'Global warming is a result of man becoming a parasite'

Man has become a parasite, destroying the host - Planet Earth - to which he is attached.

He is using for his benefit all available sources of energy, material and information and in return spewing back into the environment his waste products, thus impoverishing the very system that supports him.

This scathing comment was made at the last meeting by Mr. Vijay Crishna, the well-known theatre personality, while speaking on "Global warming".

Although not speaking as an artiste (he has done many plays with Sabira Merchant), his anguish at the alarming phenomenon of global warming was imbued with a sense of frustration at man's callous disregard for the consequences of his actions.

"To have the good life, it is first necessary to have a life," he said, pointing out that "the glaciers are thinning too fast, the sea levels are rising too quickly, storm intensities are increasing, as are threats of more storms in future. Warming oceans must send chills down the spines of those who had to manage disasters like Katrina in the USA.

EXPERTS SAY THAT HUMAN ACTIVITY IS .VERY LIKELY. THE MAIN CAUSE OF GLOBAL WARMING

"Natural disasters could also be on the increase. Is global warming impacting their frequency? We need to find out, because estimated damage costs of climate change are (being) constantly revised upwards. We need to do the correct maths on the alternative solutions for the power we need, nuclear and otherwise, but we must wean ourselves off our current carbon addiction.

"We continue to pollute our most sacred river, the Ganga, despite Rs. 20,000 crores having been spent to clean it up. One estimate says that 2,000 tonnes of raw sewage is pushed into it daily from Varanasi alone."

It's man who has done the maximum damage to his planet. Mr. Vijay Crishna at the last meeting

Mr. Crishna, who is the Managing Director of M/s Lawkim Ltd., is a graduate of St. Stephen's College, Delhi. He was engaged in the shipping and tea industries in Calcutta before moving to Bombay and the world of advertising (with DaCunha Associates). In 1977, he became CEO of M/s Lawkim Pvt. Ltd., a bankrupt manufacturer of special motors, which the Godrej family had taken over. It turned profitable soon thereafter.

A keen nature-lover and trekker (he has been to the Garhwals, Kailash, the Annapurna base camp, the Great Lakes in North Sikkim and Ladakh), he is a life member of the Himalayan Club since 1973 and is now on its Managing Committee.

He established the Nowrojji Godrej Centre for Plant Research in Satara (in 1991) which researches and propagates rare and endangered species of medicinal plants endemic to the Western Ghats.

In the course of his talk, Mr. Crishna used several slides and also screened a short film on global warming titled "The 11th Hour".

Retaining his cool. Ravi Ruia snapped at the lunch table last week with Madhu Ruia (left) and Ajit Lalvani

He started by taking his audience back to the beginning of the universe some 15 billion years ago when, it was believed, the universe began with the "Big Bang" - an almighty explosion of unimaginable power accompanied by a blinding radiant light. The "Bang" took place in the middle of some form of matter or "primal soup" and the temperature generated was in billions of degrees.

Over the next ten billion years, the cooling matter slowly coalesced into super galaxies within which stars began to form. The temperature fell to the critical level of about ten million degrees. This reawakened nuclear forces in the newly-formed stars and galaxies, first imploding and then exploding into massive supernovas.

Despite the passage of 15 billion years, the planet earth was still cooling down; and often, its molten core caused convective motion which could shift continents, make volcanoes erupt and trigger off earthquakes.

The atoms released from these exploding supernovas .wandered. about in space and combined over time into molecules. On earth, these atoms later combined to form human beings - "We are truly creatures of stardust!"

When earth was formed 4.5 billion years ago, it possessed a core of silicates, a crust of carbon and an atmosphere made up of methane, ammonia, hydrogen and water vapour. This atmosphere had to face bombardment by infrared and ultraviolet rays from the sun and powerful bolts of lightning from outer space that hit the earth.s surface.

Mr. Crishna said that man, the inheritor of such fantastic cosmic activity, had used the creativity and energy that he was blessed with to create circumstances that could fastforward events to a tumultuous new stage marking the end of man and of planet earth. "We have messed up our inheritance big time - and most of us are blissfully unaware of this."

On February 2 this year, the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (the leading international network of climate scientists) put to rest a much-debated issue after concluding that "global warming is unequivocal and human activity is the main driver, very likely causing most of the global temperature rises since 1950".

Till 2001, the scientists had said that "human activity is... likely causing most of the global temperature rises..." But in February this year, after six long years, the scientists became more explicit and stated that "human activity is... very likely causing most of the global temperature rises."

