
Ecology heading into coffin unless we stop it!
Please treat the ongoing pollution in Delhi as a clarion call for all citizens. If not for all citizens of world at least for all citizens across India as they have common behavioural traits as far as treating ecology is concerned. The time is not really to pass the buck. Pollution in atmosphere is not boolean like class attendance, present or absent. It is always present owing to ongoing disturbing we cause to the ecosystem. Pollutants are always there and are constantly increasing but sadly we take note of them only when the water is just below the tip of the nose. Thats when we get into hyperactive mode by ordering masks in dozens, buying air purifying plants in dozens, buying air-purifiers, restrict ourselves to indoors or even becoming very vocal about pollution as an issue across different social media platforms. Its too late and too little! We would all go back into our comfort zones once the situation gets better after few days/weeks!
The ecosystem could be considered as a multi-legged horse and different lifestyle patterns of ours are harming one or multiple legs. The horse is healthy only when all limbs are perfect as even a small pin in one leg could lead to discomfort/limping. Each and every city is busy putting nails in the coffin of ecology. Go around and look in your city and high chances are that either the ecology there is lying in the coffin or heading towards coffin and different nails are getting hammered into it. If you are in a coastal city the rising sea level could be the impending crisis, if you are in mountain city water scarcity or waste could be cause of concern or you could be in situation like Delhi but just few years away. The choice you need to make today is either to make your city as another Delhi in next few years/decades or start working to help your city walk backwards out of the “ecology-in-coffin” phenomenon!
For Delhi, stubble burning could be one of the last nails in the “coffin-carrying-ecology” but not the only nail. Ecology in Delhi has not died overnight but gradually over last few decades. Here are couple of other nails in the coffin of ecology i.e.
- Every second of a running combustion engine, be it 2-wheeler, car or DG. At any given opportunity you should manage with least polluting vehicle, most fuel-efficient and if possible minimal dependence of these
- Every unit of energy consumption as we are still leveraging fossils fuels big time for our energy needs. Time to rethink whether you need a AC/Heater in each and every room or corner of house or say geyser in every bathroom!
- Every extra item bought be it clothes or utensils or shoes or consumable! Imagine the energy and logistics involved in moving these things from warehouse to your cupboard. Conscious consumerism is already in-thing!
- Every inch of unwanted travel be it by air, car or bus. Imagine how half of Delhi is on the roads few weeks before Diwali just to deliver gifts door-to-door.
- Every gram of food wasted! Food of any sort needs lot of energy to produce and if it doesn’t help fuel energy of any other living being then it is indirectly causing the ecology damage
- Every single drop of water wasted or polluted, anywhere!
- Every lost opportunity to plant something on barren land or even in pots. Plants are the single most source to suck excess carbon from atmosphere. Inadequate green cover on soil would any-day lead to excess carbon/pollution in the atmosphere!
- Lack of focus on plants for all 365 days. If you can plant a tree during monsoon, it might be productive by winter but if you try to plant one in winter, high chances it wouldn’t adapt to relocation in the middle of pollution crisis
- Ecology harming food! Gradually more and more cities are adopting animal-based diet instead of plant based and that is a heavy toll on ecology. Animal-based diets are at least 100 times more harmful to ecology than plant-based The #MeatfreeMonday need to further graduate to #MeatfreeEveryday
- Every sqcm of extra construction! As it leads to bigtime overdrawing from natural resources, construction waste as well as elimination/contamination of soil!
- Every gram of mixed/toxic waste generated in house or office or commercials spaces! Till date there is hardly any solution available to manage mixed waste without harming the ecology
- Increased reliance on quick-service and disposables. Look around any corner of any city and we can see polythenes taking street walks.
- Expectation that every space we step out, be it bank or market ot stadium is closed & air-conditioned. All such short term comforts would lead to long term discomfort
- Increased population/migration towards cities. This really puts lot of stress on ecosystem of any city as the natural load bearing capacity goes for a toss. Time to control the population rise as well as mindless migration
- X is more guilty than Y. This single most attitude has put us into the situation we are today. Time has come to stop blaming others or even the govt until and unless we are sure that we are not harming the ecology by any means. Imaging the iconic song from bollywood move Roti “पहला पथर वो मारे जिसने कोई पाप ना किया हो……..” Be the change you want to see and then only start preaching/promoting/propagating the same.
Whether we like it or not, ecology has already stepped-in into the coffin. The tools like pollution masks or air-purifiers might help us live slightly longer but do we ever think what might be happening to other creatures like birds/animals or micro-organisms in such a situation? Nobody is making masks for them and for sure they are no way responsible for the current situation! The choice we need to make today is to whether pull the ecology out of coffin or let her sleep into coffin & slide it down for deep burial!
