Environment friendly = PR eyewash

by Shombit Sengupta writing in The Indian Express

Making the world go fast has resulted in todays catastrophic environmental situat
ion. Incredible inventions have come from Western sophisticated societies in the
last 200 years. In fact, most things that we use in our daily lives are their i
nventions. But these inventions have put the environment on the brink of disaste
r.
The West perhaps thought of automation after they put an end to slavery, which w
as officially abolished by the US in 1865, by the French in 1842 and by Great Br
itain in 1833. Thomas Edisons invention of the bulb spurred industrialisation and
ended bonded labour, but it also triggered the beginning of environment deterio
ration.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) emission from burning coal, gas, and oil to generate electr
icity or to run our cars, has caused global warming. Atmospheric CO2 levels rose
22 per cent in the last 50 years. The US, with 5 per cent of the worlds populati
on, consumes a quarter of the worlds oil. The invention of spray cans and refrige
rants that release CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) has created a hole in the earths st
ratosphere. CFCs remain in the air for over a century, increase ozone depletion,
exposing ultraviolet rays that lead to biological consequences such as skin can
cer, cataracts, damage to plants, and reduction in the oceans plankton population
s.
Al Gore told the world about the West being the biggest culprit for global envir
onment disasters, and for exposing such American scandals he got the Nobel Prize
. Technology is the new method to dominate the world. Look at the kind of horse
racing thats happening to establish superior might with the worlds biggest polluta
nt, nuclear tests. The atom bomb may have been required in 1945 to stop World Wa
r II, otherwise we may have become part of Hitlers dictator regime today. America
n scientist Robert Oppenheimer, who worked on the atom bomb, was devastated afte
r it was used, I remembered the line from the Bhagavad Gita, Now I am become Death
, the destroyer of worlds. But was there any justification for the 2,000 odd nucle
ar test explosions after that? The country count of nuclear tests is: US: 1,054,
USSR: 715, France: 210, UK and China: 45 each, India and Pakistan: 6, and North
Korea: 2.
It is regrettable that green precautions were not promoted earlier. In fact, res
earch into alternative fuel should have started when electricity was invented. W
e need not have waited for the Copenhagen conference to look for alternative way
s because wind and solar energy have always been around.
Mass consumption is destroying our global environment. Greenpeace India says 20
to 50 million tons of e-waste is thrown away globally. The US bought $125 billio
n worth of electronic goods in 2005, and reportedly for every new PC, one was di
scarded. About 80 per cent of US e-waste is exported to India, China and Pakista
n. According to the NGO Toxics Link, 40,000 tonnes of used electronic equipment
is dumped illegally in India every month. Environmental organisations say Delhis
e-scrap yards employ over 15,000 labourers who are paid less than Rs 100 a day t
o handle 12,000 tonnes of e-waste a year. Meerut, Ferozabad, Chennai, Bangalore
and Mumbai have e-waste scrap-yards too. Processing e-waste that contains lead,
mercury, cadmium, beryllium, hazardous chemicals and brominated flame retardants
seriously pollutes and contaminates health.
Lethal hi-tech scrap too is dumped in India. The Alang port in Gujarat breaks an
d recycles approximately half the worlds salvaged ships. Teams of about 200 baref
oot workers, with no protection, dismantle oil tankers, container ships and othe
r vessels. In September 2007, Indias Supreme Court gave permission for Blue Lady,
a ship full of highly toxic and radioactive substances to be dismantled in Alan
g. This ship started out as SS France, a sophisticated, luxurious transatlantic
supership with first and tourist classes. In 1979, a Norwegian company bought it
for luxury Caribbean cruising. But for scrapping, it came to India with hazardo
us substances. The OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development)
commands its member countries to dismantle ships in their originating countries.
But a Christian Science Monitor report says that by falsifying the ships origin,
about 91 commercial vessels flying the American flag were re-baptized with new or
igins and sent to cheap scrapping facilities in Third World countries between 20
00 and 2008. A 2010 European Commission study estimates 18 million tons of ships
are awaiting demolition, and most have set sail for Asia.
Why was it left to social activists to start the ecology movement? Shouldnt those
who throw the seeds of contamination simultaneously handle the cleanup? Theres n
o logic to first contaminate, then raise a hue and cry about ecology protection.
Structured, disciplined and sparsely populated Western developed countries are
disposing their polluting garbage in poor countries.
India, with its great poor-rich disparity has very low environment sensitivity.
How can we expect the masses to think about not using plastic bags when the live
lihood of rag pickers is to collect them for recycling? Western societies are no
w condemning China for pollution after encouraging them to become the worlds chea
p manufacturing hub? Does shifting the polluting problem from one country to ano
ther solve the long-term global environment issue?
Inventions have definitely helped medical science by raising peoples lifespan, bu
t increasing consumption has resulted in this environment calamity. After consum
ing more of everything, developed countries made underdeveloped countries their
dustbin. Now with globalisation, even developing countries are becoming consumer
societies. The common man on the street continues to hear about green and globa
l warming. Was this hype created to sensitise people of developed countries, or
is it just a confession to get admiration for being frank and open?