Polluting the future
S.K. KALYANAKRISHNAN
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It is time we started thinking beyond global warming or gaps in the ozone layer
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Pollution, as we understand today, is the deterioration of our environment due to the progress made during the aricultural and industrial revolutions. Our environmental specialists are now able to quantify these and that has made us more conscious of the damage caused. These studies and the lament that follows are all post facto. It is clear that each progressive step that mankind made has taken us a little away from the nature. If it had mass following like agriculture or industry in the past, then the ill effects become more manifest. Now that we are aware of the garbage each technological development creates, it is time that we ponder about the damage to the future we are causing. We may not be able to bring to book our forefathers who triggered the current day pollution, but don’t we have some accountability to the future generation?.
Time to ponder
We are now well into the electronic and IT revolution and are proud of the ease with which we can do many things. Although there are passing observations that each of this progressive step has some side effects, we are so consumed by the aura of developments and seldom pause to ponder where all this is leading us to. What we need to realise is, that unlike earlier forms of pollution which were things physical and could therefore be seen, felt, smelt or heard; the present day advances are affecting our psyche and changing our human behaviour.
Take the case of the call centres we have created. Our young people working there are no different from the agricultural or industrial labour of yesteryear. While agriculture or industry did not internally affect the individual, present day work environment does this in an unseen way. It affects the way we behave and our interpersonal relationships. There are many examples to quote, perhaps more relevant than a mere call centre. In the case of industrial revolution, we were not the leaders. We never really came to grips with that and are therefore still somewhat lagging. In the case of electronics and IT, we are well among the leaders. What is more, both these suit us rather well culturally.
Mitigation drive
We are good at intellectual work, and the air-conditioned comfort makes it even more attractive. Hence we need not look up to some other advanced nation to lay down protocols and norms of pollution to mitigate the ill-effects of this technology. It is time that our environmentalists started thinking beyond global warming or gaps in the ozone layer.
Let them look at the gaps in mindsets that present day technology is creating and lay down norms that would ensure that we are not overtaken by events like it happened in the past. We owe it to the next generation that their lifestyle is not impaired by over- enthusiasm on our part. Those who are more aware of these things should start drafting a Bengaluru protocol. Let us not wait like we waited for the Kyoto one which is even now, more talked about than followed.
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