Friday, March 29, 2024

News Destination For The Global Indian Community

News Destination For The Global Indian Community

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LifeMag
It can’t be business as usual if Earth is to support us

It can’t be business as usual if Earth is to support us

The UN’s Global Biodiversity Outlook 5 focusses on what needs to be done for humans to survive as a race for another 30 years

If you are living in a metropolitan city like Delhi, the first few months of this year, despite or due to the pandemic, would have made you look up to stare at the clear blue sky. Let’s pause here and think why this phenomenon of a visibly pollution-free sky over a megapolis like Delhi sounds so out of place. Now, let’s switch back to September end, when NASA satellites show red spots of stubble burning fires over Punjab, followed by severe Air Quality Index (AQI) predictions. The residents of NCR are certain to choke on the deadly suspended particles in the air in the next few weeks, if they don’t succumb to the raging pandemic first. The solution to the pandemic and healthier living lies in understanding the benefits of “flattening the curve” of biodiversity’s decline.

The United Nation’s (UN’s) Global Biodiversity Outlook 5, released in September, shines the light on what needs to be done for humans to survive as a race for another 30 years. The report’s one line summary is, “It can’t be business as usual.”

The question is, how has this technologically advanced race fared ever since it became a signatory to a certain agreement at the Rio De Janeiro, Earth Summit in 1992 and most importantly undertook certain goals and targets of achieving balanced co-habitation with nature by 2020?

The results, as seen from the UN’s report, are pretty disappointing. Out of the 20 Aichi Biodiversity targets, 15 remain unachieved, despite an agreement reached between nations a decade back in 2010. These include simple tasks of making citizens in their respective nations aware of the value of biodiversity and the steps they can take to conserve and use it sustainably. Plus setting goals like integrating biodiversity values into national and local development, poverty reduction and policy-making by governments, businesses and stakeholders at all levels. Nations can achieve or show implementation plans for sustainable production and consumption and keep the impacts of use of natural resources well within safe ecological limits. Only two goals meant for this year have been partially achieved.

At this point, it is important to ponder why biodiversity has an impact on our survival? The COVID-19 pandemic has given us evidence to show the delicate linkages between a degrading coral reef in one part of the world and fires in some of the most rich eco-sensitive hotspots, to a zoonotic disease bringing the global economy to a standstill.

Some experts quote an interesting evidence, of the need for another planet about one-and-a-half times the size of our home Earth, equally abundant in natural resources and a hospitable climate, to maintain the going rate of human entrepreneurial activity.  The answers may very well lie in waking up now and following the local culture and knowledge systems to enhance efforts towards preserving and restoring biodiversity. An example of this could be restoration of clean, pollution-free inland water bodies, including underground water reservoirs.

The second crucial target could be to keep global climate change in the 1.5 °C range, above pre-industrial levels and developing nature-friendly solutions  to prevent catastrophes like flash floods and rising sea levels that are threatening to gulp major citieson the coasts and doomsday forest fires.

Just a degree’s decrease in your air conditioner temperature settings reduces the need for more power to run the device, leading to lesser fossil fuel requirements, thus saving the pristine ice-capped lands so vital for polar bears to survive on planet Earth. All these lifestyle changes may seem like a sand particle in a desert but one must bear in mind that these sand particles together make a storm.

The implementation strategy for conserving power in households just requires some attention towards sustainable, environment-friendly and, therefore, healthier dwellings which tap into abundantly available natural solutions. We must include sustainable, environment-friendly, locally intelligent processes for manufacturing goods and providing services. A big chunk of this can constitute revisiting traditional and organic agricultural practices. The need is to relook at solutions for sustainable farming which preserves the biodiversity while not seeking more land for quelling the world’s hunger pangs.

This also means changing the menu of your breakfast and dinner to more eco-friendly healthier diets and most importantly preventing any form of food waste. If one looks at all of the above suggested solutions by a global group of experts, one finds they are fairly achievable and almost within one’s immediate reach.

That leads us back to the question of a sea of dark pollution clouds over Delhi in the coming weeks due to consistent crop burning. No solution has been found to this malaise despite the Supreme Court’s interventions and one wonders if the end is near. It may not be so if global policymakers and stakeholders (which includes the common man as well) get together to formulate an integrated  approach which looks at simultaneous  solutions to immediately  address the preservation  of the Earth’s rich genetic diversity, species and ecosystems. If together they find technology-enabled sustainable solutions, we could enhance the capacity of  nature to deliver its wonders of health and prosperity to humans. If  we preserve what the UN report highlights as  the less-tangible but highly-valued connections with nature, we can define our identities, cultures and beliefs.

