Technology and Environment will have to go together for sustainable Development

Air is polluted so is the water,

Resources are depleting so are the fuels.

What we see as an environment is far more than our surroundings. A green flourished park, chirping birds and roaming animals, rivers and aesthetic natural view comes to our mind when we think about the word environment. But it’s more than these boundaries; it is more diverse at cellular level and more rooted in soil layers. Sustaining the environment means sustaining ourselves. We too exert an influence on this ecosystem. Hence eco friendly techniques becomes the important tool for development and making people realize that how their small water foot prints or carbon foot print are creating big impact on environment. We need to realise that we have polluted our world to such an extent that even a new life in this world comes with an environmental debt of his/her parents. Climate crisis is no more a debatable topic, every person in this world is being affected and we have to admit it.  

Though environment has its own self sustaining process, but it can sustain itself only up to a certain limit. Remember the Hook’s Law, which teaches us the extreme limit of an elastic body beyond which, if it is stretched then it cannot come back to its actual size. Same is the case with earth’s limits. It can recover itself only up to a certain limit. The fresh example of it would be the level of CO₂ in atmosphere. Latest studies have showed that the level of CO₂ is so high in atmosphere that even “only planting trees” won’t be helpful in reducing the level of CO₂.

Today the whole world needs a new technological approach that would result in equal access to the environmental benefits of the planet, without exceeding its carrying capacity. I have read it that in order to enhance the quality of life and to avoid wholesale ecological destruction, a deeper understanding of life and the formation of a new system of environmental ethics is required. The impact of technological development and their application can be seen and now they have become so serious that they threaten the stability of the ecosystem and human society. Hence a rethinking of the expectations and responsibilities of the scientific community is required. We all are a part of this big ecosystem hence it become responsibility of every person to maintain the integrity of the environment as a whole system. We must accept our accountability for our responsibility in our everyday life. These individual efforts can be enhanced by enhancing each level of civil society and govt., industry and business, and NGO.

In today’s world the need for sustainability is the main goal, Sustainable Lifestyle is the need of the hour, so does the importance of embedding it in children’s programs. Through hands-on experiences and better educator pedagogies, children can explore and learn about their surroundings and environmental issues. They can develop the creativity and critical thinking skills needed to make decisions for change, improving the quality of their lives, and those of future generations. And as said by Swami Vivekananda children are not tomorrow’s but today’s citizens, their one step towards change will be benefitting the upcoming generation and the whole humanity.

Enough of talking and talking, enough of protesting and shouting! It is high time that we should take initiative on our own, start from our own home, our community and it all begins with ourselves first. Instead of getting involved in the vicious circle of polity and administration let’s present an example in front of people, let us be an example for people to do something instead of demanding something. I started it when I realized the risk, risk getting near and near day by day.

Sustainable Lifestyle is the current solution and the very first and mandatory step which everyone should take immediately. It includes everything, each activity of our day to day life, the way we brush, we take bath, we dress, the clothes we wear, the food we eat, transport system we use, from things we buy to the things we do in our whole day and night everything should be sustainable. Zero waste week challenge, plastic-free week challenge, Kiss the coconut, No stitch September, etc., are such wonderful movements initiated by the people to practice a lifestyle that would cause the least harm to the environment. This not only makes us a responsible consumer but also reduces our ecological footprint. It also makes us more conscious regarding the things we use; we become more alert on how to use a thing so that it can lasts long. In today’s a world where things are a click next to you, it will be little challenging to go and find a shop and then buy in bulk to avoid plastic but it’s the only option we have and it is the need of the hour. Because if you think of ordering a bamboo comb and brush online, getting it to deliver from far miles (fuel consumption and pollutant release), removing the plastic cover(packaging) and then clicking a selfie-and putting it with #ecofriendly #saveearth caption then sorry buddy, you have already released more carbon than you have sequested by avoiding plastic comb or brush. 

Sustainable lifestyle empowers you to do new experiments, get out of your comfort zone and work with a more holistic approach. It allows one to explore terms like food miles, water footprint, virtual water, etc. It also makes your life much simpler and easy, whether it’s about choosing clothes to wear every day or letting go of unnecessary new things. Our consumption pattern improves and we find that this world is more beautiful if lived simply. We as in Indian have this principle of APARIGRAHA, which means that we should take only as much we require; so sustainability is in our genes, it is just we are not used to it. We will have to remove this materialistic glass and see the world through our naked eye. When I started living this idea of “Sustainable Lifestyle” and I came to know about the term water footprint, I was shocked! I was shocked to know that my one jean takes around thousands of liter of water! Just one pair of jeans! My 1kg of rice takes around three thousand liters of water! I can see myself surrounded with so much water while sitting in a room with things that are non recyclable or non reusable. From that moment onwards I had decided no more extra water footprint. I reused my old jeans made a bag out of it and now I use it for my college purpose, I searched for a shop got my new bamboo brush and comb(old ones were broken so instead of getting new plastic one), made my body scrub, I made my paper body pen, have selected only two pair of clothes per month for college and two pair for elsewhere, steel bottle and a steel tiffin is always there in my bag so in case if I want to eat something outside I can ask the shopkeeper to give me directly into my steel Dabba. I have also reused my plastic bottles because the main idea behind this all is to reduce waste production especially single used plastic. During my studies I had read somewhere, “We are the first generation that can eradicate poverty and we are the last generation which can fight climate change”. I believe this, because if you understand the food miles, and water footprint of food items I am sure you will rethink before dumping anything anywhere. And yes we are the last generation to fight climate change, if we can understand the sustainable lifestyle and start practicing it, I am sure we will combat climate change. If we fail, I have doubts, but who will be there to tell the story of our failure? Hence I believe “The choices we make today will affect our common future tomorrow”. Therefore along with Reduce, Recycle and Refuse we should also add Rethink!  The main purpose of technology is to make work easier, wouldn’t it be good if technology will make “achieving the sustainability goal” easier?

Sources

·       https://youtu.be/3VHQ5bicbHA  Alternatives to plastic things

·       https://youtu.be/BvvKTMaawjA  Paper body Pen

By,
Garima Upreti

Department of Geology

University of Lucknow