When Greta Thunberg accused the world leaders of having stolen her childhood, many people thought she was pointing fingers in Trumpesque style at Trump himself - "How dare you?"
When I was younger than what is Greta's age today, in the 1970s and in school, the term global warming had started getting attention. We were told how the world would be hell in 50 years' time with glaciers melting and sea-levels rising. But there were comforting voices as well who brushed under the carpet the seriousness of the issue by putting up interesting convincing arguments.
And so two generations - mine and the one before that - continued to plunder the world. Forests were uprooted. But weren't we planting 10 trees in place of one that we had cut? We were doing so by overlooking the reality that a tree that took thousands of years to stands on its feet was being replaced by saplings which may or may not survive a few years. After all we have been planting saplings every year at the same pit on World Environment Day since I cannot recall when. Mineral and oil exploration is another environment-degrading activity which has a multiplier effect on the rate at which glaciers are melting. The superpowers are ready to drill for more oil in the Arctic region once the glaciers there vanish!
When Prime Minister Modi launched the ambitious Swachha Bharat Mission that aimed at making India spic and span by 2nd October 2019, we all were so relieved. The sins of two generations had a golden chance at redemption. But both the generations failed. While there has been considerable progress in number of toilets and significant reduction in open defecation, pollution continues to be the bane of our surroundings. What was needed was regular picking-up of garbage by our municipalities, even without the mission. What we have seen instead is mud-slinging, the case of the Municipal Corporations versus the Delhi government being a shining example of that. No doubt then that the PM has taken upon the plastic menace as his next mission. After all, all the plastic that could have been removed safely if the municipalities had done what was their regular job, we could have made India Swachh by now.
So my sincere apologies to Greta and her generation. Yes child, we have failed you and refuse to move an inch to absolve ourselves. We did not dare. We whimpered. We cowered. We let the world go down the drain. The excessive rains are only helping accelerate that process.
When I was younger than what is Greta's age today, in the 1970s and in school, the term global warming had started getting attention. We were told how the world would be hell in 50 years' time with glaciers melting and sea-levels rising. But there were comforting voices as well who brushed under the carpet the seriousness of the issue by putting up interesting convincing arguments.
And so two generations - mine and the one before that - continued to plunder the world. Forests were uprooted. But weren't we planting 10 trees in place of one that we had cut? We were doing so by overlooking the reality that a tree that took thousands of years to stands on its feet was being replaced by saplings which may or may not survive a few years. After all we have been planting saplings every year at the same pit on World Environment Day since I cannot recall when. Mineral and oil exploration is another environment-degrading activity which has a multiplier effect on the rate at which glaciers are melting. The superpowers are ready to drill for more oil in the Arctic region once the glaciers there vanish!
When Prime Minister Modi launched the ambitious Swachha Bharat Mission that aimed at making India spic and span by 2nd October 2019, we all were so relieved. The sins of two generations had a golden chance at redemption. But both the generations failed. While there has been considerable progress in number of toilets and significant reduction in open defecation, pollution continues to be the bane of our surroundings. What was needed was regular picking-up of garbage by our municipalities, even without the mission. What we have seen instead is mud-slinging, the case of the Municipal Corporations versus the Delhi government being a shining example of that. No doubt then that the PM has taken upon the plastic menace as his next mission. After all, all the plastic that could have been removed safely if the municipalities had done what was their regular job, we could have made India Swachh by now.
So my sincere apologies to Greta and her generation. Yes child, we have failed you and refuse to move an inch to absolve ourselves. We did not dare. We whimpered. We cowered. We let the world go down the drain. The excessive rains are only helping accelerate that process.
