Urbanization has made a
cultural change. Now there are good paying jobs and numerous ventures to spend
the money you earn. But there is a sheer irony of the things we do in our life,
how much they cost to nature versus the price tag associated to them. Take
example of our energy needs. You may say your energy needs are limited to the
billable energy like LPG to cook food, the electricity for home usage, the fuel
you use for transport but we ignore the actual picture. The food you eat is not
just the renewable solar energy stored as chemical energy, but also there is an
associated carbon footprint of fuel powered machines used for its irrigation,
harvesting, storage and transport. Also count the energy used for manufacture
of fertilizers, pesticides and import of genetically modified seeds that has
been our model of since green revolution. There's more energy required for
production and transport of each and every commodity you own. Whether its soap,
plastic, textile, paper, devices, bags etc. You just have to glance around to
see your energy needs which have expanded to much beyond our basic necessities.
With emerging technologies,
each day our energy needs are trending upwards, where each own more than one
electronic device for individual use. If you think about just about the devices
you use, your energy requirements are not limited to their power consumption,
manufacture and transport, but also to the transmission of data, which is
cumulative of setting up routing devices, space launch and operation of
communication satellites. Increased range of products and gadgets, and the
marketing techniques of sellers have lured use to own more and more of products
which eventually increases your energy footprint. These are huge energy needs
if we just compare to what were few decades ago.
In parallel our population
has exploded exponentially, implies the amount of load we are putting on our
environment is damaging are at some instances, irreversible. The irony I
started with, we are able to afford most of our energy needs because the price
tag that we associate to them are based on their market and utility, not based
on the necessity or how much we are exploiting the environment to build it. We
are living in a capital oriented society where products are made for profits,
bought as per affordability. The environmental load is totally neglected.
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| Pic courtesy : updateox.com |
The story does not end here.
We have also radically changed our lifestyles in 21st century where products
are marketed, displayed in shopping malls or through e-commerce websites. These
are energy needs not directly giving any benefit to the individuals but are
competitive fights within production for those extra bits of profit. Energy
needs for entertainment and luxury is another debate that I am not discussing
here but I want to bring into light the impact we are creating due to our ever
growing energy needs.
It has forced us to go for
more power generation options. We have multi folded our nuclear, thermal and
hydel power generations to meet these needs and we are reaching to some
pristine and untouched parts of our country. Two major hydel power projects
cleared by central government in Northeastern India are "Dibang multipurpose project" in
Arunachal pradesh and "Subansiri
Hydroelectric Power Project" in Assam.
The environmental impacts
of both these projects are huge in terms of the ecological damage they will do.
Northeastern India with lesser population density as compared to rest of the
country is our major forest cover. Forest here can be categorized as
subtropical evergreen, most deciduous and temperate montane forest. These
covers are the breathing lungs of our planet and home to some of unique species
of both flora and fauna. The forest cover that will be submerged due to these
dams will be close to 9,000 hectares (about 22,000 acres).
Apart from other damages
due to material movement for construction, forest clearance for building worker
quarters and pollution in the heart of forest. Some of endangered mammals like
the hoolock gibbon, Himalayan black bear, Dhole and civets residing these lands
will be pushed to extinction due to this habitat loss. Apart from it the losses
of local communities due to these projects are not accounted for. Arunachal pradesh
with low population density have less than 400MW of energy requirements. But to
fulfill the requirement of big cities like Delhi and Mumbai we are forcing an
ecological damage to distant ecosystems and no benefits to local communities,
rather we may be destroying their pristine homeland. Is this justified? Do we
need shopping malls and multitude of products for our greed?
You may be wondering if we
do not have any environmental laws to account for these losses. Yes we have
laws and for all these projects the undertaking authorities have to get
clearance from MoEF and FAC, but we see most of these projects getting cleared
due to our agenda of development and the prevailing misuse of corrupt political
system.
While Subansiri project is already under construction, Dibang project has faced strong local
opposition and international pressure. FAC
(forest advisory committee) has rejected the project twice on environmental
grounds and local community disturbance. But with relaxed environmental laws by
new government, NHPC (National
Hydroelectric Power Corporation) will soon go for clearance from FAC third
time.
Numerous other projects
are lined up in Uttrakhand and Himachal Pradesh to boost our pace of
development. The devastations of Uttrakhand floods of 2013 was a good hint of
what our rapid energy needs are doing to this planet. It's time to understand
this connection. How our actions and lifestyles in urban life have distant
impacts on untouched heavens on this earth. India is home for 8% of total biodiversity on earth. Every small
contribution from each of us, saving power or buying only useful products and
limiting our energy needs can be decisive for the future of our forests and for
our own species as well.
How modern urban lifestyle
and increasing needs are damaging ecosystem and sustainable development? What
are the solutions to prevent such damages on ground level?
How we can contribute in
ecosystem balance, biodiversity conservation and sustainable development on an
individual and community level?
(Written by Gaganpreet Singh, a passionate adventurer and nature lover, working with Microsoft as a Software Engineer. He is also associated with a social initiative 'Joy of Reading' )
References:
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