Already Neck-deep In Quicksand, We Have No Time To Waste Now!
A recent pink paper edit, citing a research report by ‘Birbal Sahni Institute of Paleo Sciences’ came as another grave reminder about the way we are mindlessly hurtling towards a situation of ‘literally no water to drink’! This report says that the “last two decades have seen the driest spring seasons in the Western Himalayas since the early 1600s”. This historic collapse aligns with yet another catastrophic alert by International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) that 2025-26 HinduKush Himalaya (HKH) Snow update highlights a ‘snow drought’ triggered by weakened ‘western disturbances’ and rising temperatures. Without the natural dam of slow-melting ice the hydrological cycle has turned volatile. We have seen winters bringing flash floods while summers are left bone-dry.Around 2007 Al-Gore gave us a wake-up call with his film 'An Inconvenient Truth' exposing realities of the rapid march of climate change. Sir David Attenborough's many movies and statements also came with scary predictions. Of course, long before Gore and Sir David, environmentalists had been cautioning humanity about depleting natural resources and the need for conservation. We know that our forefathers were very frugal in using energy, water and food. Mahatma Gandhi’s famous quote “Mother Earth has enough for our needs but not our greed” is today even more relevant. Human avarice to consume and possess more of everything – food, clothes, vehicles … has no limit.
We want to drive ever bigger cars, fly in larger private jets, sail in humungous yachts without giving a thought to the fact that all these add hugely to deadly atmospheric emissions. The whole world – with some exceptions like Denmark, Sweden and Norway – led by the United States under Donald Trump, continues with a sort of 'Death Wish' – perhaps hoping for a miracle to save us from the dire situation staring us in the face. Scandinavia as well as the UK, Switzerland, France, Singapore, Canada, Chile, Morocco etc. seem most prepared for what is coming and lead in framing suitable environmental policies. Thankfully India – one of the most vulnerable – has rapidly scaled solar and wind energy generation. Successive COP jamborees have achieved nothing! I have personally seen the great Hubbard glacier calving furiously over the last 20 years. Recently our children have seen similar disasters in the Antarctic.
There are several dimensions to ‘Sustainability’. Primarily we need to ensure availability of sufficient energy, nutritious food, clothing, potable water, clean air, transportation and connectivity for all. There’s also need for universal education and healthcare. All activities – agriculture, tree planting, industry, construction, roads, railways, shipping, aviation, transportation, education, research, sanitation, waste management move around meeting these needs in the best possible cost effective manner. Every single activity releases carbon and noxious emissions into the atmosphere. Accumulation of these emissions causes warming of the planet and consequent melting of glaciers, loss of ice cover, need for more power for cooling, depletion of agro productivity and nutrition content of crops, quality of ambient air and water pollution due to affluent from factories, sickness and greater load on healthcare … the never ending vicious cycle!
Sustainability is a collective responsibility – of governments, municipalities, industry, individuals and society. Over the years, industry has started playing an increasingly proactive role. Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) now figures prominently in all corporate annual reports. It is no longer optional, it is an essential part due to two reasons – firstly because industry uses 40-50 per cent of all power generated in the country (followed by about 25 per cent for domestic use and 20 per cent by agriculture) and second reason, profitability and of all companies is directly related to how much does it take care of the environment, its employees and society and how well does it govern its systems, procedures and interest of all stakeholders. A company can no longer afford to be an island without taking good care of all its stakeholders. Indeed, a company would perish sooner if it was not to look after everyone and everything around it! It is great that the government, industry associations and media are now awarding and celebrating corporate champions of sustainability. Of course, ESG is a wider subject and my column addresses only the environmental concerns.
To my mind, the bottom line for sustenance is ‘conservation of all resources – energy, water, food – and continuous research for out-of-the-box solutions to reduce carbon footprint of all our actions.
Recently, one has learnt about a brilliant Chinese breakthrough of manufacturing Jeans from Banana stalks instead of cotton. A viral video shows the fully automated
plant – no workers at all – producing millions of Jeans from banana stalks imported from the Philippines. I am not aware if the project is energy and water efficient also but it seems that they have beaten the age-old grossly water inefficient system. Then there are proven Israeli techniques for water saving in agriculture – which in India consumes 80 per cent of all our water due not only to the fact that hardly a third of agriculture uses sprinkler systems, but also because we continue to grow water- guzzling crops like rice and sugarcane. We take pride in our rice exports without thinking of the damage it is doing to our depleting groundwater table.
