Gears of the Green Machine- A Take on Our responsibilities

Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty. - Albert Einstein

As we enter a new age dominated by electronic marvels, smart real estate projects and media, I wonder if we would ever look back at our genesis. Man learnt to swim, then crawl, then stoop, then walk and now he is the master of reality. Needless to say, there is a monumental lag between the world today and the earth we would be happy to live in. Carbon emissions and nonputrefiable waste have shot up in the last decade to unimaginable figures. In countries especially ours, the urban populace has shifted to smarter modes of living. This move has only denigrated the situation because complexity in technology has hurled us further towards eco-ignorance, something that can be expressed as our mere oblivion towards major environmental issues and loci. Despite all high-profile efforts from ministries, NGOs, entrepreneurs and United Nations, we are still yet to match safety standards, both nationally and internationally. Heavier defence projections by nations like India, Pakistan, South Korea and many others has been a major reason behind this anomaly. The different exhausts produced and non-biodegradable wastes which are obtained as an inevitable outcome, increase the SPM( Suspended Particulate Matter) content as well as harmful gases such as CFCs, Dioxin etc. What they do is marginally yield high temperature zones which augur in our water and land resources slowly polluting them. Environmental performance can be assessed against domestic objectives and international commitments: The main international agreement is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (1992).Its 1997 Kyoto Protocol, establishes differentiated national or regional emission reduction or limitation targets for six GHG for 2008-12 with 1990 as the reference year. The Kyoto Protocol which has been ratified by 177 parties, including all but two OECD countries, is in force since the 16th February 2005. GHG emissions refer to the sum of the 6 gases of the Kyoto Protocol (CO2, CH4, N2O, PFCs, HFCs and SF6) expressed in CO2 equivalents. While a number of OECD countries have decoupled their CO2 and other GHG emissions from GDP growth, most countries have not succeeded in meeting their own national commitments. Their emissions continued to increase throughout the 1990s, despite gains in energy efficiency (i.e. relative decoupling). Overall, since 1980, CO2 emissions from energy use have grown more slowly in OECD countries as a group than they have world-wide. This trend was emphasized in the recent years by the rapid economic growth of Asian countries. Smaller nations like Luxembourg and Poland lead in GHG emissions as compared to data evaluated within the former decade. While atmospheric conditions present a pale picture, stratospheric conditions are even more horrifying if analyzed. HCFC consumption and related concentrations in the atmosphere are still increasing. HCFCs have only 2 to 12% of the ozone depleting potential of CFCs, but have a large global warming potential. Under current international agreements they will not be phased out completely before 2030 in industrialized countries and will remain in the stratosphere for a long time thereafter. Australia leads NOx emissions which is basically due to congested traffic and extensive building projects, augmenting the chances of chronic lung and skin diseases. While the nature of waste has changed from an agri dominated genre to a electronic and plastic based genre in the recent years, steps like bio-mineralization, bio fuels, green cities and

alternative decomposition sources have come to life. Main concerns relate to the impacts of water pollution (eutrophication, acidification, toxic contamination) on human health, on the cost of drinking water treatment and on aquatic ecosystems. Despite significant progress in reducing pollution loads from municipal and industrial point sources through installation of appropriate waste water treatment plants, improvements in freshwater quality are not always easy to discern, except for organic pollution. Pollution loads from diffuse agricultural sources are an issue in many countries, as is the supply of permanently safe drinking water to the entire population. At world level, it is estimated that water demand has risen by more than double the rate of population growth in the last century. Agriculture is the largest user of water world-wide, accounting for about 70% of the total global freshwater withdrawals; abstractions for irrigation are estimated to have increased by over 75 % since 1960. In terms of forest resources, their sustainable use and balanced growth is of utmost importance. Percentage of forests worldwide have been reduced drastically by a whopping 40% which is alarming. Integration of life-saving resources within and outside the forest belt will ensure a constant attention towards them which will surely foster better management of forest resources. Main concerns relate to the effects of energy production and use on greenhouse gas emissions and on local and regional air pollution; other effects involve water quality, land use, risks related to the nuclear fuel cycle and risks related to the extraction, transport and use of fossil fuels. Summing up, the challenges that we face today have multilateral solutions. These solutions can only be effectively implemented if nations get together at vital points, institutions like the G8 & G20 lead a path of action. While saving our biodiversity also remains a priority, life of our fellow beings are in acrid danger of getting wiped away by 2050. A notion of distress goals of herculean proportions need to be setup conglomerating all social, economical and ecological spheres of consideration. -Atiyo Banerjee.