Lesson from Lockdown
We all have suffered lockdowns which were not less than a cinematic scene. If somehow I traveled back in time and tell myself about the lockdown, I would look like an idiot to myself. We all know it has cost us our freedom and luxury but one thing is true that without doing sheer efforts environmental pollution has reduced drastically. We must accept that what are we doing in the name of advancements and technology is not mandatory for living and what we need to live is way lesser than what we have availed to us. In fact, we have surrounded ourselves with more luxury than we need. If we go to buy shoes we have so many brands, each brand with different designs, different material, and quality but do we need all these excess of things to live and prosper as human beings? This is where Gandhian principles hold the upper hand over Marxism. In today’s world of cutthroat competition, there are many tycoons standing neck to neck to capture the markets which have allowed us to choose among many products and services. Truly this has made countries opulent and alleviated people from poverty. Unfortunately, there is another side of the coin; behind today’s over-flooded malls and markets what we do not notice is the harm we caused to nature.
There is a term called Carbon footprint which is Carbon dioxide emitted due to the activities of a person or an entity. It also includes greenhouse gases such as methane, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) which further contribute to global warming. So what does this carbon footprint do? Do you remember playing out on a hot sunny day of summer in your childhood? But can you play in the current summer season? No, you can’t because the summer mid-day temperature has risen above a tolerable level. Now some new high temp records have been set by cities and credit goes to the excess carbon emitted by humans. There are some other severe issues too like wildfires, droughts, tropical storms which affect crop production and most worrisome of all are unprecedented sea-level rise. Every activity performed by us leaves behind a carbon footprint which will eventually exacerbate environmental pollution. Just sending an E-mail produces 0.000001 tons of CO2 equivalent. As per the data of Statista.com, the emails sent in 2020 will be 306.4 billion so what we have in the atmosphere due to those mere e-mails we sent? It is 306400 tons of CO2 equivalent which is enormous. Unfortunately, most of us are not aware of this.
From the bellow data, we can have a rough idea about how our daily activities affect the environment
Every step we take during mass manufacturing emits greenhouse gases, even while typing this very article electricity used for this, the internet used to post it has a carbon footprint. Sounds worrisome right? Many of us are unaware of how far have we came, etching such detrimental footprints into the environment. There is a thin line between abundance and excess and the distinction between this can reduce environmental effects drastically. As an individual one can’t do much about abundance and excess, so what one can do mitigate this problem? As we can see from the above data, Transport contributes a big chunk to pollution, simply by preferring public transport to private will soothe the problem up to some extent. As a bonus tip, using bicycles in close vicinity will avoid pollution and will give FREE health benefits. Nations with the most bicycles per capita are Scandinavian nations which always at the top of the room in happiness index and health index so it seems bicycles have extra benefits too. So we can say indirectly it brings happiness too.
With the advancement in medical sciences, human beings have thrived to Billions. Our numbers put tremendous pressure on natural resources. As of now, we are exploiting nature and not sure how much of it will be left for our descendants. But this population boom can be utilized as a boon; by an easy task of planting and nurturing just one tree. Data from the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF) population in 2019 was 7.8 Billion out of which aged 15–64 is 5.082B. If just each one of this age group decides to plant and nurture just one tree then it will add to 5B new trees. As per the research of USDA.gov, a tree absorbs 21.7kg of carbon dioxide in its life. Means 110.28 Million tons of carbon dioxide will be removed from the atmosphere by just planting just one tree. A tree releases about 118 kg of oxygen per year, now you do this easy math for fresh and free oxygen.
In nutshell with a little paradigm shift and some routine change global warming can be mitigated. The gist of all this:
· We don’t need to flood markets with excess it has an environmental impact.
- As you know just e-mails add this much carbon in the atmosphere so be serious with electronic gadgets usage.
- use public transport as much as possible (bicycles have additional benefits)
- Planting and nurturing just one tree would remove 110.28 million tons of carbon dioxide and add 990 million tons of Oxygen yearly.
