DailyPost 253
THE POLITICS OF ENVIRONMENT
Five years back on this very day, after 10 months of toil & conspicuous results, was unveiled a visionary blueprint of the grant restoration of Kundavada lake, in Davangere in Karnataka. Some progress has certainly taken place, but it’s way short, of fulfilling the final goal. This waterbody is both the pride & the lifeline of the city. This is an ideal example of how we deal with the environmental issues, both big & small. Today we celebrate another edition of the World Environment Day, being dutifully doing since 1972. The half baked declarations & platitudes rule the day.
America pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement has very little to do with environment & is being used more as a political tool both for arm twisting & grandstanding. The lead taken by America rightly or wrongly leaves a vacuum which needs to filled either by Europe as a an entity or by a one / few countries out of Europe. It’s not an easy task & only the time will tell which nation has the gumption to take this lead.
At the end of the day, a better environment is less of statement & more of collection of projects / consultations & consequent resolutions intending to achieve this goal. The project of whatever magnitude has to be broken down & made to happen with fixed timelines & pre-decided objective goals otherwise we will keep wandering, as has been the case so far. The taste of the pudding is in eating it & we are more distant to it today, than ever in human history.
World Environment Day has to be a day of stock taking of the preceding year & deciding & subsequent game; a bigger strategic planning exercise. The Moore’s law of computing needs to develop a parallel here to deliver in the astounding manner, in which we witnessed the growth of computing, having immense impact on everything we do today. Firebrand agenda may just the beginning; fire brand execution only can take us places. Unison of mind in deliverable terms is the least we can expect from nation states.
WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY IS OUR COMMITMENT TO A BETTER STRATEGY FOR OUR PLANET.
Sanjay Sahay