As schoolchildren, we started reading alphabets not as mere graphical forms, but as the starting letter of a larger word. So A for Apple, B for Ball, C for Cat, D for Dog and so on it goes. Imagine, if we were to start the same again to check what impacts ecology the most, it could be a bad start.
A can be for Atmosphere, but soon we may follow it with A for Agriculture, Accommodation and Administration, all of which in the ancient times effected ecology where human actions altered the landscape to cultivate; consumed resources to construct; and created systems to govern society with capital and operational expenditures.
In modern times, A can stand for Advanced Lifestyle, but equally well for Automobile, Air travel and Air conditioners. Incidentally, these three are strongly advocated by modernity to become the aspirations of every low and middle income family, who constitute approximately 75 to 80% of the Indian population.
These three are also among the major human actions adversely affecting nature and leading to climate crisis. For common people they may not appear to do so directly, but are the indirect causes due to their production, operation, energy consumption and finally waste generation upon discarding. Even the climate subject experts do not go to the depths of varied components of lifestyle, their attributes and implications on atmosphere, but gloss over them broadly saying human actions are causing the climate crisis. Then of course, there are many people who do not fully agree with this position too.
Take automobiles, for example. Though the first car was patented in 1886, the next 20 years would not have seen more than 200 cars on the road. There was an increased production, but between the World Wars more car companies were closed than founded. The handful few from Europe, U.S. and Japan survived into the 1940s when the real mass production of cars flourished.
As such, it is less than 75 years now that people are driving cars and less than 50 years with worldwide spread. Most poor regions have very few cars, while more than 90% of Indians still own no vehicle at all. Yet, the havoc the automobile industry has caused to millions of years of fragile nature is frightening. Hundreds of pages of data pours in today, yet none of which has reduced either car production or car sales.
Immeasurable damage
In the U.S. alone, 75% of carbon monoxide and 25% of greenhouse gas emissions are caused by cars, besides many other toxic gases including ground-level ozone. Nearly three-fourth of all of U.S. gas consumption goes for cars. The resources consumed and waste generated in their production, sales, operation and finally scrapping or dumping are virtually immeasurable.
Given this, how do we analyse the impacts of our everyday living? How do we take ownership of our actions to realise we are digging our own graves? Do we need more advanced research on global issues or simple search into our personal matters?
(The writer is an architect working for eco-friendly designs and can be contacted at varanashi@gmail.com)
