Just before the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de
Janeiro, some of the industrial nations, and specifically the United States,
were lambasted for their obscenely high consumption of the world’s finite
resources which had a direct impact on nature worldwide.
Anti-capitalist and other activists who were
claiming that the United States, then the world's biggest energy consumer, was
also its biggest polluter
Environmentalists warned that the world was being gradually destroyed, by unsustainable consumption.
When representatives of developing nations asked then
U.S. president George H.W. Bush (bush senior) to put on agenda the over
consumption of resources by the developed countries, especially the United
States he stood up to give his speech, all eyes were on him expecting a
solution, he famously or infamously said only sentence, quote: “The American
way of life is not up for negotiations. Period.”
Meaning; we can afford it and we will do what suits
us, to hell with others….
As per bush senior the American way of life was not
negotiable, apparently, even if maintaining this lifestyle will lead to the
destruction of nature resulting in deaths of millions of people subject to
increasingly unpredictable weather and loss of land used by tens of millions
more people because of rising ocean levels and local flooding
Most of us have a George h w bush in us, our
attitude, we can afford it and so it is our birth right to use it and we do not
care about anything.
Giving a few examples; people put on their air
conditioners full 24 hrs at the lowest temperature setting not bothering to
think about villages that do not get any electricity, not even for growing
their crops or in their hospitals, since all the power is consumed in the
cities.
A single person takes a car instead of going for
carpooling or using the public transport system.
Imagine the space it takes on the road for a single
bus which carries 30 people or 30 cars with single occupants, then people
complaint and get irritated that I am caught in a traffic jam not reflecting
that their own vehicle is a part of that traffic and equally responsible for
creating that traffic jam.
While waiting the car engines are kept on for the
air conditioning never mind the pollution.
Newspapers are delivered to all houses again at the
offices, resulting in deforestation. How many people think to limit the use of
newspapers?
In the Himalaya I visit some spots by the river
Ganga full of beautiful natural landscape of white and coloured stones, rich
people who built their luxury villas get these stones picked up for their
garden decoration never giving a thought to the destruction of the pristine
environment
The list is endless.
The same attitude I can afford it so luxury (great
comfort) is my birth right never mind the destruction of nature
Alarm bells will not ring till the day there will
be no water coming out of the water taps, in the past many advanced
civilizations have collapsed due to unsustainable resource consumption, but how
many people realize (understand clearly) that this could also happen to us.
The only hope is if people change one by one then
this problem will be solved since we are all connected in a single
consciousness
We should not depend on the government to solve any
problems because the government itself is a problem
It is not what some say “save the Earth”. For no
one’s God or father or Guru has created our Earth. He who has created the Earth
is beyond human comprehension and he alone can destroy it; what humans are
capable of is destroying us.
A money minded business man will not understand
what is written above he is every ready to destroy nature to set up money
making ventures. If one has to make him understand the valve of nature he will
have to be put in a sealed chamber with an offer that he will get lots of
money, of course he will be very happy and most readily accept the offer; as
more and more money is put in the chamber the air will be displaced and at one
time he will realize that air is more important than paper money and then he
will understand not to destroy nature.
Today people buy bottles of drinking water daily
since water which is available outside is contaminated. I hope and pray that a
time should not come when people will have to buy air cylinders to breathe good
air.
A quote by Hubert Reeves is the best caption for
the photo of the Holy Mount Kailash below:
"Man is the most insane species. He worships
an invisible God and destroys a visible Nature. Unaware that the Nature he is
destroying is this God he is worshiping."
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Photo
credit Ms Alka Kaushik
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