(The writer is policy analyst)

It can’t be business as usual if Earth is to support us

It can’t be business as usual if Earth is to support us

The UN’s Global Biodiversity Outlook 5 focusses on what needs to be done for humans to survive as a race for another 30 years

If you are living in a metropolitan city like Delhi, the first few months of this year, despite or due to the pandemic, would have made you look up to stare at the clear blue sky. Let’s pause here and think why this phenomenon of a visibly pollution-free sky over a megapolis like Delhi sounds so out of place. Now, let’s switch back to September end, when NASA satellites show red spots of stubble burning fires over Punjab, followed by severe Air Quality Index (AQI) predictions. The residents of NCR are certain to choke on the deadly suspended particles in the air in the next few weeks, if they don’t succumb to the raging pandemic first. The solution to the pandemic and healthier living lies in understanding the benefits of “flattening the curve” of biodiversity’s decline.

The United Nation’s (UN’s) Global Biodiversity Outlook 5, released in September, shines the light on what needs to be done for humans to survive as a race for another 30 years. The report’s one line summary is, “It can’t be business as usual.”

The question is, how has this technologically advanced race fared ever since it became a signatory to a certain agreement at the Rio De Janeiro, Earth Summit in 1992 and most importantly undertook certain goals and targets of achieving balanced co-habitation with nature by 2020?

The results, as seen from the UN’s report, are pretty disappointing. Out of the 20 Aichi Biodiversity targets, 15 remain unachieved, despite an agreement reached between nations a decade back in 2010. These include simple tasks of making citizens in their respective nations aware of the value of biodiversity and the steps they can take to conserve and use it sustainably. Plus setting goals like integrating biodiversity values into national and local development, poverty reduction and policy-making by governments, businesses and stakeholders at all levels. Nations can achieve or show implementation plans for sustainable production and consumption and keep the impacts of use of natural resources well within safe ecological limits. Only two goals meant for this year have been partially achieved.

At this point, it is important to ponder why biodiversity has an impact on our survival? The COVID-19 pandemic has given us evidence to show the delicate linkages between a degrading coral reef in one part of the world and fires in some of the most rich eco-sensitive hotspots, to a zoonotic disease bringing the global economy to a standstill.

Some experts quote an interesting evidence, of the need for another planet about one-and-a-half times the size of our home Earth, equally abundant in natural resources and a hospitable climate, to maintain the going rate of human entrepreneurial activity.  The answers may very well lie in waking up now and following the local culture and knowledge systems to enhance efforts towards preserving and restoring biodiversity. An example of this could be restoration of clean, pollution-free inland water bodies, including underground water reservoirs.

The second crucial target could be to keep global climate change in the 1.5 °C range, above pre-industrial levels and developing nature-friendly solutions  to prevent catastrophes like flash floods and rising sea levels that are threatening to gulp major citieson the coasts and doomsday forest fires.

Just a degree’s decrease in your air conditioner temperature settings reduces the need for more power to run the device, leading to lesser fossil fuel requirements, thus saving the pristine ice-capped lands so vital for polar bears to survive on planet Earth. All these lifestyle changes may seem like a sand particle in a desert but one must bear in mind that these sand particles together make a storm.

The implementation strategy for conserving power in households just requires some attention towards sustainable, environment-friendly and, therefore, healthier dwellings which tap into abundantly available natural solutions. We must include sustainable, environment-friendly, locally intelligent processes for manufacturing goods and providing services. A big chunk of this can constitute revisiting traditional and organic agricultural practices. The need is to relook at solutions for sustainable farming which preserves the biodiversity while not seeking more land for quelling the world’s hunger pangs.

This also means changing the menu of your breakfast and dinner to more eco-friendly healthier diets and most importantly preventing any form of food waste. If one looks at all of the above suggested solutions by a global group of experts, one finds they are fairly achievable and almost within one’s immediate reach.

That leads us back to the question of a sea of dark pollution clouds over Delhi in the coming weeks due to consistent crop burning. No solution has been found to this malaise despite the Supreme Court’s interventions and one wonders if the end is near. It may not be so if global policymakers and stakeholders (which includes the common man as well) get together to formulate an integrated  approach which looks at simultaneous  solutions to immediately  address the preservation  of the Earth’s rich genetic diversity, species and ecosystems. If together they find technology-enabled sustainable solutions, we could enhance the capacity of  nature to deliver its wonders of health and prosperity to humans. If  we preserve what the UN report highlights as  the less-tangible but highly-valued connections with nature, we can define our identities, cultures and beliefs.

(The writer is policy analyst)

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