Respecting environment
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: October 12 2011 -

Afternoons around this time of the year, about two decades back and beyond, used to be the most pleasant of times.

To bask in the warm, soothing afternoon sun after a hearty meal those days around this time were moments of sheer delight. But that was then and we can never hope to experience that feeling again because the sun at this time of the year now is scorching hot.

This is the most commonplace evidence of climate change and global warming. Manipur's climate, as everywhere else in the world, over the last couple of decade has changed considerably, becoming warmer by as the years went by. There are many factors responsible for this change.

The most important contributory factor is the emission of certain gases which are known as green house gases. Simply put, the sunlight the earth absorbs is transferred back into the atmosphere in the form of infrared radiation, which helps in maintaining the temperature of the earth.

Now these greenhouse gases, mainly water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrus oxide chlorofluoro carbons etc absorb these infrared radiations not allowing them to escape into the atmosphere thereby increasing the temperature of the earth as in a greenhouse.

Over the years this emission of greenhouse gases has been increasing because of various activities of the humankind, chief among them being the burning of natural gas, coal and petroleum products.

Since industrialization, these activities have been increasing rapidly, more factories, more vehicles.

There are other factors which have contributed to emission of greenhouse gases like deforestation - cutting down of tress and burning of forests, which reduces earth's capability to absorb the carbon dioxide emitted and changes in land use and some farming practices.

While everyone agrees, in principle, the need to control and bring down the emission of greenhouse gases, the industrialized nations and the developing nations could not come to any agreement on the quantum of permissible emission for each country.

The US for example refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol which requires the signatory countries to cut down on green house gas emissions to a certain binding target.

Moreover, other countries used loopholes in the protocol to continue emission of greenhouse gases especially carbon dioxide. Meaning, the earth will get warmer and life much more difficult not only for us but for the future generation.

Many experts have linked the unpredictable nature of natural calamities like floods, tornado, hurricanes, tsunami etc to climate change. Then there are these steady changes taking place which over time will go on to assume menacing proportion like the rising sea level.

This is happening because the ice mass on earth is melting and the sea water is expanding because of the rising temperature. As a result of which, many of the low lying areas, it is feared, will get submerged in due course of time.

Maldives, an archipelago which is just a few metres above sea level, many experts believe, could get submerged by the end of this century. Cabinet ministers of Maldives held a meeting under water two years back to draw attention of the world to this impending catastrophe.

Climate change is a vast area and it needs to be tackled from various angles, needs the cooperation of every nation in the world, for it is not possible to demarcate emissions of harmful gases into the atmosphere by national boundaries.

Internationally agreed upon norms should be strictly implemented at the national and state level. Though tackling climate change requires sound policies and programmes, the individual can also contribute his mite by respecting the environment, by planting tress and not cutting them, by consuming less energy, by changing his/her life style to a more sustainable one.

The older generation in Manipur had this love and respect for the environment. For instance, as little kids we came to know that bamboos can be cut from the bamboo grooves (which formed sort of a boundary wall of each family) on certain days of the week only, a carefully devised social norm for conservation of nature.

The present generation could not maintain the same norm owing to pressures of modernization, urbanisation, half backed education and in most cases plain and simple greed which lead to over exploitation of resources.

But it is very important that we inculcate the love and respect of environment to our next generation for the future of this very planet of ours.