" Save Me " - Earth

When this time i entered pushkar for a holy water dip i realised the vagaries of nature, what i saw in front of my eyes was this deep and dry pushkar with a wide area of 510 m and feeding the population over 15,000 now looks pale and old with seemingly no hopes of revival of its original galore.


It made me sit and wonder how nature could show its extremes it dried up a lake that was said to have never ending water and could cause floods in arid regions of karnataka and andhra pradesh leaving thousands roofless. As a child we were always taught in school to save trees and jungles since it prevented soil erosion and caused rainfall and we thought how on earth a single tree would matter to our living. Now we know why it matters to us. At one such discussion with our driver escorting us in rajasthan trip said " Bhagwan ka prakop hai ye ab to indra devta ko yagya se khush karayenge tabhi kuch hoga sahabji " ( It is God's warth on us his anger, now Indra (God of rain) has to be made happy with prayers only then something will happen ). It amused me, such innosense of normal public it never seems to see any valid reason behind a situation. They always end up praising or blaming God for everything around them, would they think no matter how much yagyas or prayers you perform nothing would happen untill the ways of a man changes. We have devastrated several acres of forest land for industrialisation and now wonder why things are happening to us, the water which could have been a boon to us is turning into curse in the form of floods since there are no trees to hold and absorb excess water. Vast majorities of land being swayed up of its fertile nutrients and all that is left back is dry salted soil. Who is to be blamed for this??


Today morning i saw a mail in my inbox regarding the Copenhagen climate summit to request our PM take strong actions against global pollution, i too volunteered for the same but did not feel much enthusiastic after reading on it, the attitude of most developed countries is like they go to a resturant have their starters, main course then their dessert and expect the billis to be piled up on developing countries. Even then i know India has to make a move , in a densely populated country like India climate change puts additional burden on an already overstressed ecological and socioeconomic system due to rapid economic activities. A constantly rising temperature can induce faster glacial melting in the Himalayan and Hindu Kush mountain ranges resulting in a 40-centimeter rise in the sea level. Such abnormal rises will surely have an adverse impact on agricultural production in the form of a reduction in total crop cycle duration.


As a blog writer writes " What image conjures up in your head when you think - Himalaya? I think big pristine mountains, white and green merging with the blue, mountain and sky fused. Sometimes I wonder what our ancestors would have seen? Reality seems to indicate that what they would have seen would be drastically different from what we may get to see today. And then I wonder what my children will get to see? Brown and black merging with the grey? " . In another incident Alibagh, Taluka close to a thousand villagers stood for hours in the formation of a life-size human windmill in what could well be the largest protest for renewable energy in India to date. They were demanding that the Maharashtra Government drop plans to build 10,000MW coal-fired thermal power plants in the region and explore renewable energy instead. “We believe that the energy planned from these coal plants is dirty. It can come instead from clean alternatives like wind and solar energy, and by using energy more efficiently. We will not give up our land and our future to these mega power plants that will pollute our air, land, and water. We will not allow them to ruin our children’s future by adding to the problem of climate change,” said Dr Vishnu P. Mhatre of the Naugaon Sangharsh Samiti, one of the organisations fighting for clean energy here. Such news is an awakening a modification in the thoughts of todays generation that is slowly and steadily realising the value of natural resources, such protests will only grow in future. Building a low-carbon economy is an investment in India's interest this is to be understood and implemented.


Future is under much shade, away from the natural beauties filled with artificial glamour may be we will never be able to get our kids see how beautiful their mother earth is, all they will see is pictures. With such rapid depletion and eradictaion, mother earth's warth is bound to strike on different parts of the world by 2050 our great land population will sparse away from coastal zones and clog in the mid arid reigions adding more to land and water deficiencies. As an individual there are three areas where we can make the most impact in reducing carbon emissions - the electricity we use in our homes, the waste we produce, and the transportation we choose to use. Think if you can do something, if you really wish to here's a short list small efforts that can help our coming generations.

• Change a light - Replace regular light bulbs with compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs. Replacing just one 60-watt incandescent light bulb with a CFL will save you over 1300Rs on the life of the bulb. CFLs also last 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs, use two-thirds less energy, and give off 70 percent less heat.

• Drive less - Less driving means fewer emissions. Besides saving gasoline, walking and biking are great forms of exercise. Explore your community mass transit system, and check out options for carpooling to work or school. All of these things can help reduce gas consumption and half Kg of carbon dioxide for each mile you do not drive.

• Recycle more and buy recycled - Save up to 1100 Kg of carbon dioxide each year just by recycling half of your household waste. By recycling and buying products with recycled content you also save energy, resources and landfill space. Whenever you can, recycle paper, plastic, newspaper, glass and aluminum cans.

• Check your tires - Keeping your tires properly inflated can improve your gas mileage by more than 3 percent. Every gallon of gas you save not only helps your budget, it also keeps 9Kg of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.

• Use less hot water - It takes a lot of energy to heat water. Reducing the amount used means big savings in not only your energy bills, but also in carbon dioxide emissions. Using cold water for your wash saves 200Kg of carbon dioxide a year, and using a low flow showerhead reduces 200Kg of carbon dioxide. Make the most of your hot water by insulating your tank.

• Avoid products with a lot of packaging - Preventing waste from being created in the first place means that there is less energy wasted and fewer resources consumed. When you purchase products with the least amount of packaging, not only do you save money, but you also help the environment! One bottle of 1.5l requires less energy and produces less waste than three bottles of 0.5l. Reducing your garbage by 10% reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 600 Kg.

• Adjust your thermostat - Turn down the heat while you're sleeping at night or away during the day, and keep temperatures moderate at all times. Setting your thermostat just 2 degrees lower in winter and higher in summer could save about 900 Kg of carbon dioxide each year.

• Turn "OFF " electronic devices when not in use - Simply turning off your TV, VCR, computer and other electronic devices can save each household thousand of kilograms of carbon dioxide each year.Do not leave appliances on standby.A TV set that's switched on for 3 hours a day and in standby mode during the remaining 21 hours uses about 40% of its energy in standby mode.

• Move your fridge and freezer - Placing them next to the cooker or boiler consumes much more energy than if they were standing on their own. For example, if you put them in a hot cellar room where the room temperature is 30-35ºC, energy use is almost double and causes an extra 160kg of CO2 emissions for fridges per year and 320kg for freezers.

• When shopping for groceries, bring your own cloth bag to the market - Not using paper, plastic grocery bags help saves trees, that absorb carbon dioxide.

• Cover your pots while cooking - Doing so can save a lot of the energy needed for preparing the dish. Even better are pressure cookers and steamers: they can save around 70%!

• Plant a tree - A single tree can absorb one ton of carbon dioxide over its lifetime.

• Share this list/ Encourage your school or business to reduce emissions - Spread this list worldwide and help people doing their part: the more people you will manage to enlighten, the greater YOUR help to save the planet will be (but please take action on first person too)!

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