Did it strike you as odd how much rain Delhi has witnessed this season? Why did the level of ice dip to the lowest in the Arctic? The tsunami in Indonesia!. The earthquake in China! The typhoon in Miami! Why did the Kosi flood? …..the El Nino………….the La Nina………… Why in the name of the Almighty has the weather gone haywire? God’s barometer out of order or what?
Let us look back……retrospect…….. Not much …..Just a few decades. Saw or heard of any industrial plant spewing black smoke? Or people cutting trees to make way for a train track or apartment building? Or making a Dam for irrigating large fields? Or earth’s crust being drilled into exhaustively for oil and minerals? Or poisonous chemicals being dumped into water bodies? Or farmers spraying pesticides in fields? These are the colossal occurrences….. Policy decisions? …..Imminent and required for development and progress?……Government’s responsibility!….…Right?
OK. Let’s consider the individual or minor ones. When did you last get the PUC of your vehicle? No Idea? (What’s PUC man?) Never planted a sapling? Never tried to segregate the waste you generate? (Into bio-degradable and re-cyclable) Never pooled a car? Never used a mosquito net instead of vaporizer repellant? ‘No’ to any question?
Ever owned an AC or fridge using CFC? Installed a bore well for tapping ground water? Enjoyed a bonfire? Lit a cracker on Deepawali? Took a dip in the river at a hill station? Threw a toffee wrapper on the pavement? Honked endlessly at the vehicle in front? Left the water running while brushing your teeth? Forgot to switch off the light? Danced to the mind numbing and blaring music in a marriage? Smoked a Marlboro? ‘Yes’ to any query?
Then YOU are also one of many responsible for causing grievous injury to Mother Nature. Polluting it. Aiding in its destruction. Something which you could have controlled had you been sensitive enough to notice the subtle signs and warnings. Oh yes! Nature has been warning us for quite some time! The droughts in monsoon season! The rise in sea level! The extreme heat in summers (> 50 degrees centigrade)! Significant drop in winter temperature! The depleting ozone layer (causing skin cancers etc)! The earthquakes! Fresh activity in long extinct volcanoes (Mt Etna, Sicily)! The depleting crude oil and mineral reserves! The disappearing ground water! The decreasing soil fertility resulting in less food grains! The changing patterns of rains! The shifting climate!
It is you who chose to ignore them. Turn a blind eye!
Now Mother Nature has decided to payback! And with interest! Go figure!
Saturday, September 20, 2008
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1 comment:
Its a wonderful thought.
In one or the other way we are all born to exploit the nature, use its resources to our full benefits. And the consequent nature is also expected to change over a period. This is Life, for all...be it humans, animals, birds, or trees, etc.
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