However, the Bush Administration had consistently denied the fact that the US, with 5% of the world.s population, was the No. 1 contributor (just ahead of China) with 25% of the greenhouse-gas emissions that were warming the earth.s atmosphere. But now, confronted with irrefutable evidence, the US had finally approved the report.

In other words, Mr. Crishna said, "we have a world-class problem and the only question before us seems to be whether we have enough time left to take action to mitigate the threat. It is no longer a question of if, but when. People like you and I may still have a part to play".

He went on to castigate the media for adding to the confusion "by making us believe" that scientists were actually debating whether the situation was merely part of the natural cycles that the world had been through before. But this was not the case.

About 225 million years ago, the world was composed of one huge land mass called "panagaea", a Greek word meaning "all lands", that was roamed by hardy dinosaurs (of all shapes and sizes and which successfully adapted to the environment) for over 150 million years.

But 65 million years ago, they suddenly died. The cause of their extinction was revealed only recently when scientists pointed out that they died when earth was hit by huge, tenkm.- long pieces of rock. And where did these rocks come from? They came from the collision of two giant asteroids (one of them named Baptistina which was hit by another asteroid).

Interestingly, the collision took place 160 million years ago; the huge clusters of rocks that were created as a result, sailed through the universe for millions of years (about 95 million years) before finally crashing into earth (in the area now called Mexico) and wiping out the dinosaurs.

That cataclysmic event unleashed firestorms and clouds of dust that shrouded earth in a .winter darkness. which wiped out the dinosaurs and also the vegetation and the species dependent on it.

Mr. Crishna pointed out the contrast between the events . those were caused by "external activities" that changed the world climate, whereas today, man's .internal activities. were threatening to change the world's climate.

A major mitigating factor was the jump in world population which reached the one-billion-mark before the "industrial revolution". It doubled to 1.7 billion by 1900; doubled again by 1960; and was likely to cross nine billion by the year 2030.

Vijay Crishna calls 'Greenhouse Effect'. an inaccurately-termed expression

This was putting unbearable pressure on earth.s resources. Food consumption was rising exponentially but the land available for agricultural and other production was reducing.

Yet another resource under great stress was water. In the "early days", earth had plenty of water in liquid form. Thanks to this, the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was dissolved and sank to the bottom of the sea. Without water, the saga of human life on earth would have never begun.

The planet Venus, on the other hand, had no water and the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere caused a greenhouse effect because of which the temperature on the planet.s surface was about 500 degrees.

Unfortunately, 97% of the earth.s water was saline, hence non-potable. Of the remaining, only a small portion was available to man. But despite consumption being on the rise, man had foolishly managed to contaminate and pollute his own sources of water over the last 50 years.

It was here that former US Vice- President Al Gore.s relentless campaign assumed significance - he had been warning against believing the political spin doctors who claimed that governments were doing something worthwhile about climate change. They were not doing anything - and this was "The Inconvenient Truth".

Mr. Crishna then turned to the causes of global warming. The first of these was what he called the "inaccurately-termed Greenhouse Effect".

As he understood it, earth.s atmosphere had several layers which were constantly hit and warmed by the sun.s rays. Some of these rays were absorbed by earth and some reflected back. But the earth.s surface itself also radiated heat which went on to further warm up the atmosphere.

Over and above these two heat sources, there were also other gases that were generated by natural causes and by human activities. Thus, earth.s surface was heated by not one or two but by four sources - and this was inappropriately referred to as "The Greenhouse Effect".

What were these .greenhouse. gases? These included some of those that swirled around the universe at the dawn of time.

Not content with its own poor record, China is faring even worse in Tibet

These were gases such as water vapour, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, ozone, sulphur hexafluoride and also the hydro-, perchloro- and chloro-fluorocarbons.

Remember us with some warmth. President Dr. Rumi Jehangir presents a memento to Mr. Vijay Crishna at the last meeting

Significantly, the influence of all these gases was not additive because their infrared radiations worked in different manners. But the earth.s atmosphere was impacted by the fact that apart from water vapour, the rest of the gases tended to stay in the atmosphere for a long time.

"So any extra activity or effect that adds more of these gases also causes a cumulative effect that can tip the balance. Their presence in the earth.s atmosphere causes earth.s temperature to be higher (than it would have been) had they not been there."

The trends over the last 25 years were too pronounced to accept the "comfortable argument that we are only experiencing natural cycles of activity". For example, carbon dioxide emissions in parts per million (ppm) were a key indicator of the "health" of earth's atmosphere.

