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Turning on the heat

In today's fast-paced world, `disposables' rule the roost. All it takes are a few changes in our lifestyle to save the planet, says APARNA KARTHIKEYAN

NO LONGER A MYTH We have to take the threat of global warming seriously.

Did you hear the bad news? It's official; all those highly- educated, high-sounding men have warned us that we're likely to drown - if it's any consolation - in the comfort of our own homes! `Uncontrolled carbon-dioxide emissions will trap heat, melt glaciers, which in turn will raise sea-levels, potentially transforming coastal areas into one huge swimming pool' `Global Warming' is, we're reminded every single day, going to kill us all off before we can aim our fancy nuclear arsenal at each other. And incidentally, all this is simply because we don't take our own shopping bags to buy vegetables, live highly air-conditioned lives, abhor walking, cycling and all forms of public transport, prefer flights to trains.

A real threat

From being the stuff of myths and legends just a decade or so ago, to a looming, very real threat today, it's made its unpleasant presence felt in more ways than one. Earlier, docu-drama makers had to resort to computer-generated footage of icebergs calving. Now, they just head northwards and shoot `awesome' pictures of blocks of ice crashing into frothy oceans; several species of animals that evolved over the millennia are threatened by our plastic rubbish, our automobile exhausts, our lifestyles.

But wait a minute! You've probably heard all this a million times; after the war on terror, greenhouse gases are clearly the most discussed subject this century! Yet, the debate remains unresolved, and the over-hyped `eco-friendly' lifestyle arguably remains one of the toughest things to follow. Why ever are we shooting ourselves in the foot? "Convenience is the culprit," says Gayathri, mother and homemaker. "In our fast-paced lifestyles, `disposables' rule the roost; moreover, we do our shopping on the go and since baskets are obsolete, we rely heavily on plastic-bags. Handy yes, but at what cost," she wonders.

Valarmathi, who works as a maid, told us that she too has heard a lot about the hazards of thin plastics. "I know they clog drains, and don't; but how do we avoid them," she asks.

She's hit the nail on the head for, it's become mandatory for everything, except perhaps newborn babies, to come wrapped in reams of plastic. Can you recall when you last bought a string of jasmine delicately wrapped in a banana leaf?

R. Arumugam, vegetable vendor, near Desika Road, says his customers take it for granted that they will be supplied carry bags; if he were to stop or charge them for it, "they would rather patronise supermarkets, where they're freely handed out by the dozen".

Plastics are, of course, only one aspect of the fossil fuel nightmare (the raw material for plastics is oil and/or natural gas) There are the other great debates - loss of green cover, energy efficiency, public transportation and the eco-crusaders current pet hate: `cheap' flights.

Nithya, human resource professional, points out that even as we're talking about the perils of deforestation, people are complacently going about chopping trees. "At times, they're cut for the flimsiest of excuses - leaves littering their `clean' compounds," she laments. And as for the bit about public transportation, it's really a no-brainer.when ostentatious gas guzzlers are the ultimate status symbols, how will travelling in buses or cycles ever figure in the grand scheme of things? Ditto with budget airlines, which easily take the shine out of grimy trains by being so convenient, fast and cheap. All is, however, not lost. Yet. The flurry of awareness campaigns seems to be making some difference - Marimuthu, driver, vouches that he religiously re-uses plastic covers, and never burns or haphazard ly dumps plastic rubbish, while Arumugam elaborates that he knows from the television that plastics produce toxic fumes when burnt. "But more important, we need to minimise the use of plastics," says Gayathri. "As a new mom, it really upsets me to see my daughter nibble plastic toys or eat out of plastic bowls; why can't we have ecofriendly toys and utensils (wash-and-use, instead of useand- throw) like they had some generations back," she wonders. "Walking to the corner store will help; as will some green cover," adds Nithya. A few small changes are all it takes, and we might just save our Planet. Only, we've got to hurry.the day is not far, when planet `Earth' might simply be renamed `Planet Plastic'.

* * *

SOME SOLUTIONS

Popularise the `manjapai' (yellow cloth-bag). Long associated with banana-bunches and villagers, it's badly in need of an image makeover. If we always had one conveniently on hand, we will not need too many of those flimsy carry-bags!

Make train-travel `glamorous'; by this, we don't mean gorgeous train-hostesses in ridiculous leather-skirts... just great loos! (Trains are `green' - a super-fast train from London to Paris only emits 1/10th of CO2 per passenger, compared to a budget flight between the same destinations!)

Car-pooling could be made mandatory, reserving gas-guzzlers for `Gholu'. Besides, aren't big-cars and small-roads highly incompatible?

Teach kids all about the 3 `R's... reduce, reuse and recycle.

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