I was recently given the honour of being the guest of honour at the first international congress on ecological integrity and environmental ethics,
held at the GB Pant University, held between 8 – 10 November. The
congress was attended by over 200 delegates from around the world, and was
chaired by Prof Dr Zlatica Plašienková from Slovakia. I delivered the keynote
address on climate change and it’s effects on our lives.
During my address, I provided the background of the present change in
our climate, which I was fortunate enough to learn from Nobel Laureate Mr Al
Gore (former Vice President of the USA). Climate has always changed throughout
the life of our 4.5 billion year old planet. It was once hot and molten, then
frozen and then varied between the two for millions of years. This led to
species thriving, dying and then evolving.
From the Industrial Revolution a few hundred years ago and the related
growth witnessed by our planet, we have inadvertently released an increasing
amount of greenhouse gases into our atmosphere. It is hard to believe, but the
amount of energy needed to sustain the 7 billion people and our lifestyles is equivalent to detonating 400,000 Hiroshima sized atomic bombs daily. This
energy also heats up our atmosphere. 85% of this energy is absorbed in our
oceans, causing ocean acidification, species extinctions and even strengthening
natural phenomenon like hurricanes and typhoons, multiplying their intensity.
It is important, also to link this all to Darwin’s theory of evolution.
He said that species evolve as a response to changing environment. However,
evolution is slow. Apes did not become Humans in the span of ten years. It took
millions of years. So, climate change at natural speeds is perfectly normal and
acceptable. However, rapid climate change does not cause evolution. It causes extinction.
Ancient Indian scholars were aware of the five basic elements, namely –
Earth, Air, Fire, Water and the spiritual element. All these elements are now
getting adversely affected due the accelerated rate of changes. According to
these ancient scholars, all the elements have to be in balance. The change in
one, affects the balance. Today, not only
are we changing the balance, we are poisoning them. Needless to say, this will
affect our planet, and all its inhabitants – in an unpredictable manner that
might be harmful for our species.
The period from 1983 – 2012 was the warmest 30 year period in the last
1400 years in the northern hemisphere. The intensity of natural calamities is
also on the rise. Whether it was floods in Assam and Kashmir earlier this year,
or Uttarakhand last year – the effects were devastating. In April 2014, in
Pune, the temperatures hit 40 C for 7 consecutive days. This had never happened
before. These are very few examples just within India, but there are too many
coincidences for these to simply be natural events. Our climate is changing,
and changing rapidly.
We need to talk about our carbon footprint. Industrialisation and
pollution is affecting our environment, but that is difficult to measure. One
common aspect of all our polluting activities is carbon. Measuring that provides
a marker to our effect on the environment. The latest IPCC report (2014) has
indicated that the use of fossil fuels in power generation needs to be brought to zero by the year 2100 if we are to avoid catastrophic changes to our
climate. 70% of India’s power generation is from coal. Alternative sources like
Wind and Solar are being increasingly utilised and their cost is dropping
drastically. We need to ensure that India becomes a world leader in these
technologies. Not only will this reduce our footprint, but it will create jobs
for the future and build a strong clean and green economy for the 21st
century.
Mahatma Gandhi once said – be the change you want to see. We must not
depend on the government. We need to take these steps ourselves. In my housing
society in Pune – Lunkad Greenland II, we have implemented rainwater harvesting, garbage segregation, composting and low energy lighting. Not only
has this reduced our footprint, it has reduced our expenditure as well. We get
property tax rebates, our monthly electricity bill is down by 40%, we don’t buy
tanker water – and this has led to our monthly maintenance charges of Rs 1 /sq
ft as compared to Rs 5/sq ft in our neighbouring societies. Apart from helping
the environment, we are saving tens of thousands of rupees a year.
Saving the environment isn’t expensive. In fact, not only is it common
sense – it also saves you money.
