World Environment Day is celebrated on 5 th June every year for encouraging awareness, providing a forum for dissemination of environment research and action for the protection of our environment. It is being celebrated since 1974 in over 100 countries by setting theme each year. This year China will host the global World Environment Day on the theme “Air Pollution”. The country owns half the world’s electric vehicles and 99 percent of the world’s electric buses. It is our bad luck that 92% population lives in places where air quality falls below World Health Organisation limits and 90 out of 193 countries do not have vehicle emission standards. Air pollution costs the global economy $5 trillion every year for awareness and welfare costs and it is expected that ground-level ozone pollution may reduce the crop yields by 26% by 2030 is alarming global emergency to save millions of lives. According to a new UN report on air pollution in Asia and the Pacific, implementing 25 technology policies could see up to a 20 per cent reduction in carbon dioxide and a 45 per cent reduction in methane emissions globally, leading to a third of a degree Celsius saving of global warming.
It is not primary duty of the government to check air pollution rathereveryone should come forward and feels their individual’s responsibility only then we will be able to make big dent to this problem. It becomes our collective responsibility to check air pollution, ground water, industrial waste, sludge management, solid waste management, surface water, water quality, wastage of drinking water, less use of drinking water, surface water and polythene. At present lots of drinking water is being wasted for washing cars, watering the lawns and cleanliness. We should have sufficient rain water collection centres, wastewater collection centres and water treatment plants. It should be made mandatory to all housing societies to get connection of treasury water for lawns and car washing etc. To shun use of polythene bags and water bottles as It takes 1000 years to decompose the polythene and 450 years for decomposing the plastic water bottle.
When contacted Parmod Sharma a coordinator of Yuvsatta an NGO said “ we are deeply concerned with the environment changes and time to time we organises public awareness by involving school children and recently we have organised “water conservation fortnight” from 7 th May to 21 st May 2019 with the
help of Department of Environment, Chandigarh Administration and organising a big show at Elante Mall, Chandigarh tomorrow to celebrate “World Environment
Day” and our aim is to increase people’s and school children awareness on the importance of the environment, emotionally understand the surrounding and to
understand the cause-and-effect relationships of quality of environment and effect on human relationship to generate positive impact on our planet. The eco-
clubs are participating in each such programme”.
Harash Mitter, IFS (Retd.) Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Wildlife from Himachal Pardesh said “The World Environment Day is a reminder to all of us that we must strive to conserve our environment for the survival of species on the planet Earth and to avoid the point of no return. We need to drastically reduce agents causing air, water and solid waste pollution or manage levels of agents therein such as stubble burning and human made forest fires by compensating drudgery involved, using alternate technologies to reduce vehicular & industrial emission i.e. reduced use of fossil fuels and avoid use of such cultivational practices by those which reduce methane emission including longer fixation of carbon by reducing its recycling. We must check total release
of untreated sewer and industrial pollutants to the rivers for the availability of safe drinking water to all living beings. We need to recharge depleted ground
water from the rains to avoid such situations as arisen in Cape Town (RSA) and Tamil Nadu. On this day, let us all pledge to plant more trees for cleaner
environment and to hand over a better living place Earth to our posterity”.
I contacted Professor retired Dr.Arun Deep Ahluwalia, Ex HOD Geology Department PU and Honorary Professor of Eminence in Environment Sciences Shoolini University he was of the view that World water conservation day, World Environment Day and Earth Day are just a wake up calls. What a pity that such basic subjects as Earth sciences and Environmental Sciences have still not penetrated the heads and hearts of a huge part of our 1.25 billion population! The need of the hour is to create citizen geoscientists and environmentalists to explore young minds to excitement of Mother Earth. He said it is fascinating geological history spanning nearly 4600 billion years, dynamics of its landscapes, its vast resources of rocks and minerals, ever changing climate, potential for geo-tourism eco-tourism. Outreach and popular dialogue like this INSPIRE talk with a visual and local languages medium, seems to be a quick panacea to fill up the gap in earth and environmental sciences teaching in most Indian schools, colleges and universities. He also emphasised on man-made disasters like air, water and soil pollution, forest fires and various fall outs of hygiene degradation. He was of the view that every literate should be a passionate environmentalist. Issues of environment are issues of life and death and one cannot look the other way to evade these huge concerns. Future lies with youngsters equipped with knowledge of Earth & Environmental sciences as twinned not isolated courses, practical not theoretical courses. Rahul Mahanjan an organic agriculturist who is responsible for re- transplanting more than 50 old and abandoned trees at his own expenses in tricity and maintained these said while talking that “although the humans are the most part of the nature, our lives basically depend on the nature, but our thinking and almost every activity is under stood as a separate category from the other natural phenomena”. Very few persons in this world are real nature lover but he is one of them. He said “Environment for any generation is very important to save it is the need of the hour and collective responsibility of each individual. Trees play a vital role in protecting the environment. Old trees should be saved on priority. Every citizen should get good air quality, clean water, good soil and less of noise pollution. These are basic fundamental right of a citizen to live in a good environment. Chandigarh is a green city given to us by our ancestors. It is our duty to protect this environment and give next generations a green, healthy and clean city”
Since I am working on butterflies and noticed that due to air-pollution, electromagnetic radiation from cellophane towers, polythene pollution etc.etc. the population and species of butterflies, dragonflies, mayflies and beetles are decreasing day by day. We are exposed 100 million times more to electromagnetic radiation as compared to our grandparents. High frequency radio waves or microwaves that can travel as far as 45 miles over level terrain. These are credible threat to plants metabolic health, birds, animals and bugs. It is alarming that 41% of insect’s species have declined, 31% are threatened and 10% are going locally extinct according to para-meters of International Union for Conservation of Nature. They are dying so rapidly that within 100 years they could disappear and according to Davidowitz “without pollinators most of the plants on the planet will disappear and the world would be not just be a less leafy place in this insects-apocalypse scenario. Between 50 to 90 % of the human diet by both volume and calories, depending on the country, comes directly from flowering plants” Between 2000 and 2009 alone in U.K. lost 58% butterflies and moths species on the farmed land.
Actually insects are losing their habitats due to farming and urbanisation, the use of pesticides, heavy land use and fertilizers which are solely responsible
for the climate change and destroying eco-system. This is high time to act otherwise it will be too late.
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Kulbhushan Kanwar, Environment Reporter, Babushahi.com
kulbhushankanwar@gmail.com
Phone No. : 9815935035
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