Why gear up for the greenaisance?

I was walking past a rather handsome looking tree the other day and I tried to recognize it by its name. But sadly, I couldn’t. Then I tried to figure out the names of a few other plants at our college campus but the result was still the same. I just couldn’t identify them. Yes, it made me feel so ashamed of myself. Indeed, a survey carried out in the US several years back showed that kids could identify up to 1,000 corporate logos, but fewer than 10 plants or animals native to their own backyards! So did I feel any better by knowing this? Of course not. Many of us won’t really care. Why would we? We’ve made such a protective shield around ourselves that we feel we are the greatest of all species and that we can tame nature to do what we want to, and that we can direct nature to act as we wish, but this self-centered attitude of ours has lead to catastrophic consequences.

It’s not rare these days to come across the news of a devastating hurricane slamming extensive coastal areas in one part of the world or that of a drought in the other. These are often perceived to be isolated events having little connection amongst them. This could be a fatal ignorance on our parts because many of us feel that humans are just too teeny-weeny to cause such radical climate changes spanning the entire globe and certainly incapable of giving birth to such extreme weather conditions as floods, famines and hurricanes. According to Kerry Emanuel, a leading hurricane expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, major storms have increased in intensity and duration by a whopping 50 percent since the 1970s. This increase could well be a sign of our Earth suffering from a climate change due to adverse human activities and largely due to our injudicious burning of fossil fuels. Satellite images of one half of Earth plunged in the darkness of the night show some areas intensely lit up. These are the dazzling lights of the heavily populated urbanized areas. And indeed the picture looks like a bright crust covering the planet, as if all of us were some kind of a fungus, inhabiting Earth and inflicting it with some kind of disease. 

Many astronauts, who get a chance to watch our Earth from miles above, feel that this blue sphere we inhabit is no less than a jewel hanging in the zero of the space. Many of them express grave concern for the environment and some of them have even become environmentalists, because they have seen that remarkable sight of this blue planet in entirety and perhaps the extraordinary sight of our home from up there just cannot be described in words and perhaps that awe-inspiring experience is mixed with a concern, a worry, and uncertainty for our planet. Perhaps this concern can be summarized in just four words: WHAT ARE WE DOING?
We often hear of industrial revolution, or the industrial renaissance that started in Europe in the early nineteenth century. What was the invention that started it all? It was the steam engine. No it is definitely not the railway engine you’re imagining and definitely not the one that’s puffing clouds of black smoke as it chugs along its way. Years ago, mining was difficult and was considered tedious and inefficient. This is because as the demand for coal increased, we had to dig deeper coal mines but as we dig more and more, there’s water in there and this is why it was difficult to obtain coal from the depths of Earth. Then they began installing these steam engines in these mines below and these engines drained water out by evaporating it. This not only allowed us to get the coal efficiently, but it also allowed us to go deeper and deeper in search of coal. Later this stationary form of the steam engine was used to build the steam locomotive that could drive wagons. This was followed by the invention of steam engine driven ships which further facilitated transport. Also industries didn’t have to rely on water and winds or horses for their work as mills could be situated miles away from a river and rely on these steam engines for their manufacturing processes. Thus, not only did the steam engine made mining far efficient, but it also made manufacturing processes faster and easier. It also allowed transportation of raw materials and finished goods over large distances and this boosted the financial prospects. All this resulted in tremendous change: it had taken us millions of years to reach the one billion mark, and the one billion mark was reached in 1800. The second billion was reached in only 130 years (1930), the third billion in less than 30 years (1959), the fourth billion in 15 years (1974), and the fifth billion in just 13 years (1987). We reached the 6 billion mark in 1999. World population is projected to reach the 7 billion mark in 2012, according to the US Census Bureau.
Millions of years ago, sunlight shone on ancient forests. These plants and trees after their death slowly got buried under a cover of sediments (matter deposited by a natural process) and the growing pressure from the layers of the overlying sediments brought about certain chemical changes in these buried plants and converted them to coal. Hence, trees of the past are the coal and oil of today. When you see coal burning red hot, it is the energy of the sunlight that once shone on these plants that today have turned into coal. We refined other such fossil fuels as oil and gas in order to extract from them, the maximum amount of energy. We thought that stores of oil, gas and coal were everlasting and that we could have more and more of them for an infinite duration of time. But these fuels are non-renewable, that is once all the coal inside Earth is burnt up, we cannot create it all over again.

