Copenhagen Summit
The 193-nation Climate Summit only pledged to limit emission level by less than 2ºC but failed to reach consensus to forge a legally binding treaty to achieve that goal. The biggest five polluters namely, the United States, China, India, Brazil & South Africa apart, the rest of the world vented total frustration on the outcome. President Obama, himself on the sideline, gestured his ire, yet he appraised the outcome as a good beginning. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been able to successfully project and showcase the catastrophic effect of climate change on non-player countries with no fault of theirs.
The situation having been so, we have to address this menace on emergency footing to save our ecology, habitat, flora, fauna, landscape etc. even without any foreign aid or assistance.
Therefore, we need to explore and adopt indigenous and a country-specific strategy to achieve the goal.
The strategy and action programme may include inter alia the following:
(a) Solar, wind and localized small hydro plants may well be a substitute to conventional fossil energy.
(b) Extensive afforestation campaigns have to be launched at every segment of society. Felling trees, cutting hills, filling water bodies - like river, pond, canal, marsh, sea line, multi-crop land must be considered as non-bailable offence.
(c) All polluter industries must install ETP at their plants or else close down.
(d) All old vehicles must go off the road and petrol vehicles have be converted to hybrid electric or CNG power gradually by a target time. Smoking in open places and honking of hydraulic horns must be strictly prohibited.
(e) Use of harmful insecticide/pesticide on land and crops has to be totally banned.
(f) Recycling plants under govt.-private partnership are to be set up to treat solid wastes in all metropolitan cities.
(g) Rain, flood and surface water, instead of underground water, shall be the only source of irrigation, drinking and other uses. It is no exotic idea; we saw it in our childhood days.
(h) Coal and wood fuelled brick kiln must be closed.
(i) Medical waste and diagnostic lab-radiation level must be monitored by the regulators.
I believe that the present democratic govt. with a huge public mandate will not delay or deviate from responding to this serious challenge.
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