EDITORIAL
As if there is no tomorrow……………
Yet another year another day called 'the world environmental day' gone into oblivion, peacefully, unnoticed or with little notice. Crusaders of sustainable society continue to struggle and a few others crouching in their air conditioned rooms voice their sympathy. There is fundamentally something wrong, something awry in the very list of priorities we have set for ourselves. We continue to exist and exploit shamelessly without any consideration to the mother earth we live on, as if there is no tomorrow. The present human race has become shortsighted and selfish in this context forgetting-We belong to the Earth and not the otherway.
The World Environment Day is observed on June 5th of every year to promote awareness on the importance of preserving our biodiversity, the need to identify problems related to the environment and ways to take corrective action. It is a means to tackle environmental challenges that include climate change, global warming, disasters and conflicts, harmful substances, environmental governance, ecosystem management and resource efficiency.
Each year, World Environment Day is hosted in a different city with a different theme, which aims to emphasize the importance of protecting our planet and promote an understanding that they each individually can play a significant and effective role in tackling environmental issues. This year's theme for the Environment Day, "Water – Two billion people are dying for it". This is an urgent appeal to each one of us to recognize the significance of "Elixir of Life" and the role each one of us can play to conserve it.
India is amongst the rare countries where major biomes of the world are represented. India is one among the twelve countries where 60-70% of the world’s total biodiversity exists. India launched an ambitious mission called 'The Green India Mission' to fight climate change by enhancing the forest cover at a cost of INR 46,000 crore by 2020. The GIM aimed to increase the forest cover by five million hectares and improve the quality of forests on another five million hectares. Currently it has 23 per cent of its land mass (70 million hectares) under forest cover. The aim is to raise this to 33 per cent (100 million hectares). But no timeline has been set for this. The mission also aims at monitoring additional parameters like ground cover, soil condition, erosion and infiltration and ground water levels.
India belongs to Politicians and at present, politics and money are bigger than everything. The Green India Mission has been stuck with no funds available since it was cleared by the Prime Minister's Council on Climate Change in 2011. But then, while we point fingers at corrupt politicians, we forget our own short sighted selfishness. We forget that we are also equally culpable and are plundering indirectly or directly the earth's treasures thinking only of our convenience and comforts.
As Mr. Srinivasan, a research scholar puts it- "we are not willing to change our life-styles to a simpler and less-consumerist mode of living for the sake of our planet. Rich nations and individuals are unwilling to sacrifice their well-entrenched habits and desires of enjoying more and more of the pleasures and comforts of life provided by science, technology and business, the nouveau riche and nations are unwilling to forgo their newly acquired prosperity. This is one of the major causes behind the slow, unsteady and tentative progress on the environmental front, in spite of many international agreements and conventions like the Kyoto protocol or climate change conference in Bali, and a general awakening to the seriousness of the looming ecological disaster facing our planet."
Let us fight together, consciously, remembering- We all belong to the Earth. We do not own the Earth.
This issue of 'Built Expressions' takes a small step in bringing awareness about the new and innovative technologies in construction industry which help in reducing the carbon footprint.
Till we meet next.....
Ajit Sabnis