Photographic Proof of detoriating Environment!

One of the reasons, I am actually putting up the first post on this blog, which was registered way back in 2008 is for what I saw recently in a friend's photograph. 

A friend of mine - Tilak Soni is an avid traveler and trekker who scales high altitude passes in Himalayas like a walk in the park and now helping several others do that. The picture here was shared by him on his FB wall and it just jostled me to see how soon our fragile environment can fall apart within few years.

Fast Receding Gaumukh (Gangotri) Glacier

The picture shows the amount of glacier "Gaumukh" cover that has been lost withing a span of six years. Gaumukh is the main source of river Ganges, the river is just not a holy river for large Hindu population but is also a the main river for large part of northern India, especially UP, most populated state in India.

Gaumukh is a remote place which is inaccessible in winters and only the most devoted reach even in summers. If the environmental impact on such a remote place is so evident, we can only imagine what state our urban areas are in. 

Environmental issues can not be solved in a day or two. As India's economy is growing, so is our per capita resource consumption. While this possesses a threat, it also gives the country and opportunity to have a sustainable growth by adopting the latest and environmental friendly solutions to begin with. Due to resource crunch in the past, we have a culture of conserving energy and we should continue to have those habits. Just because one can afford high electricity bills, should not be a reason that one should run their AC's and lights when they are not needed. We have started driving bigger cars as recession hit western economies are moving to smaller cars. 

Should per capita energy consumption be directly proportional to per capita income? Can't a more developed economy have a lower carbon footprint? It would be difficult for sure, maybe impossible considering the fact that economic viability is the first step for economic growth. However, the rate of growth of carbon footprint can definitely be much lower than the overall growth of the economy. Specially for India, where we are still a agrarian economy and a substantial chunk is service industry. Before we ask government to start subsidizing renewable energy, let s continue to do what we have always done - switch off lights as soon as we leave the room, car pool, use public transport, buy more fuel efficient cars like our older generation did. Yes we can afford a 'better' lifestyle. But what we define green living as the 'better' lifestyle?