Yesterday, while inaugurating the
India Pavilion at COP21, Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, said - 'India
is not responsible for climate change and the crisis due to it the world is
facing' - and he said it quite right.
The only thing is - saying so
would not serve any purpose - because whatever be the reasons, whosoever be the
culprits - the crisis cannot be restricted within borders - and is affecting
the whole planet - and can cause irreparable damage to human habitations across
the globe (including India) if something is not done seriously and
urgently.
It is like the basic concept of
building democratic nations and running civilized societies - build tomorrow
based on what is there today and not on 'what, why and how' of past.
It is like the raging 'tolerance
Vs intolerance' debate in India - a misplaced issue in an India that is poised
to become a country of global stature with an elite presence in geopolitics and
world affairs.
Who exploited whom, who grew at
the cost of whom, who got this and who didn't get that - a nation cannot grow
if it keeps going back to such baggage from its past. India's reality and
India's strength lie in India's pluralistic society and diversified culture and
if the country has to grow to become a true world power, it needs to keep that
in mind.
The same concept applies to the
issue of climate crisis the world is facing.
It doesn't matter if most of it
is due to the United States of America.
It doesn't make any difference
that the developed world and China have brought the whole planet on the verge
of desperate 'do or die' measures to arrest global warming and climate change.
Because, if the low lying coastal
areas and cities have to submerge (rising sea levels with increasing temperature
due to global warming), it will be across the world and not just in America,
Europe, China or other industrialized nations.
Because, if the world is
increasingly facing erratic weather behaviour and freakish weather patterns and
problems thereof, it is not just in India, but it is across the world - in Gulf
countries, in America, in Europe, in Asia, in Africa and elsewhere.
Irrespective of the answerability
of the so-called culprits of climate deterioration or irrespective of the
debates around terms like 'climate injustice', the whole humanity faces
imminent danger of changing weather patterns.
Irrespective of which countries
brought the planet to this juncture of global warming, glaciers melting, rising
sea levels, irregular rainfall patterns and floods, recurring drought spells
and other unpredictable weather
parameters, every country of the day is going to face nature's wrath or is
facing nature's fury.
And we are running short of time
to address the problem.
Let's see if anything tangible
comes out of COP21.
©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/
