Criminal, to say the least
The way we are ruining our environment is nothing short of criminal. In fact, it is only a mild way of putting the enormity of things in this regard. Leave aside the talk in global context. For a while we can even put the grand talk on climate change on a hold. We may even enjoy a momentary relief by not discussing receding glaciers, toxic oceans, and diminishing forest cover. Those are the images that may be little alien to us because we can’t see them. But can we look the other way when the scenes of devastation are all littered around us.
For past many days, as evening approaches, we have gusty winds blowing all around. The pictures of devastation it has wrought in our habitations and fields are all over social media. Do we still cradle in a belief that all is well? Just peek outside and we have mounds of waste material filling the entire space with stink, and the only response we have is that we want our own compound to be neat and tidy: how long? And does it stop the stink to travel into our rooms? Just go to any water body; either we have a dry bed with tons of plastic waste staring us into our eyes or we have extremely toxic water flowing between the banks. Do we still think we are safe? These are the scenes of actual devastation and we have all contributed to the making of this disaster.
Now take the government; less said the better. We still have no efficient mechanism in place to deal with wet waste. We dump it, only to make the problem bigger and complex. We have a rising dog population because our wet waste gives them more than a feast every day. Even dogs would be shocked to see the level of our apathy towards environment. Till now our government, and our officials are clueless on how to deal with the rising population of dogs. We have suffered fatalities on this count, but who cares?
The day we have dedicated to environment, we only need to hang our heads in shame, as a people. And the government, the concerned officials – an acute sense of guilt is less than the least they can offer to themselves on this day.