So what really happens when we use up coal and petroleum? Earth’s atmosphere is composed of many natural greenhouse gases like water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and many others. These gases trap some of the sunlight that enters our atmosphere and this is what makes our planet warmer. Had it not been for these gases, Earth would’ve been a ball of ice. What we have done is added tons of CO2 and other gases by burning a lot of these fuels. So this unnatural amount of these greenhouse gases emitted by our vehicle exhausts, power plants, etc., ultimately adds to their existing natural concentrations and this increases the amount of radiation that is trapped, leading to a condition we know as Global Warming. Over the years we have used up too much of the fossil fuels too fast. And Earth has become warmer than ever before. If the current trend of increasing temperature continues, many events that have been not accounted for before are sure to take place.
The effects can be already seen and felt. All of us understand how global warming may lead to rising sea levels. We know that we’ve warmed our planet to the point that ice caps far in the Arctic region have started melting at an alarming rate. These ice caps are white and usually reflect sunlight back into space and this is what keeps Earth cooler. So, as the ice caps melt, sunlight cannot be reflected back and this again results in warmer conditions. This vicious cycle continues. A couple of degree rise in Earth’s temperature has brought with it devastating effects. There is no single ecosystem on Earth that is stable today. This climate change is altering the way other species live. Many of us do not understand how global warming results in extinction of animals. Melting ice in the Arctic region means that the Polar bears do not have a sound platform to walk upon and so they fail to hunt fish, and it is because of this that they die of starvation. Dwindling numbers of many such other animals has been linked to our burning of fossil fuels. We’ve already hunted down hundreds of species of marine animals for our own selfish needs and climate change has made things worse than ever. It is predicted that about 50,000 species of animals and plants go extinct every year!

While we multiplied and populated previously forested areas, we brought down vast amounts of forested lands. Forests were—and still are—mowed down for agriculture, timber, etc. Just like animals, forest reserves too are feared to get extinct within the next forty years at the present rate of deforestation. Rainforests originally covered about 14% of Earth’s land surface but now they have been reduced to as little as 6%. This 6% is still a lot.  Together, all the rainforests are enough to replenish the oxygen of the entire planet.  The Amazon rainforest in South America alone produces nearly 20% of Earth’s oxygen. Trees, as we know, naturally sequester carbon and a single tree is said to absorb one ton of CO2 over its lifetime. Take that one tree away, and you have that one ton of CO2 lingering in the atmosphere and doing terrible damage to our environment. So now we can realize what we are losing by murdering our rich natural forest reserves. Rainforests harbor nearly half of the species of insects, plants and animals on Earth. In fact it is said that we have a better understanding of all the stars in distant galaxies but we are still unable to precisely estimate the number of animal and plant species living on this planet. Out of the estimated 10 million species, we’ve been able to name less than 1.5 million. A few acres of these rainforests is home to hundreds of yet to be studied variety of insects, plants and animals and so mowing down those few acres can result in staggering losses in the form of these amazing living beings.

It has long been perpetuated that rainforests are renewable and that we can grow them all over again. But many a times this fact has been found to be contradictory. We now know that once deforested, the rainforest land becomes extremely dry and arid that is just incapable of supporting the growth of plants. So, in effect, we are increasing the deserted lands. In fact one of the ways scientists have proposed to fight climate change is to convert the deserts into forests. But the price tag for maintaining a plant in the desert for a year is about £1.2 trillion. So just imagine how expensive is the cost of doing all the things that nature is doing for us for free! 
At the present rate of our exploitation, how long would it take for us to deplete all our resources? If we continue our actions, maybe in the next few years we may lose almost every forest reserve and very small number of animals and plants other than man would remain. More than half the number of species on Earth has already gone extinct. Just find some time and look up at the sky tonight. Then, spot a twinkling star and guess the number of years it took for light to travel from that star to your eyes. You will be astonished, but it must have taken more than four years for light to travel from that star to your eyes or in other words, that star would have given out that light more than four years ago! Likewise, if you spot a fainter star, that light would have been given out more than ten years back! What does all of this teach us? Perhaps a lesson in humility. There is not a single molecule in all of us that is different from the molecules in all the other stars and planets of the universe and this goes to show that every entity in this universe has the same composition. It is just that functionally we are different. Hence to think that each of us is a separate entity is probably a psychological disease and we must fast get rid of it. Why? Because the countdown to doomsday has already begun. The temperature of Earth is rising at an alarming rate due to human actions and this is why we are already experiencing climate changes. Rains have become erratic and winters are so chilly while it gets unbearably hot even before summer arrives!

Billions of dollars have been spent searching for life outside our solar system. But until now, we haven’t found any. Perhaps there isn’t any. That shows how lucky we are. That shows how gifted we are to live on this magnificent planet—a planet that is just the right distance from the sun, to have life sustained on it. There is such a perfect amount of gases in our atmosphere that allows heat to remain trapped, ensuring that warm conditions prevail, encouraging life forms. So where does the problem then lie? Why are we such ignorant towards this fact and why are we so anxious to dig up our own graves?
The solution to all these problems is not at all complicated. Many years ago it seemed impossible for an object heavier than a feather to fly and only birds were known to defy the rules. But we did it, didn’t we? A modern day civilian aircraft weighs more than fifty tonnes but it still takes to the air.  All we have to do is apply a bit of common sense and analyze our actions.

