And (remember) when your Lord said to the angels: "Verily, I am going to place (mankind) generations after generations on earth." They said: "Will You place therein those who will make mischief therein and shed blood, - while we glorify You with praises and thanks (Exalted be You above all that they associate with You as partners) and sanctify You." He (Allâh) said: "I know that which you do not know." (Al-Baqarah 2:30, The Holy Quran)
On March 28, 2009 between 2030 and 2130 IST, I participated in the Earth Hour 2009, staying home with my in-laws. Many of you must have seen the status on my facebook profile: “Proud to have observed Earth Hour 2009”. Some had to ask me what the Earth Hour was. Others laughed with skepticism. Switching off the power for one hour seems to be a ridiculous thing to do with very few benefits to reap from doing it. So, why did hundreds of millions of people the world over do this “ridiculous” thing for a particularly “uninteresting” group called World Wildlife Fund?
When I was at school, in 6th or 7th, I remember learning for the first time, about global warming. Ever since, every year we learned the same thing again and again, with few updates. But, I never really thought this had anything to do with me. For me, these topics made great topic for essays. We could expect essay questions in our examinations and we could score high with this particular question. Global warming, greenhouse effect, ozone depletion, greenhouse gases and what not – all formed parts of the environmental education we received at school. I even won second prize in an essay writing competition, writing about environmental pollution.
A couple of years back, reading tits and bits and watching television, I came to know that there’s a huge market for green design and green products, nowadays. Being a civil engineer myself, I started scouring websites and books concerning these topics to learn more. I came across names like Al Gore, R.K. Pachauri, Thomas Friedman and other people who had already dedicated their life to bring about an eco-friendly world. And, most shocking of all, I learnt that the empty Bisleri bottles I threw away, the cigarettes I smoked and threw away, the empty aerosol cans I threw away, the litres of petrol I consumed to move around, the number of times in a year I flew to my parents on vacation, the number of printouts I took of the same drawing and many more such careless acts were coming back to haunt our generation and the next generations.
Why is this important now? Watch Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” or read Thomas L. Friedman’s “Hot, Flat & Crowded” and you’ll know that the biggest threat to the world this century is not communalism or terrorism – in fact, the biggest threat to the world now, lies within us – each of us – in what we did and what we didn’t.
Global warming is more important now than ever. The growth of spread of greenhouse gases in the last fifteen years does not give reason for alarm, but the growth during the last five years does. The people who smirked at me with skepticism when I observed the Earth Hour were very educated and included a university professor. He said, “People don’t know why they are doing this. They are doing this for fun. What’s the use of observing Earth Hour in Kerala? These are American sayippu’s inventions.” And blah, blah, blah…
One step makes a difference. If, each one of the members of tens of thousands of homes which participated in the Earth Hour, thought that there is no use observing Earth Hour in a state like Kerala, would we have saved the 100MW of power we actually saved. The world is rising to the truth. Global warming is not an American issue or European issue. It is a global issue, much more serious than terrorism. Soon, our coasts will be consumed by the ever rising levels of sea-water. The world will become hotter and hotter and species will start disappearing. The energy crisis combined with global warming, needs the attention of today’s youngsters. We need to act. We need to cut short our wasteful ways. We need to understand that the best way out of the current recession also is to move along an eco-friendly path.
There are numerous resources on global warming and climate change, available online. These websites help you to understand, with facts, what the current scenario is. These websites also tell you how you can make a difference, not with a donation, but with a proactive sense of participation. And, to the skeptical ones who asked, the Earth Hour was indeed a huge global success. Conserving the Earth is not just for us, today’s generation. It is for tomorrow, our children, their children and many more generations to come.
Do write in your feelings about this issue to my email address, suhailrasheed@gmail.com and others who want to learn more about it, do write to me so that I can guide you to the suitable literature. I cannot say that I have completely changed into a “green” being, but even a small step in that direction could make a big difference. So, I urge you all to be a part of this and I urge you to stop making “mischief” on Earth. Good Day, Good Night!!!
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