The year is 2008. The millennium year went by nearly eight years ago. It was then, when prophecies about an apocalypse were forewarned by the likes of Notra Damus and the reverent Gurus from the Himalayas. Few religiously believed it would occur, while others laughed it off.
In the recent past, newspapers and TV news channels have been reporting life-threatening hurricanes and tsunamis, catastrophic wildfires, droughts and seismic repercussions all around the world. But man stood powerless, witnessing the mayhem around him.
What went wrong?
Before the time of Industrialisation, our predecessors were curious and questioned everything they saw and discovered. They ventured to every corner of the world in search of their answers. They looked up to the sky and tapped and every rock and pebble; Somewhere long they discovered fuel, minerals, metals, chemicals which could be altered and lots more. Eventually, we’ve “progressed” by using these products lavishly, making a luxurious possession, a basic necessity. The sources were, after all, more than just abundant!
What have we come to?
Come World War I and World War II, and man held the world in his palm. He decided what to do with the lives of people, animals and plants. He owned weapons, killed animals for hide, felled acres of trees to process furniture, paper and wood as fuel. Added to that list, he took the lives of his fellow beings; the Hiroshima-Nagasaki atomic bomb explosion for example, had annihilated most parts of that area and mutated those who were spared.
For several years, many countries rattled the Earth while waging wars. They left a colossal amount of damage to the economy and the environment.
Many countries managed to redeem their power in the economic arena, by enterprising industrial scaled projects and called themselves ‘developed countries’ while others ‘developing countries’ stood not far away. The increasing number of industries rose proportionately with product demand.
Industries laboriously worked in meeting the demand. Green lands turned grey as plant resources were uprooted, chimneys smoked thick soot and large amounts of untreated effluents were discharged into nearby water bodies. The quality of the environment deteriorated. Air became unbearable to breathe, the soil infertile and the water contaminated.
Birds and fish among all animals were chocked to death and were the first to be affected by pollutants. Animals lost their homes to anthropocentric activities and disappeared from the face of Earth. The world started to suffer a slow death.
What can we do?
Until recent times, the Earth beckoned for our help and we stayed oblivious to it. Most environmental hazards including hurricane, tsunami, temperature rise, ice melt down are due to direct or indirect cause of global warming.
Since we are responsible for the volatile change in the environment- specifically the ozone hole and climate change, it is our responsibility to set things right. It’s important to be a part of the solution, not the problem.
Awareness is half the cure. Al Gore, the former vice president of America used his power by spreading word about climate change through his award-winning documentary ‘The Inconvenient truth.’ His work has sent waves across the world, driving people to work towards a clean environment.
Keeping this perspective in mind, as a student of Environmental Science, I had the privilege to start a student-based organisation at college called ‘Green Shield.’ We work with NGOs and spread word about the environment among students.
In the past three months, we had a ‘No Plastic movement’ where we spoke to schools and few colleges. We invited a self support group called ‘the Belaku Trust’ that made recycled paper and cloth products, to sell at our college. As a part of our credit programme, we have tied up with a company called ‘KK plastics’. This company aims at using plastic to tar the roads. Not only are the roads durable, we seem to have found a solution to plastic wastes.
From college, we had visited the largest lake in Bangalore called the ‘Bellandur Lake’ and its’ village as a part of our community development programme. I had the opportunity to participate in a Lead analysis campaign, where we have tested positive for lead in the lake as well as in some ground water samples.
As a part of our climate change awareness program we assembled people to join the NGO, ‘Treesforfree’ in an afforestation movement called ‘Plantaton’.
Green Shield has moulded me in an adverse way and was a channel to prove my leadership qualities- responsibility, reliability and to motivate as well as bind my team, barring their differences, to ultimately harness their strongest skills. During tense situations, I had the capability to maintain my poise and socially, I was able to mingle with ease among the distinguished and the infamous of all ages alike.
As a student of environmental science, I am convinced that there is a critical need to not only to bring awareness to the public about the environmental issues, but to be able to bridge the gap between the long-thought rivals, the industrialists and the environmentalist. I believe that at a national and an international level, we can develop and grow economically as well as environmentally using clean technology, for a better tomorrow. As our Green Shield motto says, we should be “Guarding today, for tomorrow.”
