The inaugural International Congress on Ecological Integrity and Environmental Ethics

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 21^st 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.