Take 2: The re-doing of everthing environmental.

[Vinodh Valluri]

The environmental movement took birth in the United States of America in
the 1960's, about the same time as several social 'upheavals'. Decades
since the clarion calls of Bhopal, 'love canal', 3-mile Island, Rachel
Carson, and Aldo Leopold, the environmental movement of today looks like
'she' has crossed her teenage years. Well past her young adult life, it
looks like 'she' feels like an old aunt, or an ignored grandmother, or a
similar maternal figure in whom people show empty interest - either
wanting to have her take care of their problems [granny = nanny], or
waiting for Her Will... Sad as the state of affairs is currently, it
does not bode well to denigrate the good work that designers,
scientists, planners, politicians, engineers, and everyone else is doing
to go 'green'. They are doing what seems to be best for the situations
they are each in, individually. However, the wages of environmentalism
differ drastically - are you an 'activist' who wants to make greener
things or an 'accomodationist' who makes calls all things 'green'?

People, if you really think you care for Mother Earth, please don't
assume that She is a helpless single mom. She does not need our help -
we need hers. All we need to do is evaluate our priorities - realize
what human 'rights' are, and what human 'wrongs' are... It is time for
us to choose the freedoms that are the need of our generation. Mother
Nature may be a patient woman, but she has no Poker Face. Unlike the
face we often think She has - the pretty meadow, pristine jungle, or the
placid shores of a lake or an ocean, Her expressions are infinite. She
can smile at us with the bounty of spring, and she can also speak her
mind in anger, as she did almost vengefully in the Avatar of "Katrina" -
the unforgettable hurricane. Yeah, Mr. Scientist, I am hoping that you
will soon begin to conduct studies to understand if such events are
actually 'natural' or caused by humans.




And for the broad minded critics out there, once again, expecting
negative repercussions to environmental molestation is not 'New Age
Crap"; it is only logical to keep a towel handy if you want to throw
stones on a puddle. The new millennium is a different world from the
hippy-filled 60's and 70's. What ails the the world today is not the
stray "unnecessary" freedoms, but a double helical structure of "Apathy
and Irony". The same people who feel pain for the innocent souls that
fell on 9/11, and cringe at the massacre that wages in Iraq, do not feel
compelled to assert themselves for a chance to revive their Kentucky
Fried Consciousness. The same people who spend millions on saving the
lives of dogs and cats every year feel no pain paying millions to have
the throats of equally 'animal' cows and pigs. It seems as if individual
reason has been bartered for the dictates of fashionistas, technocrats,
and the politically engaged. It seems as if we always want answers from
without; or maybe, that we do not seek answers at all.

It is time for revival of ethics as the center of the environmental
sustainability field. Technology glitters and rustles, in the twinkling
of LED bulbs, the tenor-level speeches of LEED-ers amongst us, and the
echoing 'tcha-tching' of funds rolling into science projects and business
proposals that aim to make a greener world possible, without giving up
any of the profligate aggrandizements of modern living. Decorating the
external environment, and cleaning it up is an incomplete
sustainability. The re-doing of this movement calls for a revolution
within the hearts - a tough call, considering the incessant rampage of
advertisements for products, items, discounts, sales, trends and
fashions. Even the so called ecologically conscious do only as much as
divert their sense gratifications towards excessive amounts of green
products, and not reduce the demands made on the Earth.

If we are to make our futures sustainable, there is no alternative to
sacrificing that senseless ambition, that meaningless greed, that
insatiable hunger for things. The vacuum created by such sacrifice will
find fulfillment once again in the silent spring morning at a seaside
sunrise. Those longings for consumption can be substituted for loving
relationships with people, and a sense of humble self awareness, in
knowledge that the ownership of everything environmental belongs to a
Supreme Absolute Phenomenon called God amongst many other names. We are
sons and daughters molded from this earth; Mother Nature is no single
mom, our family is complete with Father God. Let us start re-doing
everything environmental; so that through realizing this relationship,
we will find the completion of sustainability - the meaning of
everything human...

[Vinodh Valluri]

Thank you, Mr. Menon and Mr. Ghosh, for your comments. Sustainability is about caring for the people and the planet, and creating a high 'quality of living' - not just a high standard of life. Good profits are a tasty side effect of making the first two happen. Ultimately, it is beneficial and highly profitable for corporations or governments to cater to maintaining peace and goodness in the environment, and meaningful relationships with people. It will be a wonderful world when more of us think positively about creating such inexhaustible wealth... :)

[GOPI KANTA GHOSH]

Good paper needs circulation to create awareness...

[Ravi Menon]

Yes, you said it... and thank you for very aptly articulating the facts. The big corporate honchos keep talking about their commitment to CSR, but can anyone match the commitment of those in the States ? except a very very few corporate houses, how many really care for the environment, except few activists ? In many seminars, people keep commenting that CSR stands not for Corporate Social Responsibility, but for Corporate Self Responsibility which is for improving the bottomlines of the corporate houses than supporting any environment sustainaility programmes or projects !!