In the recent past, newspapers and TV news channels have been reporting life-threatening hurricanes and tsunamis, catastrophic wildfires, droughts and seismic repercussions all around the world. But man stood powerless, witnessing the mayhem around him.
What went wrong?
Before the time of Industrialisation, our predecessors were curious and questioned everything they saw and discovered. They ventured to every corner of the world in search of their answers. They looked up to the sky and tapped and every rock and pebble; Somewhere long they discovered fuel, minerals, metals, chemicals which could be altered and lots more. Eventually, we’ve “progressed” by using these products lavishly, making a luxurious possession, a basic necessity. The sources were, after all, more than just abundant!
What have we come to?
Come World War I and World War II, and man held the world in his palm. He decided what to do with the lives of people, animals and plants. He owned weapons, killed animals for hide, felled acres of trees to process furniture, paper and wood as fuel. Added to that list, he took the lives of his fellow beings; the Hiroshima-Nagasaki atomic bomb explosion for example, had annihilated most parts of that area and mutated those who were spared.
For several years, many countries rattled the Earth while waging wars. They left a colossal amount of damage to the economy and the environment.
Many countries managed to redeem their power in the economic arena, by enterprising industrial scaled projects and called themselves ‘developed countries’ while others ‘developing countries’ stood not far away. The increasing number of industries rose proportionately with product demand.
Industries laboriously worked in meeting the demand. Green lands turned grey as plant resources were uprooted, chimneys smoked thick soot and large amounts of untreated effluents were discharged into nearby water bodies. The quality of the environment deteriorated. Air became unbearable to breathe, the soil infertile and the water contaminated.
Birds and fish among all animals were chocked to death and were the first to be affected by pollutants. Animals lost their homes to anthropocentric activities and disappeared from the face of Earth. The world started to suffer a slow death.
What can we do?
Until recent times, the Earth beckoned for our help and we stayed oblivious to it. Most environmental hazards including hurricane, tsunami, temperature rise, ice melt down are due to direct or indirect cause of global warming.
Since we are responsible for the volatile change in the environment- specifically the ozone hole and climate change, it is our responsibility to set things right. It’s important to be a part of the solution, not the problem.
Awareness is half the cure. Al Gore, the former vice president of America used his power by spreading word about climate change through his award-winning documentary ‘The Inconvenient truth.’ His work has sent waves across the world, driving people to work towards a clean environment.
Keeping this perspective in mind, as a student of Environmental Science, I had the privilege to start a student-based organisation at college called ‘Green Shield.’ We work with NGOs and spread word about the environment among students.
In the past three months, we had a ‘No Plastic movement’ where we spoke to schools and few colleges. We invited a self support group called ‘the Belaku Trust’ that made recycled paper and cloth products, to sell at our college. As a part of our credit programme, we have tied up with a company called ‘KK plastics’. This company aims at using plastic to tar the roads. Not only are the roads durable, we seem to have found a solution to plastic wastes.
From college, we had visited the largest lake in Bangalore called the ‘Bellandur Lake’ and its’ village as a part of our community development programme. I had the opportunity to participate in a Lead analysis campaign, where we have tested positive for lead in the lake as well as in some ground water samples.
As a part of our climate change awareness program we assembled people to join the NGO, ‘Treesforfree’ in an afforestation movement called ‘Plantaton’.
Green Shield has moulded me in an adverse way and was a channel to prove my leadership qualities- responsibility, reliability and to motivate as well as bind my team, barring their differences, to ultimately harness their strongest skills. During tense situations, I had the capability to maintain my poise and socially, I was able to mingle with ease among the distinguished and the infamous of all ages alike.
As a student of environmental science, I am convinced that there is a critical need to not only to bring awareness to the public about the environmental issues, but to be able to bridge the gap between the long-thought rivals, the industrialists and the environmentalist. I believe that at a national and an international level, we can develop and grow economically as well as environmentally using clean technology, for a better tomorrow. As our Green Shield motto says, we should be “Guarding today, for tomorrow.”
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