Thursday, July 5, 2007

How to save the world

Che Guevara blew me away a couple of years ago. I wanted to be just like him. Just like him.
I wanted to do the entire trip through South America, i wanted to change and then i wanted to become a Violent Revolutionary.
Last year, i studied Gandhi in acute detail - His philosophy, his vision for India. I wanted to be a pacifist revolutionary, to practice satyagraha.
I was filled with veneration.. 
similar to what happened earlier, with Che.
I know i seem rather bi-polar, and this little paragraph reflects a strange dichotomy
in my character.  But it doesn't really. It just means one thing.
I want to be a revolutionary. I want to make a change.
Now I've realised that that isn't entirely possible.. i have no clear political inclinations and i do not adamantly oppose any ideology. I would make quite a disastrous political revolutionary.
I've considered instead, to fight poverty alleviation, the aids epidemic, freedom for Tibet and numerous other causes. Unfortunately, though my support will be valuable, i cant do anything that will have immediate effect... I would go shoot some chinese guys, but that would just be dumb. Plus i dont think i can handle gore (Not Al - he seems to be doing a good job.) unless i'm playing Quake.. and as far as raising money goes, the amount would be insignificant due to my lack of musical talent.
So here's what Ive settled on. Saving the world. The earth, more specifically.
The earth is dying. (It is. I'm not being dramatic.)
There has been a a one degree rise in the temperature within the past century, which is considerable keeping in mind that the difference in the temperature now and in the last period of glaciation was only a few degrees.
With global warming comes a number of related problems,
extinction of a number of animals destroying the predator-prey balance,
receeding glaciers which forms an important water source for many countries, ours being one of them, Increase in intensity of weather conditions which is capable of destroying towns and cities.
Along with global warming, we fear the destruction of rainforests, and other resources without which the human species will perish, pollution of all types is aiding and speeding up the process.
The earth is fast approaching the end, the time is NOW to stop it.
(alright, a little dramatic. But its only for effect.)
I'm not developing captain planet powers any time soon, but till then i do i can do little things that will make a difference. ( All this new found determination to save the earth i owe to an hour of watching VH1.It has done a darn good job
brainwashing me into typing this and I'm sure many others as well.)
Its all pretty elementary stuff.. things that we know but don't necessarily do.
The POA includes - switching of the lights after we leave a room. That saves a lot more electricity than you think.
I'm also going to make sure i switch all the light bulbs in my house to CFL energy saving light bulbs; with people all over the world switching over to them "it would  the prevention of greenhouse gases equivalent to the annual emissions of millions of cars"
Another easy thing that everyone can do is carrying a bag when you go to the market to avoid using plastic bags. It just requires a bit of foresight, and once you make it a habit it isn't a difficult.
I've also decided to plant one tree every single year of my life. I'm not suggesting every day, or every month. Just once a year. So, i should plant at least 45 trees in my lifetime. If everyone in India (lets stick with that for now) was mobilised to do so, that would mean in one year we can plant at maximum 1,129,866,154 trees. I realise that its a highly Utopian plan, and very unlikely.. but if i can convince a few people, who can convince a few people so on and so forth, we can get quite a number to do so (baring in mind the six degrees of separation theory)
I think i'm going to be doing a little volunteering with organisations supporting these causes, and through them spread the word around.. 
I may not be becoming a Che or a Gandhi any time soon, but no matter how little it will be, I'm going to make a change. I wont be gay now, and say so can you.. because i think you know you can.
(More ideas later.)

 




1 comment:

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