Acceptance speech of Alt Environment Minister

==========

Thank You. To work.

The Environment is what surrounds you, what you live in, what determines the quality of that life.

Air, Water and Land, and your adaptations to it and the way you use it, comprise your physical environment.

THE ENVIRONMENT IS BADLY VITIATED.

This is an inevitable consequence of population increase, over exploitation of resources and inadequate mitigation measures. Add to this the complexities of historical legacies, political systems, economic systems, the (very real) needs and aspirations of humans beings all over the world, the information revolution (fuelling consumerism and fomenting discontent and demands, if one focuses on the negatives).

You cannot turn the clock back.

Neither can you stifle the hopes and aspirations of billions who live their lives at the very base subsistence levels (and often enough, way below it as well).

And the doomsday predictions of the Earth’s predicament (or at least that of the humans inhabiting it) are probably real enough, even if as yet undated.

SO WHAT CAN WE DO?

A LOT, actually.

India is home to immense wisdom, to traditions and cultures that have always been extremely frugal and respectful of local resources, to great intelligence and enterprise, to many things that have enabled us to keep the burden of very light footprints on the Earth.

Solutions will come from identifying the stakeholders & the issues, from looking at technology, at economics, at governance systems and at many other factors that we will try and identify going forward.

Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *