Go Green

Image from: UN World Environment Day

Today is World Environment Day. Of the many causes that bother me, and I crusade about, this is the one closest to my heart. And I am proud of the few friends (like Kini) who take this cause seriously and despite little success at organising tree plantation drives in and around Bangalore they keep at it!. I am also proud of all others who don't "explicitly" crusade but refuse plastic bags, (and carry their own knapsacks to stuff the shopping), recycle paper, switch off the lights and close the taps when not in use and are vegan by choice. I believe it doesn't take much to contribute a little, every contribution being super-special.

Reuters gives numbers: To me these don't mean anything since nothing ever seems to be done about them. Most developing countries/cities seem to skip the relevance of nature when doing the urban planning. When I moved to Bangalore, the garden city of India, it was clean and green. Then they started the massacre on double road. 3 years later, the face of the city had changed. Unfortunately, it is irreversible, and it is frustrating that as an individual there is little you can do about it.

Singapore is indeed the Garden City. For every tree cut, three others are planted. Tropical weather and round the year rain is conducive to sustaining a green landscape. Garbage is non existent. Having no natural resources of its own, everything must be recycled: water, paper. Utopic? No. Here, the environment faces demons of a different kind. The Chinese have humongous appetites for exotic food (read: endangered species), and wouldn't stop at anything to savour their delicacies like Sharks fin soups. Sharks are caught, fins hacked, and they are left to die. Its strange bigger organisations like Disney don't take a stand on it.

I am not willing to sound like a cliched newspaper article, but I would still wish everyone reading this blog would glance through this , and find one little thing that they would like to adopt to do their part. Its a request :)