Better Environment for a Better Life

�The world has enough for everyone’s need, but not anyone’s greed.”
-Mahatma Gandhi

‘Our world’ or ‘The Infinite Bounty’ is full of natural resources. It provides to man all the necessities of life. The varied range of ecosystems that we live in as forests, lakes and rivers, coasts and seas, grasslands, agricultural fields and pastures, deserts, snow bound peaks, the varied type of flora and fauna are the treasure bestowed on man to use wisely for survival. Our biosphere and our ecosystem thus is not only self sustaining but also maintain a balance between creation and destruction.

This balance in nature is slowly and surely coming to a halt by the misuse and overuse of these precious gifts of nature. The modern technological development and the activities of rapidly expanding human population are creating many environmental problems. Trees are being cut down at an alarming rate to satisfy the insatiable greed of a few. Forests are being felled for timber and to create land for agriculture. This leads to soil erosion, upsetting of various earths� cycle like carbon cycle, oxygen cycle etc. and also contributes to global warming. These forests which are the homes of wildlife are being destroyed, thus causing the reduction of biodiversity. The most quoted example is the case of the passenger pigeons in the U.S. In the 19th century there are estimated to have been 2000 million of this species. Due to hunting and habitat destruction the population was reduced to 2, 50,000 by 1896 and by 1914 the species became extinct with the death of the last bird in captivity. If this is the rapidity and scale of human destruction, we can well imagine what awaits the hundreds of endangered species all over the world.

Extinctions are not restricted to wild species alone, but several varieties of crops are also fast disappearing. Due to excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides the production of crops has increased but nutrition value has definitely gone down.

It is said that the rivers of India have a natural capacity to cleanse themselves. With growing urbanization, agricultural demands for increasing and sewage spurring into our depleted river systems, this innate capacity to rejuvenate is being sorely tested. Dr. R.C. Trivedi of the central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) reports that out of a population of one crore, six thousand million liters of waste water is discharged daily. Also, Mr. Dilip Biswas, chairman of CPCB informs that of 45,000 km. of length of our rivers, 6000 km. have a Biological Oxygen Deficiency (BOD) that means it is unfit for drinking water.

Air pollution graph shows that most hazardous results. In many large cities, air pollution caused by vehicles and industries has become a serious problem. It causes human health problems such as eye irritation, coughs and asthma and damages plants and buildings. The toxic chemicals released by factories such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) destroy the ozone layer which means the sun’s ultraviolet rays can reach the earth leading to skin cancer and damage to crops. Sulphur and nitrogen comes from power stations, industries and vehicle engines when combined with water vapour, sunlight and oxygen in atmosphere, causes acid rain.� This acid rain pollutes the lakes and rivers, killing fish, plants and animals.

This rise in air pollution has reached to such great heights that Mexico City had to close all its schools for one month due to a large amount of smog in the air. Even Swedish lakes have been infected by these gases and thus no creature survives in it.

Such depletion of natural resources is a matter of great concern for the whole world. If humanity is not careful, we are going to lose the fiber of the planet which makes life possible on it. There is simile about a ship that is losing its one nut at a time… each step does not seem to be a significant loss in itself, but lose enough of them and the ship is surely going to sink. We are slowly and surely losing the species and genes that keep the earth afloat.

As Gandhiji has rightly said that “The world has enough for everyone’s need, but not anyone’s greed”. When we look around our surrounding with purity and harmony in our minds, we realize that natural habitats provide fresh air for lungs, sinks for air and water pollution, buffers against the maddening noise, natural hazards like cyclones and floods; natural air conditioning in the blistering summer and a quiet refuge for the citizen tired of stressful existence. If one were to calculate these benefits, he would run easily into thousands of crores of rupees. Therefore, human beings who has proud of their ability to think and feel, should be concerned about the impact of their greed and arrogance that the world is going to suffer, for there are no technological solutions for the human induced crisis of extinction.

The Native American Chief is believed to have said, “When all the eagles and fish are gone and waters killed by pollution, only then will we realize that money cannot be eaten”. It is important, therefore, that we reform our ways, otherwise the extinction of life itself on earth may well become a reality…. and when millions of species gone, can we be far behind?

Pragya Gupta
B.Tech. Mechanical Engineering��� (2009 Batch)