World at the brink of crisis - II

After centuries of water mismanagement, we are at a point when the nectar of life is either not available or contaminated to the degree of being unusable. Water is a renewable resource but human and industrial contamination has reduced even mightiest of clean water carrying rivers to a trickle. The fact that only 2% of all the available water is suitable for human consumption makes it a very scarce resource that needs to be used with an utmost caution. We all have been wasting water since time immemorial as if there is an endless reservoir of it and this uncontrolled wastage of water has now put us in a position when we are thinking if water will last longer or oil? In India, the biggest of the rivers have started shrinking – Delhi is no longer on the banks of Yamuna, mighty Brahmaputra does not wreak havoc in Assam anymore, the sacred Ganges became a trickle, Allahabad is not ‘sangam’ anymore and Kaveri just flows in the year when it rains! Civilizations have been built on the banks of rivers across the world and perished when rivers changed course or dried up. Though the economies have lesser dependence on agriculture today than a few hundreds of years ago but people still eat and eating more than ever before – more on this later – the takeaway is that drying rivers will become harbinger of disaster unmatched to anything known to mankind. The doomsayers have been warning that 3rd world war will be for control of water and will be the last one. The process of decay that has been going on for centuries has picked up a visible acceleration in last 7-10 years and the rate of acceleration is going up faster every year.

But the good news is that all is not lost yet and the changes are not irreversible as off today and we can still control our destiny. If we can stop the Wall Streetization of the world, that is, focusing on short term gains at the cost of future (ours as well as our children’s) and stop the unbridled exploitation of natural resources, we can still turn the tide around. But for this, we have to start thinking about ‘One Earth’ and rise above the issues of individual countries and work with a common agenda to save the planet. Let's not wait for government's of the world to wake up and do anything to save the planet, what it will need a people's movement to get the ball rolling. The environment can be the common cause binding diverse people of the world together and a lasting movement can born out of this dire need.

World at the brink of crisis - I

I recently came across a great video on environmental crisis that’s staring us all at the start of new century (visit www.storyofstuff.com). Our uncontrolled plundering of finite and non-repleneshable natural resources has created a multitude of crisis for mankind (and in turn opportunities!) Fuel crisis (fast depleting sources, demand at the highest level ever and the result is crude at $135 per barrel & growing), water crisis (70% of earth is water and there is crisis of drinking water in half of the world), food crisis (food prices are up 40% in last one year across the world, so much as to attract attention of war addicted US president.) All these are man made problems & we collectively have to find solutions for them. In next few posts, I will try to deconstruct some of these problems (or scratch the surface, to be precise.)

I was reading ‘Straight from the Gut’ by Jack Welch recently and in one of the chapters he talks about how GE in late 70’s was trying to come up with strategies to counter crude price rise to $30 a barrel! Feels like a dream, isn’t it? The great economies of the world have been built on uncontrolled plundering this precious non- repleneshable natural resource. Any forever sustainable growth cannot be dependent on a depleting resource and we have to find alternative energy sources that are viable, cost effective and longer lasting than oil. The world politics has been greatly influenced by control over this growth driver but those days of chasing oil may be over sooner than we think as there will be no oil left to chase. And we have to speed up our efforts to tame other sources of energy that are as or more efficient and mobile than oil. But this time it may not be a war for domination but for survival in which everyone has equal stake and may benefit equally if such source is globally available (solar energy, for example.)

Back to top