Measurements of Antarctic ice had shown that carbon dioxide concentration remained between 260 and 280 ppm for 10,000 years. But after the "Industrial Revolution", it went up - by 50 ppm in 200 years, and another 50 ppm in just 30 odd years!

Scientists now believed that carbon dioxide concentration would go up by another 80 ppm and touch the level of 450 ppm before 2025. The inflection point would be reached and things start disintegrating once the concentration reached 550 ppm . perhaps by the year 2050.

"If we don.t work fast at stabilising the carbon dioxide concentration level at 400 ppm, we can.t hold warming world temperature below the dangerous two-degree Celsius increase."

Discussing the subprime crisis? PP Haresh Jagtiani hears what market expert Pashupati Advani has to say, while Rajeshwar Bajaaj listens in

Mr. Crishna said 65% of carbon dioxide emission resulted from the use of fossil fuels and 18% from deforestation.

And who were the main "culprits "? Developing countries like China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and even India had now crossed the threshold and were as guilty as the industrialised nations. This year, China had already "beaten" the USA in emissions.

The people of China were paying a "terrible price" for the double-digit growth that the government insisted upon achieving. Its leaders just could not halt the culture of fast growth. Environmental rules were being thrown overboard. And the Chinese people were struggling to offer a better quality of life to the people of the countries to which China exported its products.

Sadly, the means of production in China were inefficient - and this caused even more damage to the environment. China.s power plants were coal-fired and highly inefficient. They were fed abundant supplies of dirty coal and had few pollution controls, as a result, the air became even more filthy and unsafe.

"It's a juggernaut that the Communist Party mechanism and the local officials have invested too much in, for them to press the "Stop" button now! And it uses its huge dollar reserves to drive global competition hard for energy resources to sustain its growth."

What was the result of such "collective actions"? The Arctic, the home to humungous quantities of ice and to a rich bio-reserve (with all kinds of medicinal plants) was affected so badly by global warming that the Arctic "ice cap" was fast shrinking and by 2050 would possibly shrivel by as much as 40 to 50%.

Mr. Crishna pointed out that the "exposed" earth retained more of its heat; and as it heated up, more ice melted. As more ice melted, it raised sea levels. Thanks to this, low-lying countries such as Holland and Bangladesh were at particular risk.

"Remember that at the Bay of Bengal.s northern tip, 60 million people live within ten metres of the sea."

The cooling of ocean surface temperatures had a direct effect on sea storms, which gained in intensity throughout the world.

Yet another side-effect of global warming was the exposure of the "peaty" Arctic soil below its permafrost surface. As Arctic temperatures rose and the ice started melting, massive amounts of methane and carbon dioxide would be released from the "peaty" Arctic soil - and this would further speed up the warming process.

Sadly, the developed world was so thrilled with the easier access to oil and gas exploration that these developments offered, that countries like Russia, Canada, Denmark and even the USA were rushing to claim these newly- "exposed" areas and the bonanza that they offered.

"We are playing with nature and by upsetting its delicate balance, we are opening up a frightening Pandora's Box."

Turning to Tibet, Mr. Crishna said that it supplied 47% of the world.s population with fresh water through the seven great rivers that flowed from it. But now meteorologists had calculated that Tibet was warming twice as fast as the rest of the world.

China was responsible for this, because it was undertaking major building projects, logging and mining activities and also military deployments there for more than 50 years.

Even though Tibet's great altitude caused the Asian and Indian monsoon systems, India had thrown away its rights over that country in the 1950's and even lost a war (with China) on its borders in 1962.

If China succeeded in its long-term efforts to dam the Great Tsangpo Gorge and to divert the Tsangpo- Brahmaputra waters to China, it would affect the flow of water into India and have a devastating effect on the entire north and northeast of the country

"One of the great dangers of the present situation is the possibility of wars over water usage between countries that share borders and rivers."

Mr. Crishna said if things did not improve, then snow leopards would disappear; extraordinary creatures like the lesser fishing eagle would become extinct; two-thirds of polar bears would be dead by 2050; and some of the most exquisite species of flora and fauna would become things of the past.

Finally, he noted that lack of leadership was a major problem. .When was the last time you heard or read of our Prime Minister or any other politician explaining to an ordinary citizen, farmer or fisherman what climate change means to him and to the world?

"Once people like us can agree on things. we might even be able to push the highest levels of industry and our politicians to do the things that they need to be doing for the good of the earth and for the generations that follow us,. he concluded.

Mr. Vijay Crishna was introduced to members by Zinia Lawyer; IPP Harry Singh Arora proposed the vote of thanks.

Top