Thursday 26 May 2011

The Hunza lake disaster: We all are responsible

This is apropos to the article ‘The water bomb’ published on 23rd may 2010. Undoubtedly, the inhabitants of the Hunza valley are suffering from the massive water outburst that’s increasing at a monstrous pace threatening to gobble up all the villages that come in its line of attack. Certainly, this disaster threatens to cause further destruction to surrounding homes, schools, fields, dams, infrastructure and the socio-economic life of this region.
Glacier melting is one of the causes attributing to the Hunza lake disaster. We can condemn the government for not taking precautionary steps to avert the disaster or censure it for not taking immediate relief efforts after the disaster. But we cannot absolve ourselves from the responsibility of this calamity. The connection lies between rising temperatures caused by carbon emissions and melting glaciers.
We luxuriate in the cities with our lavish life styles and the cost is borne by these rural people oblivious of the cause of the catastrophes they’ve fell a prey to. Our hazardous activities like burning of the fossil fuels in our consumptive living patterns result in enormous amount of emissions of green house gases leading to global warming/climate change that gives birth to such catastrophes’.
Carbon Emissions, for example, from our cars, industries, unnecessary electricity consumption for our modern living like micro-ovens, electric cooking stoves, air-conditioners and other contemporary living activities.
We need to bring about small changes in our lifestyles so that others don’t bear the repercussions of our living standards.
We could always choose to walk for small distances, use mass transit or car pool for longer ones, decrease fossil fuels burning in the thermal power stations, dominant resource for our energy generation, by consuming less electricity i.e. switch off unnecessary lightings, keep the thermostat of our air-conditioners on 24-26 centigrade, at day time brighten up your house with sunlight and use electric appliances at the least or in moderation.
Furthermore, at a larger scale we should avoid unnecessary air travelling since that is one of the major contributors to global warming. Executives could utilize technology of video conferencing for meetings, conferences and seminars. At a smaller scale, use less paper and make recycling a priority of life.
The thought of the day is to make our lives simpler and closer to nature because it is inhuman to live at the cost of other’s lives.
The world needs to come together and join hands in the fight against the climate change because it’s a global issue not a national issue. The rising water in the Hunza Lake is just not a natural phenomenon but we all are contributors to it.