And, there was a very interesting recent article, by the convenor of the Bio Thermal Clean Cooking Alliance (BCCA) about scaling up use of ethanol for cooking. Inspired by the current LPG shortage, this writer makes a strong case for our ethanol distilleries, which are operating well below full capacity. Whereas our current capacity, from about 500 distilleries, is over 1,800 crore litres, the E20 fuel blending programme needs only about 1,000 crore litres. So, here’s a huge ready availability which can be further enhanced because the purity required for cooking grade ethanol is much lower at 90-95 per cent as against 99.9 per cent for fuel blending. Furthermore, ethanol burns cleanly, producing primarily carbon dioxide and water vapour and zero PM 2.5. Whereas our household (LPG, kerosene etc.) cooking emissions top 350 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually – more than the entire transport sector – ethanol clean cooking can directly address this at scale.
An entry point could be the nearly 4.5 million street food vendors – currently facing huge stress and also often not permitted to use LPG due to the risk of explosion in public places. Ethanol stoves carry no such risk. Transitioning 1-1.5 million biomass and kerosene users amongst this lot to ethanol can reduce three to five million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually and, at the same time, improve their occupational health and food safety. This technology is ready and the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) and IIT Guwahati have also developed a suitable cook stove. A pilot in Sundarbans has already tested viability amongst households entirely dependent on forest wood. Now, here’s a win-win situation.
There are also validated pilots in African countries. All we need now is for the government of India to designate bioethanol as an approved cooking fuel, integrate it with the existing subsidy regime and commission a few state level pilots with oil marketing companies (OMCs) taking up distribution. We have a ready framework to cut down our dependence on imported LPG!
In the face of such encouraging out-of-the-box solutions, there are also sad cases of gross neglect in certain areas that negate the good efforts. A big eyesore and pain-in-the-back is the 20-year-old growing mountain of waste at Bandhwari near Gurgaon. Estimated to host 17 lakh tonnes of waste and growing at the rate of over 2,000 tonnes daily from Gurgaon, Manesar and Faridabad, this filthy smelly lot, spread over almost 30 acres has defied solution – despite efforts of many environmentalists – perhaps due to a nexus between corrupt contractors and civic institutions. Of course, it is a fact that we – the citizens – also share the blame for blatantly sending unsegregated waste and what reaches the mountain every day is actually five to ten times what should land up there if only we are conscious of our duty to segregate religiously!
To add insult to injury, another example nearer home is the rampant abuse of protected forest areas near Damdama Lake which are being systematically ravaged with violations of law by cutting trees and making roads. All national efforts at adding our tree cover get nullified by such negative steps – possibly with the covert nod of the authorities. Let me add a shocker – India has only 28 trees per capita as against almost 9,000 of Canada, 4,500 odd in Russia, 4000 in Finland, over 700 in the USA and more than a hundred in China. We forget that trees play a big role in sequestering atmospheric carbon, cooling the parched earth and also helping rainfall. Incidentally, the total rainfall in India is 3.5 to four times our total need of water but due to unfavourable geographical spread of the rains and our neglect of water harvesting, we are capturing only about eight per cent of the total and the rest flows – unutilised – through storm drains, canals and rivers into the seas. As a result, our ground water level continues to fall and in many cities has gone down to 700-1000 feet below the ground. So, there is a huge requirement of energy to pump it out.
Shockingly, Modi is most ably dousing geopolitical fires all over the world but perhaps not paying enough attention to criminal violation of environmental laws at home, denying people their right to clean air and water! We are already neck deep in the quicksand of sustainability failure and just can’t afford to waste even one day before starting in mission mode to reverse the situation. We must stop all tree felling, water leakages and wastage, water guzzling crops, heavy emissions from construction and transport … all such activities that contaminate the environment. I can go on for another 2,000 words but everyone knows what the issues are; we – as individuals, society, industry, civic bodies, state governments, central government – are all lacking the will to act. Perhaps efforts of mega corporations will help. My prayers that they do.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publication.
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