Earth Day is April 22nd

Earth Day is coming up. There will be some publicity leading up to it, I'm sure. Companies will start talking about what they are doing in order to help the environment. Hastily drawn plans will be shown to the public as established conduct. Government agencies will appoint scientific communities to get together and give reports on the conditions of the planet. Non-government agencies will protest the opinions of these scientists and work on scare tactics to get the people moving.

All these things will happen. Everyone will come forth with their opinions and there will be so much talk.

Yet somehow, all this talk every year not only seems to dissipate when the hype dies down, but also to not address many key issues.

I understand that the people in power matter. These are the people who can make decisions regarding their country's stand on the Kyoto Protocol, or whaling or water quality regulations. These are the people who make a difference with the stroke of a pen. It is imperative for a country's future that issues are brought in front of these people. But what about just the common man?

I know that efforts are being made for almost the past 20 years to get the common person involved in ecological conservation. However it seems to me that more than half of what is presented to the public is a smokescreen and the rest is presented on such a large scale that the public cant help but think that the problem is too big for them to do anything about it. Let me explain myself.

The smokescreen bit is done by corporations. Especially corporations that are perceived as commercial polluters or have a product whose identity is tried up with pollution (e.g. oil companies, automotive companies, chemical companies etc.). During certain times of the year, like when Earth Day is nearing, these companies will do their best to show the public all that they do and have done for the environment. Of course I cannot claim that it is all a smokescreen, but there are many companies that trump figures, rustle up spur of the moment ideas, run charity marathons etc. without really putting real effort in their conservation actions.

The other problem I have is that the public is confronted with humongous issues. Global Warming, Ozone Depletion, Rain forest Loss, these are huge things. This globe is complicated and vast, but the human population has become large enough and influential enough to cause huge scale problems in the entire ecosystem. This sounds extremely daunting and leads to the relegation of these issues into a phenomenon which Douglas Adams has so concisely called 'Someone Else's Problem'.

Since we as individuals cannot deal with such a large scale, we think of these problems as solvable only by someone else rather than ourselves. If the issue is not local then that intensifies this feeling.

I think that there is a key to this. Some people are discovering it and using it aptly. It is as essential to think about the whole issue as it is to think about bits and pieces of it. These bits and pieces are not that daunting and can be presented as doable tasks for even the individual. The importance of conservation should not just be presented on the scale of a forest, but also on the scale of tap water while brushing.

People need to be educated about the small things that make a difference. The idea of waste is generally perceived on an immense scale. Why not talk about waste in terms of the number of thermacol glasses? The need of the hour is still education. We have not yet gone past this stage. There are too many things happening on a daily level that lead to immense wastage and go under the radar because of the fact that they are habits.

We are a people addicted to waste. Addicted to oil. Weaning may happen in two ways. We may end up buried in our waste and out of oil and be shocked into adapting. Or we may slowly, gradually rid ourselves of our needs, check into rehab and learn to adapt to newer things and better lifestyles. By the time we run out of oil, we will not need it.

Its our choice, not as nations or organizations, but as individuals.