Be it global warming, deforestation, soil erosion or any other threat to nature, human greed is always the contributing factor. Our rulers, politicians, planners, industrialists and businessmen continue to destroy or exploit our natural environs in the name of development.
Over the years Radiance has published many articles on Bhopal gas tragedy and on water crisis. In a nutshell, Radiance has highlighted some hard facts on water crisis in a number of articles by renowned thinkers and social activists.
These hard facts are:
1. Global water consumption is doubling every 20 years, at more than twice the rate of human population growth.
2. 79 per cent of the earth is water. But 97 per cent of the available water is salty. Of the remaining three per cent of water more than two-third is locked up in glaciers and ice caps. That leaves us with only 0.1 per cent of fresh water.
3. The average demand of water is 76 litres for each person on earth. While the average American uses 335 litres of water a day and the average sub-Saharan African uses 10-20 litres a day.
4. 1.4 billion people, which is 20 per cent of the world’s population lack access to an adequate supply of clean drinking water.
5. 31 countries presently face water scarcity.
6. India holds 20 per cent of the world population but only 4 per cent of it gets clean drinking water.
7. In developing countries it has been found that water causes 80 per cent of illness. Each year three to four million people die due to waterborne disease.
8. By 2025 two-thirds of world population will live in condition of water shortage and one-third will live under absolute water crisis.
9. Israel is monopolising about 75 per cent of Palestinian water resources in the West Bank.
10. In order to produce one litre of Cola 4 litres of water is required.
11. It takes 215,000 litres of water to produce one metric ton of steel.
Twenty-five years and a half later what Bhopal exposed is our collective hypocrisy. It is not just a case of too lenient a punishment given by a single judge, but the failure of the entire system. Our Parliament, Judiciary, Executive – both political and permanent – and of course the Press all let us down. The issue is just not the accidental leak of poisonous gas, but how is it that an industry of such a nature got established in the densely populated part of Bhopal. Why did the government not force the industry to shift from the place? India is a unique country where industries are situated in the heart of many cities while schools in the suburbs. Or if that is not the case, the population is allowed to grow around the industries, which actually were in outskirts. In many of our cities, schools are set up 10-20 or even more kilometres away from the population because most of the private institutes are opened by businessmen who get cheap farm land in the outskirts of the town. (“Bhopal Tragedy” by Soroor Ahmed Radiance, 20 June 2010)
International effort to combat global warming and climate change lies in the Kyoto protocol. Under the Kyoto agreement the member countries are bound to obey mandatory emissions limitations for the reduction of green house gas emissions. Ironically, America, which is not the signatory of Kyoto Agreement, has less than five per cent of the world’s population but produces close to a quarter of world populations.
Arshad Shaikh in his article, “The politics of climate change” (Radiance, 10-16 June 2007) has said man has been sent to earth by Allah as His Vicegerent. This is the duty of man to protect the earth and the fine balance of the ecosystem that has been gifted to us by the Almighty. The Prophet (peace and blessing of Allah be with him) said, “If any Muslim plants any plant and a human being or an animal eats of it, he will be rewarded as if he had given that in charity.” He also said: Whenever a Muslim plants a tree; he has the reward of charity for him, for what is eaten out of it is charity; what is stolen out of that, what the beast eat out of that, what the birds eat out of it is charity for him. (In short) none incurs a loss to him but it becomes a charity on his part.”
Let us rise above politics and protect the environment to the best of our ability.