Reduced to a ritual

By Pandurang Hegde
21 Apr 2010

The true spirit of Earth Day is to live in harmony with nature as older civilizations have lived for thousands of years.

On April 22, 2010 millions of people around the world will take pledge to protect Earth and participate in numerous activities to help rescue the wounded Earth. This massive public action is bound to raise awareness about the grave condition of the planet that gave birth to human beings and continue producing and providing for innumerable other species. While many people may get involved in personal actions to save Earth through direct actions, however, the political and business leaders would only pay lip service, like every year, towards rescuing Earth.

A long time conservationist and US senator Gaylord Nelson launched the idea of Earth Day in 1970. The main objective was to demonstrate nationwide concern for environment protection and to shake the political set up to initiate action.

The idea of Earth Day originated in a conference held in Seattle. Ironically the initiators of the idea had no clue that a representative of the original inhabitants of the United States, the Red Indian Chief from Seattle pronounced the testament to protect the Mother Earth two centuries before the idea originated. He said "Earth is our mother, not an enemy to be conquered. The white man treats his mother, Earth and his brother sky, as the things to be bought, plundered and sold like sheep. His appetite will devour Earth and leave behind only a desert."

Unfortunately, the wisdom of the Red Indian Chief has been ignored time and again and we continue to pillage Earth to meet our greed and leave behind the deserts through our unending appetite for materialistic development.

For those who are part of the ancient civilizations that survived for several thousand years, every day is an Earth Day in which the respect for the nature was the foundation for all the actions. The ones who neglected these basics could not survive for long. We have ample examples from Mohenjo-daro and Harappan civilizations to Incas. In contrast to these ancient civilizations that survived for several centuries, the industrial civilization has not even passed the test of three centuries. Within such a short lifespan it has created immense problems with global implications, threatening the existence of other life forms on Earth, including that of the human being.


Earth Day indicates the global celebrations and commitment to conserve environment. It has been able to satisfy the need to evolve a new ritual to celebrate, to elicit response from common people towards protecting nature. In the four decades of its existence, it has also been endorsed by the industry and the worldwide media. In the process, it has got reduced to a symbolic act. In reality, the political implications of decision making to destroy the natural resources take precedence over this symbolic act.

The epidemic of "affluenza" has engulfed the better off sections form both developed and developing countries. The high GDP growth, projected as a panacea for underdevelopment, is leading to unprecedented levels of material accumulation and over consumption leading to environmental and social disintegration. The overemphasis on economic growth model of development requires extracting increasing amount of natural resources. According to an estimate, it is 60 billion ton annually, or like consuming 112 Empire State Buildings every day! More than half of the extraction of the resources takes place in Asia, causing major social and environmental disruptions. The recent upheavals in the resource rich hinterland of Bastar and Odisha indicate the pillaging of natural resources for sacrifice at the altar of economic growth.

These glaring facts do not move the common man to act; neither do they motivate the world leaders to find a sustainable path to development. The failure of Copenhagen is a clear indication of parochial mind of our leaders, the fixation they have to continue extracting natural resources to meet the needs of the affluent sections and nations.

Under these circumstances, it seems Earth Day launched four decades back has had very little impact at the highest political levels, both where it originated as well as in other parts of the world.

This also indicates how globalisation invents new rituals like Earth Day, to replace the culturally rooted traditional rituals like "Bhoomie Hunnimme", Earth Day celebrated in some parts of Karnataka on a full moon day in which the farmers worship Earth for bountiful harvest. Similarly in Bastar region, the tribals perform "Surhul" or "Mati Puja" means Earth Worship. As we become global netizens, we find new ways to celebrate, and with media blitz, it becomes a trend, where eliminating older rituals is a non-issue.

The true spirit of Earth Day is to live in harmony with nature, attempting to tread carefully, with the minimal ecological foot prints to leave behind. However, those indigenous societies who practice this ideology are termed and treated as "primitive" and their beliefs are getting shattered by the high consumption models of development. The first step to protect Earth is to live simply. Can we take a pledge for that on this Earth Day?

(The use of the phrase 'the earth' has been avoided so as not to give an impression that we are separate from Earth: Ed.)

Earth Day Resolve: Close Five Food Giants, Save Water

By Devinder Sharma
22 April 2009

I am sure many of you would have wondered why the newspapers are suddenly talking about the environment -- global warming, rivers drying up, Olive Ridley turtles, coming water wars of the future -- and so on, and that too in the midst of the heat and dust of the election campaigns. Well, it took me a few minutes to realise that today -- April 22 -- happens to be the Earth Day.

