Dr. Piyush Ranjan Rout
In the United States, the Environmental Teach-In held a nationwide day of environmental education and activism April 22, 1970 that it called Earth Day. The event was inspired and organised by environmental activist and US Senator from Wisconsin. Nelson wanted to show other US politicians that there was widespread public support for a political agenda centered on environmental issues.
The event was wildly successful, sparking Earth Day celebrations at thousands of colleges, universities, schools and communities all across the United States. An October 1993 article in American Heritage Magazine proclaimed, “April 22, 1970, Earth Day was…one of the most remarkable happenings in the history of democracy… 20 million people demonstrated their support… American politics and public policy would never be the same again.”
Earth Day further demonstrated widespread grassroots support for environmental legislation including many important environmental laws passed by Congress including the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, as well as laws to protect wilderness areas. The Environmental Protection Agency was created within three years after Earth Day 1970.
India has also warmed to the concept of celebrating Earth Day, realizing the significance of sparing a thought for the environment.
The race for development and industrialization in our country has led to environmental issues being sidelined, and somewhere along the way we have forgotten our responsibility of keeping our Earth safe in order to stay healthy and alive. Perhaps in our struggle for development, we forgot our responsibilities towards our planet.
Over the last four decades, we have mercilessly plundered and depleted the resources of Earth. This has ultimately resulted in severe problems like the depletion of the ozone layer, drying up of rivers and water bodies, steep rise in temperatures much before arrival of summer, and the permanent disappearance of the spring season from the calendar. In our journey for industrialization and mining, we have left in our wake a massive trail of deforestation, depleted groundwater tables, and a heavily polluted atmosphere, which pose a serious threat to Earth’s fragile ecosystem.
The ice at the poles is melting due to the rise in Earth’s temperature, also called global warming. An indication of global warming can be seen in Bhubaneswar itself in the unprecedented rise in day temperatures during summer and heavier rainfall than expected during and after the monsoon. This is just the beginning of what is in store for us if we do not act immediately. While things have undoubtedly reached dire straits, the planet is not beyond saving yet and this is the time to act, which occasions like Earth Day signify. Such occasions serve as a reminder to correct our lifestyles for the benefit of our future generations.
The time is ripe to effect gradual changes and initiate ‘climate positive’ actions to ensure our actions do not have an adverse effect on the ecosystem. Small steps like planting trees, adding green energy to our existing consumption, using bicycles for distances like 5 km, ensuring public transport in our daily commutes, switching off lights when unnecessary and less dependency on use of fossil fuels. Similarly, the government must incentivize access to green energy, public transport systems, non-motorized transport, waste management, recycling and ensure that our water bodies are free of pollutants.
These may look like baby steps, but when a billion people in this country adopt these healthy activities, that will be a huge leap for mankind. There are some notable moves in this regard, such as introduction of compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles in New Delhi, efficient public transport system in Bangalore, a dedicated Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) in Ahmedabad, Metro Rail in New Delhi, Restoration of Water Bodies in Berhampur and clean-up drive of Sabarmati River in Ahmedabad have all contributed significantly towards bringing down pollution.
However, if we do not act and continue with business as usual, the situation will go from bad to worse very soon. We are already witnessing the effects of climate change, such as rise in temperature in coastal belts, rainfall of more than a season’s average in just a few hours leading to massive flash floods, long spells of dry days leading to drought-like situations and sudden formation of cyclones and heatwaves. We can either act now, or continue to turn a blind eye, but the inevitable cannot be stopped.
Today, more than half of Orissa’s population is dependent on cities. It is high time we invested in efficient, renewable energy sources and rebuild our cities, towns and municipalities around concepts such as eco-cities, green cities, sustainable cities, low carbon footprint societies and the like, thus ushering in a new era of green urbanization.
‘Regenerative’ development, meaning processes that restore, renew and revitalize the environment, creating sustainable systems that incorporate the needs of society with the integrity of nature, has to be the key. Cities should be developed in harmony with nature, requiring a model of new economic growth which will promote a new type of urbanization where priority will be given to coordinated development between urban and rural areas and connectivity of infrastructure, such as construction of important transportation, water conservation and energy projects. The reality is we cannot afford to ignore a new wave of sustainable urbanization, and perhaps Earth Day is the great reminder of what city planners have to do in the best interests of urbanisation.
The truth is we are now at a crucial juncture where we must take decisive action or be ready to face consequences for which the future generations will never forgive us. Perhaps our biggest tribute would be to take a pledge on Earth Day to do our bit for Mother Earth.
There is a growing consciousness of the fact that our planet is not the same that we inherited from our forefathers, and there is a small but steadily growing feeling of responsibility that this home of ours should be left to our descendants better than we found it. The time to act is now.
The writer is an urban planner and co-founder of Local Governance Network. He can be reached at piyush.rout@lgnet.in
