We together can create a new dawn

We can make wonder…!!!

     Yes, a magician is hiding inside every one of us. With a little more effort, collectively we can make a difference -- a real difference.

     All is not well with the health of our environment -- an uneasy truth that some of us already know and some don’t believe at all. Rest are yet to decide which way to go.

     But the reality is palpable. The world is getting hotter, temperature is setting the bar higher every summer, the monsoon patterns have been disturbed, agricultural output is dwindling (though, not to an extent that can make us sit up), glaciers are melting fast, droughts are intensifying and a turf war over water availability does not seem a distant dream anymore.

     Baffled...?? While the world leaders are fighting in order to eke out a consensus to find a way out of the problems those are intensifying with every passing day, what a wonder can we, the so called “cattle class”, can do…!!! And how...!!!

     True, we are busy, very busy. Every day, we have to reach office fighting with co-passengers in public transport, have to make boss happy with extra hours in workplace, need to take care of the family, and overall, not accepting the spirited demand of your child to play with on holidays is simply unpardonable. We have such a crammed schedule to follow. Where is the time to think green...!!!

     Still we can do a lot…

     Just out of the bed and brushing the teeth while racing with the live machine called clock, can’t we give our day a “wise” beginning by just turning the running tap water off while not in use? May be we have to do nothing beyond pressing the electric motor switch to get running water, that too hot in winters, in our washrooms, but who cares for those fellow countrymen, mostly women, who have no way but to walk down (remember barefoot, not with shoes or chappals) daily somewhere around 5 to 10 miles on an average to collect water.

     Are you listening…???

     There must be days fresh in some of our memory when we forgot to turn off the fans or the lights while living for office and on the mobiles responding to some frantic calls from bosses. Fine, forget the money you have to shell out for the electricity consumption, because you might be a highly paid white-collar executive, but how can you forget the news (must be read in some newspaper or shown by one or the other TV channels) that some crucial surgeries had to be stalled or the pregnant women with labour pain had to wait (sometimes even die) only because of interrupted electric supply at health centres in some other corners of the same country?

     If we don’t care about the “big words” like environment or energy conservation (you have the right to), can’t we act in a bit more sensible manner just to show that we do remember the condition of our fellow citizens (no one is asking you to do anything more)?

     Are you listening…???

     More left. 

     Stuck in traffic jam, how many of us bother to let the engines of our cars take some rest?

     You say, “Who the hell are you to give me speech?” But, experts (not me, I am not an expert) say, collective shut-downs of motor engines in all traffic signals or while in traffic jams across the country, forget the world, can save expensive fuel worth billions of dollars, let alone doing some good to the city air that we breathe in.

     Are you listening…???

     “Energy conservation or care for environment should start at the individual level. If every one of us can take initiative to stop wastage of energy, the overall scenario is going to change certainly. But that is not what’s happening,” an internationally acclaimed environment activist recently lamented while talking to this author.

    

     Office is the place where majority of the time is spent and the work pressure is enough to make you forget all other problems of life, and sometimes you don't get the time to even remind yourself that there is a mid-day meal called lunch.

     Everything said and done, how can we forget to shutdown the computers at our workstations while leaving for home? You don’t bother because it’s the spending of the company after all, not yours. Even if you don't have intention to do any good to your environment (simply because it’s company’s duty), just think about the amount your company can put aside every year if all the 3,000 odd computers are not left running throughout the nights. Can't you smell more profit triggering a better monetary appreciation?

     I don't insist that you think about those rural people yet to enjoy their first brush with electricity.

     The list simply goes on with numerous incidents, trifle or seem not-so-important otherwise, scattered here and there in our daily life though fail to grab attention more than often, but can make a big difference if taken care of collectively. We know, better resource management means a better environment. 

     However, it depends whether we want to bring about a real change around us or are eager to close our eyes and pass the buck to other’s table.

     It’s all in our outlook. If the outlook changes, we can save the earth and its environment; otherwise, a status quo would lead us to our peril.

     After all, it’s the same story of water half glass full or half glass empty. Look either way.