It is even mentionable, that unlike traditional renewable fuels such as sunlight (which can cook food for us in a solar cooker) and wind (which can generate electricity by driving windmills), nuclear fuel is even more reliable though dangerous. But if we invent a safe way to handle it, we would drive our cars using nuclear fuel and that too without emitting CO2 at all! Several years ago, Ford envisioned a concept car named Ford Nucleon which would use nuclear power instead of conventional fuels. But this design is still on the drawing board and remains a distant dream.  When I learnt the way a dynamo worked in my primary school I wondered if electricity could be generated using the same principle. A person while pedaling his bicycle generates energy, which is converted to light. If we could have a huge power plant with a large number of stationary bicycles, and if we could utilize unemployed poor men to keep on pedaling these stationary bicycles, we could create sufficient electricity. 
All of this may again seem impossible but it is not so. There are a lot of things that we can incorporate in our lives that would go a long way in saving the environment. Changing our object of desire is important. I never quite understood the motive behind lighting crackers during the Diwali season and gave up lighting them long back. Yes they may look colorful, but at what expense? The smoke and the sound literally speed up one’s heart and make most of the people confined within their homes, with the doors shut and earplugs on. A recent newspaper article praised Mumbaikars as they switched off their lights and appliances for an hour to observe the Earth hour on the 27th of March this year. But the same Mumbaikars have been notorious to produce voluminous amounts of CO2 and other toxic gases during Diwali by bursting crackers. In fact bursting crackers is fast becoming a status symbol. If we tell our kids that lighting crackers will indirectly kill all those birds and animals they adore in their colorful textbooks, they certainly won’t. Wouldn’t it be nice to celebrate such occasions in some other ways?

Each one of us learn and keep learning to become the best in our fields. We study, we work, we earn. And then we spend. We dream of having a big car, a big well furnished house, etc., without even thinking over the harm we would impose upon our environmental resources in the process. So are we literates in the literal sense? What are we doing? Earning and throwing away money to destroy the environment, destroy the planet?

A question keeps on haunting my mind often. What if there was no money? What if we would’ve stayed in the jungles, with little comforts that we have at our disposal today? At least that would’ve not put our species, the human race to shame. We based our lives on an unsustainable economy. We based it on money. We invented business schools that just feed people’s brains and teach them ways to maximize monetary outputs. But how do we earn? We do that by ultimately exploiting our own environment. What if all the fuel tomorrow gets used up entirely and there’s no way you can transport things? Food is made available to us only after it is transported right into our grocery shops form miles away. As the oil supplies would diminish by the day, so would the food prices and once all of the oil in Earth’s crust has been spent, how will we transport that food? Won’t we die starving? At the same time people engaged in the business of supplying this food will be literally brought on the street, won’t they? Now think of a multinational oil company that has a number of oil rigs installed in the sea to extract oil. Imagine what will happen if tomorrow all the oil reserves have exhausted. And then imagine the economic havoc that will result; as it’s the oil that drives the world’s economy today. So we need to find a sustainable way of living. We need to have an economy that spares available natural resources. 

All this may seem impractical but it’s definitely not impossible. It may seem not relevant here in India, but we just cannot wait for things to happen. We can read more and more about global warming and spread the word. We can educate people regarding this serious issue. We can tell them the reason why grains and cereals and all sorts of foods have become so expensive today. We can tell them why there’s a shortage of food everywhere. It was because of irregular rains and why were the rains irregular? It was because of our own reckless actions. But more importantly, we ought to educate ourselves first. It’s difficult to make the connection of say, falling trees to the abrupt change in weather conditions but we have to become literates in the true sense. We can’t expect our government bodies to do things for us. Almost every ruling government is too short sighted to implement radical steps and the bureaucratic hassles have become too complicated for even a visionary administration to take firm decisions.  It is we who have to start acting and we have to start acting now.

It is possible to have a picture as to what effects global warming will bring with it. Although researchers can never have accurate predictions, we know that we are running short of time. It’s time for a change and that change should begin from within each of us. Among the several forecasts, perhaps that of physicist Stephen Hawking is the most disturbing one. He is of the opinion that if the current trend of rising global temperatures continues, we may end reducing Earth to a state as that of its sister planet Venus—with a temperature of 250 centigrade, and raining sulfuric acid. That would indeed be an awful crime on our part. We ought to live and let live. We ought to love creatures regardless of their form or size. We ought to care for plants and animals as we would do for our human loved ones. It is the human mind that has lead to conditions as we know them today. Right from the invention of agriculture, through that of the steam engine, to that of economy, the human mind manipulated Mother Nature to its own advantage without thinking of the non-humans that inhabit the planet. It’s time we employ our hearts to do the thinking part and only then will our name be etched in Earth’s history as the greatest race time has ever witnessed.