Hey folks,
Around this time last year, hundreds of divers were scouring the ocean bed at Dubai’s Fisherman’s Port, one of the busiest in the world. They were fishing out ship wastes, plastic and other sundry junk, so that the port could wear a spanking new look on the World Environment Day. I wonder if this year the exercise was repeated.
New Zealand, too, had gone on an overdrive last June, because the global celebrations were being staged there. Was the pace of cleaning up as hectic this time round, now that the focus shifted to the new host, Mexico?
I am sure it was, and it required far more rigour. Because every year the dirt trail gets longer and more difficult to clean. Take the example of the dreaded green house gases. (WED’s theme 2009 is Climate Change, right?). They have the disturbing habit of staying in the atmosphere for a very long time. So every tonne we emit now pumps up temperatures for years to come.
In that case, is this once-a year, ritual clean up enough, really? If we are serious about mopping up our sooty trails, and if we want to make sure the future tracks don’t leave such indelible imprints, what scale of action would we need to undertake?
Celebrate World Environment Days…on all 365 of them in a year!
– Pandit Gobar Ganesh
E-mail:
panditji@cseindia.org
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