Judging by organizations like green peace and the pervasive belief in the stereotype of environmentally conscious beings as granola bar crunching, birkenstock wearing tree huggers, it's safe to say that Environmentalists are a very passionate, vocal bunch.
In my own experience, volunteering at the environmental center in NJ in high school, enviromental issues have inspired me to great passion.
Now, nearly 8 years after that stint in the environmental center, I find myself on a train from Chennai to Bangalore. Near Vellore, we passed what is now a common sight in rural India. A dry river bed. Bone dry. Vegetated by those familiar thorny bushes (which, incidentally, are not a native plant but imported from Australia or some such country) , ridden with bullock cart tracks and marked by makeshift cricket pitches, deserted in the wake of the nation's victory last night.
Now this river bed is a 500 m stretch wedged in between 2 villages. Who knows for how many years its run dry?
I passed this scene in my ultra-modern (for India) air conditioned train in about 4 seconds, but it made an impression on me. It made me wonder why such obvious enviromental degredation and tragedy is largely neglected as an issue by the news media and general public?
I have a few thoughts - and normally this would be a full post but as I am posting this from my phone, I'll have to keep it short to keep from getting texters thumb.
1) The majority of the educated in India live the fast paced life of the urban dweller & havent seen enough of rural India and nature to realize what has happened
2) Unlike nations like the US, most of South India has been converted to settled lands years and years ago. There were no virgin forests in anyones recent written or oral histories, let alone videos or photographs. So people dont see the difference.
3) There is no culture of environmental appreciation. Even in the Ramayana, the forest was a place of hardship, trial and pennance home only to devout hrishis who spent their. time praying for release and fearsome. rakshashas. Compare this to the American celebration of the great outdoors, where hardship = the pioneering spirit and traditional. values.
4) We are a culture of society and not individuals. Where is the chance of Man vs. Wild when he has his whole clan backing him to cut the wild to pieces.
5) The people who do live out in rural areas are so economically disadvanteged as to not give a shit. And I almost dont blame them.
6) Greenhouse gases, fossil fuel. shortages and carbon emissions steal the thunder off any other contemporary environmental issue. Regardless of immediacy or importance.
Texters thumb. Ouch. Comment & tell me what you think. Will make this. a real post later.
