GLOBAL WARMING - WHAT I CAN DO??

Global warming is one of the subjects that is drawing lots of Internal attention, certainly, not without reasons. The significance of it can be gauged by the fact that last year’s Noble Prize for Peace was given to two people (Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - Dr Rajendra Kumar Pachauri is the chairman of the IPCC) who were in the forefront of drawing the attentions of all the Governments of the world. Most of the current articles on the subject discuss what Industry can/should do. Some of the ideas are use of alternate energy sources like solar, wind, tidal and geothermal. Needless to say they all have limitations with the current technological level. Newer technological innovations are bound to improve their applicability.
Often, what an individual can do in his individual capacity rarely finds a mention in the seminars and articles generally doing the rounds. As in any environmental issues what an individual does in his individual capacity is of great import. It is very important to remember that it is the small drops of water and little grains of sand that has made the mighty oceans and the pleasant land. It is the small inadvertent, but significant wrongs done by the whole of humanity which had a great role to play in bring the ecosystems to nearly irretrievable destruction. Undoubtedly corrective action by the whole of humanity would certainly play a great role in bring our world back from the brink. Therefore it is high time that each one of us realize the enormity of the situation and institute changes in our every day actions. You and your actions matter, never underestimate its importance.

The following are some of my thoughts about what we can do in our every day life. Charity, it is said, begins at home. What each one will do is no charity but the imperative need of the hour and let me start at home.

1. Start a kitchen garden on your terrace, balcony or back yard. This, though insignificant in itself, gives us some more plants to fix the carbon dioxide, a green house gas. If done by a large enough groups its effect can be significant. Add to this a wormiculture for disposing your kitchen waste. This will reduce the production methane a product of vegetable decay. In turn it gives the organic manure for your garden. It has been shown decisively that organically cultivated vegetables are good for health. Besides it makes a small contribution to your budget. The benefits of such a small step to the individuals as well as to the society are manifold and in the long run significant.

2. India is blessed with good sunshine all across its territory and for most part of the year. The mute question is how much of it is put to good use. Bangalore has taken to solar water heaters in a big way. But the same can not be said of other places. It is time that the government makes it mandatory that solar heaters be put up in all buildings above a set floor area like Dr. Jayalalita had done in Chennai for rain water harvesting when she was Chief Minister. Another point about the solar water heater is how many draw the full benefit of it. Generally the hot water from these heaters is used for bathing and washing utensils. A correctly sized solar heater should give about 60-70C water. It would make a significant impact on the cooking gas consumption if this hot water is used for cooking. If adopted nation wide it would conserve a scarce fuel and bring about a significant reduction in the carbon dioxide generation.

3. Another device to use solar energy is the solar panel for power generation. Currently the cost is high and is limiting its use. Big apartment buildings, hospitals and luxury hotels can afford to use these for providing one light and fan in each room and corridors. The Governments can provide meaningful subsidies to its users. Similarly the big companies can use them for their advertising hoardings.

4. Enough has already been written about vehicle usage and I would like to go into it again. However I would suggest that individuals can certainly do the following; use public transport whenever possible, switch off their engines in traffic jams and traffic lights and take the trouble to maintain the right tyre pressures in their vehicles. It would be a good practice to check the tyre pressure every time they visit the petrol station.

I am sure these steps are simple enough for all of us to implement in our daily life. All that is needed is a sincere wish to contribute their might towards saving our mother earth.