Now or later?

I wonder which is costlier... The price of setting up clean and green sources of energy and practicing laws to ensure that pollution levels are low or the cost of not doing that, but restoring and trying to revive the species that are nearing extinction, threatening the balance of nature... I guess eventually, cost of the latter will shoot up as nature becomes more and more unbalanced, more efforts will be required to restore it...

Diary entry after watching “Home”

And as my thoughts drift, I asked myself this question, who are we fighting climate change for?

The reason why We have to do something, no matter whose fault it is, is that our previous generations screwed up knowing that the consequences won’t be seen in their lifetime. But with our generation, the changes are happening RIGHT NOW. We have to fight to have a secure future in our own lifetimes.

The problem is not just about the temperature going up or the air becoming a little more smoky. Rising sea levels will bring in millions of climate change refugees to higher altitudes. Resources like food and water will be scarce and only those with a lot of money and power will have easy access to those. There will be violence, wars for these basic things everywhere. And all this will happen within ten years, in our own lifetimes.

What we don’t see right now is that climate change is going to bring about huge social and economic problems, not just weird weather!

I’ve been trying to make changes in my life, but the truth is, I haven’t been trying hard enough. But on the other hand, watching documentaries and reading about these issues, being exposed to so much information in the past 3 years in NID has made me even more environmentally conscious. So I guess awareness can change people, little by little.

“It’s too late to be pessimistic”

The point is that too much needs to be done in too little time. Apart from making changes in our own lifestyles, we have to force out governments to become more environmentally conscious; to switch to clean sources of energy, to invest in sustainable development. We really have to unite and force our governments, because individually, we cannot install windmills in the seas or gigantic solar panels in the deserts, or stop creating plastic junk. But individually also, we have to get a little uncomfortable and change ourselves. Resolve to buy less, buy local (it takes a lot of energy to import and transport goods through air / sea), walk / cycle / use public transport instead of car / plane (planes have enormous amounts of emissions), eat less meat (meat is highly inefficient as a lot of farmland and crop is used to feed the animal through its lifetime before it becomes one meal), reuse plastic, reuse scrap, throw away less, use less.. and be more aware and sensitive towards our future.

Inequality

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1560557294503313321&ei=WPUNSd2KKZbC2gKHzYzyCw&q=P+sainath

"Rural reporter and photojournalist, P. Sainath, talks about the impact of globalization on the rural populations of India. This is a special edition of this program, including the entire unedited lecture and question and answer session. This program includes nearly an hour of additional material not seen in the original broadcast program!"

Neelam and I watched it last night and I think it really tends to push you in the right direction... If you think 2 hours is a little too much, watch it in bits. Trust me, you won't regret it!

Hunger

This post does not have any direct relation to saving the environment but I feel it might sensitize us to it.
One evening, about a month or so back, a couple of friends and I were having a snack at Municipal market. Seeing us, a destitute old lady walked up to us with a hopeful look on her face. She probably expected money, but it being winter, I asked her if she would like to eat something and she nodded a yes. So I went up to this ragda patty seller for another plate and gave it to her. What happened next is something I will not soon forget.
She had this look of intense gratitude on her face and it hit me. Not the gratitude itself, but the fact that she should have to be grateful at all.
A meal - one that cost me Rs.15 that I, that most of us, buy without a second thought, was probably the first square meal of the day this lady had had. And she was grateful for it. Why should she have to be at all? Wasnt everyone entitled to atleast that much? I couldn't look her in the eye and left as soon as possible.
I realised that one meal is something that all of us can give. To anyone who needs it. It doesn't cost us much.
And probably means a lot more to the person who receives it.