So today is Earth Day. Thank God, the Earth has at least one day to itself, even if it is only on paper !

A Washington-based news report World over, rivers are drying up caught my attention. Not that we didn't know it, but still let us see what the researchers are saying: The flow of water in the world's largest rivers including India's Ganga, has declined over the past half century, with significant changes found in about a third of the big rivers. The reduction in inflow to the Pacific Ocean alone was about equal to shutting off the Mississippi river. The annual flow into the Indian Ocean dropped by about 3 per cent, or 140 cubic kilometers.

Quoting a study published in the May 15 edition of the American Meteorological Society's Journal of Climate, the report goes on to say: Among the rivers showing declines in flow, several serve large populations. These include the Yellow River of northern China, the Ganga in India, the Niger in West Africa and the Colorado in the southwestern United States. The study also showed that the Colorado, a lifeline of the southwest United States, won't be able to provide all of water promised to millions who rely on it for their homes, farms and businesses.

Very well said. And that makes me wonder how stupid we can be when we promote unsustainable solutions like inter-linking of rivers to address the issue of river water going waste at a time when bulk of the country is starved of water and remains dependent upon rains as the only source of fresh water supplies. At a time when the glaciers are melting and the rivers drying up, to suggest an investment of Rs 1,20 lakh crores for linking the rivers was something I could never fathom. But knowing that the lobby groups have their own axe to grind, and academicians are always keen to provide oil to such lobbies, all I could do was to make my voice felt at some platforms.

Imagine, India making a massive investment to build a network of canals to link all the rivers, only to find that by the time the canals come into operation the rivers have gone dry. Of course, you don't have to worry because the economists will tell us this is one public investment that will stimulate the economy in downturn, and the GDP will grow. The Prime Minister will tell us how India is managing to keep its growth figures upward of eight per cent at times of a global meltdown. What he will not tell us is that the heavy investment his government (or successive governments) made on linking the dry rivers was actually a futile exercise, and stupid economics.

This also brings me to the related aspect of water shortage that is being felt all over. I don't have to present you the figures once again, you have read it time and again. Interestingly, the other day someone from the ITC group of companies in a public lecture explained how the company was trying to educate the household help, the part time women workers who come to your house every morning/evening to clean the utensils and mop up the floor, on how to save water. As part of their Corporate Social Responsibility, ITC was trying to do its bit. What an innovative effort, you would say. I wonder if the ITC follows the same prescription in the chain of hotels it runs !

But is there a way out? Can we really find a solution to the water crisis, which as some people predict, would lead to future wars?

I can suggest a simple solution. Extraordinary times they say, require extraordinary decisions. The simple solution that I have been thinking about needs extraordinary decision. I mean a tough political decision, and you have the answer to much of the water woes the world is faced with.

The Economist (Aug 27, 2008) states: Five big food and beverage companies -- Nestle, Unilever, Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Busch and Danone -- consume almost 575 billion litres of water a year, enough to satisfy the daily water needs of every person on the planet.

Wouldn't it make sense if we were to close down these five companies. Now hold on, before you think I am going mad, think again. Closing these five companies will not result in more hunger. Closing these five companies will only mean that a few of us will be deprived of their products, nothing more than that. This will also enable us to seek suitable change in our unsustainable lifestyles that is harming the Earth.

All I am saying is close down these five companies. Give them a bailout package. If we can give a stimulus package to banks/insurance companies involved in financial frauds and irregularities, why not to these water guzzlers? After all, we have only one Earth to protect and preserve.

Ask these companies to close their shop. Or how long will we go on making fool of ordinary people by telling them to conserve water at the time of washing utensils or while brushing their teeth (I am certainly not against this kind of education and awareness) but why are we not willing to hit where it needs most? Why do we refrain from taking tough political decisions in favour of the masses? If the world really needs water, and water is the lifeline as we all know, than I think we should be willing to call for some hard decisions.

Extraordinary times, require extraordinary decisions.

On this Earth Day, let us take a resolve. We want to protect the Earth, and our future needs. The Earth needs water, and we need a vibrant Earth. No price is bigger than protecting the Earth. Even if it means pulling down the shutter on world's five big food and beverage companies.

The Earth will then be a much better place to stay.