What is claimed as ‘Clean’, may not necessarily be deemed as ‘Green’

The consumption of energy is increasing day by day and it is a well-established fact that fossil fuels are on the verge of depletion and as such may not be able to fulfill our ever-growing future energy demands. Hence, renewable energy sources, especially wind and solar energy is commonly perceived as the energy choice of the future owing to its cleaner production and environment friendly nature.

There is a global push towards installation and expansion of renewable energy and 192 countries across the world have already announced policies to promote renewable energy. India has also set ambitious renewable energy targets to almost triple its current installed renewable capacity from 59 GW to 175 GW by 2022. However, such a large scale shift to renewable energy comes with its own costs, causing significant impacts both on the people and the surrounding planet. But such projects are rarely critiqued on the ground of being clean and environment friendly source of energy. Thus in the backdrop of this, a study was undertaken to assess the various environmental and social impacts of solar and wind energy projects. These impacts were reviewed from the scientific literature and triangulated during the field visits while interning with The Nature Conservancy (TNC).

The wind power projects are generally sighted in hilly and forested areas. Many a times, large number of trees are felled for building the access roads and transmission lines. This issue is being entirely neglected since wind power projects are exempted from the ambit of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). It is alarming that huge tracts of forested lands are being diverted for setting up of wind farms without any EIA studies and as per the CSE report on “Green Norms for wind power” it is estimated that about 3,932 ha of forests have already been diverted for wind power projects. Besides this, there are instances where wind farms have resulted in high bird mortality and disturbed avian habitat.

A large-scale shift to solar energy underscores the urgency of understanding their environmental and socio-economic interactions. The solar farms require large tracks of contiguous land (one-two hectares per MW) and the availability of land is a contentious issue in a dense and populous country like India. Thus such projects come in conflict with the local communities and conservation interests. Solar farms are also very water intensive, approximately 110 milliliters of water per kilowatt hour is required for cleaning solar panels. Another cause of worry is the amount of hazardous and toxic e-waste that is generated out of the solar panels at the end of their life.

This is not to portray that the renewable energy projects should be discarded but to sensitise that a poor understanding of these impacts may cause a serious disaster in the long run, put question marks on the status of renewable energy as ‘Green Energy’ and eventually hinder the progress of renewable energy. Though, the environmental and social impacts of solar and wind energy systems is a controversial and debatable topic, but the seeds of the next energy economy must be sown now as the implications of today's decisions will influence India's energy future for decades.

The Festival is for a few days… Nature is forever…

India, as we proudly call is a land of cultural diversity. We take pride in showcasing this diversity to the whole world. People of different religions live together with harmony in India and celebrate different festivals at various occasions throughout the year. Festival is a celebration of the changing seasons, harvest, reconciliation, the birth anniversaries of saints and honor to the gods & goddesses.

Festivals are meant for the purpose of celebration. But somehow we are deviating from the ways festivals should ideally be celebrated.  We changed the traditional way of celebrating festivals. Looking back into history, Diwali was never celebrated by burning crackers and Holi was never celebrated by wasting a lot of water. Modernization has utterly changed the face of celebrating festivals. Although the intention of any festival is not to harm any natural thing but these days things are getting out of hand. Even the founders of this auspicious festivals, would be amazed and surprised to witness the current trend of celebrating festivals. They would be ashamed to see the adverse impact we are making on the surrounding environment under the name of mere celebration.

The season of festivals starts off with “Makar Sankranti” in January. The rampant use of China made plastic strings while kite flying has become a nightmare for the birds and the plants. Severely injured and dead birds trapped in Chinese manja lying on roads have become a common sign during this festival. These sharp manja is even more dangerous for vehicle riders and some serious accidents have happened in the recent past causing innocent deaths. There is nobody to keep a watch on this and we are also busy enjoying the fun quotient during kite flying. In the name of celebration and enjoyment, we are simply damaging the ecological balance of the nature.

As the year progresses, March starts off with a colorful Holi. Even holi has become a great concern for the nature in terms of air and water pollution. The colorful holi is overtaken by commercialization with the advent of artificial colors which is not only harmful to the human skin but also dangerous for the water bodies and soil. The burning of fuel wood in order to perform the Holi bonfire (Holika Dahan) is another factor that raises a factor of concern. Useful fuel wood is wasted during this festival, this not only leads to the cutting of trees but also unnecessary air pollution in return. Instead of wooden logs, it would be ideal if people use this holika dahan for burning their waste material. These would not only result in keeping their surroundings clean but also in conserving nature.

‘Ganesh Festival’ and ‘Durga Puja’ are also major festivals celebrated across the country. The water pollution caused by the immersion of POP idols into natural bodies is hazardous for both human and aquatic life. Besides this noise pollution, traffic congestion, increased consumerism and rise of acid content in lakes are some of the indirect effects of this festival on the system. Even Lokmanya Tilak, the founder of Ganesh festival would be surprised to witness the changed nature of festival.

As the year comes to an end, there comes the festival of lights and crackers. Diwali celebration adds up to air and noise pollution enormously. Burning of crackers lead to harmful emission of chemicals which indirectly is a cause for hazardous diseases. . Not only the humans, but animals and birds are also affected due to air and noise pollution.

These are just to name a few majorly celebrated festivals and their devastating effects on the environment. Similarly, there are many more festivals where people blindly look for the “fun” part but do not care about the consequences of their actions. The significant purposes of festivals are being overlooked, causing harm to both Indian culture and environment. Here the problem is pollution, not the festivals. So, it would be prudent not to think of banning the festivals, instead we need to adopt eco-friendly practices to stop pollution from festivals. Like introduction of eco-friendly idols painted with natural colors; use of permanent idols made of stone and perform a symbolic immersion and reuse the idol each year; a dry and natural colors; lighting Diyas instead of lights during Diwali and saying No to crackers etc.

Celebration is good when done in a right manner. The real message and real purpose of festivals haven’t been properly propagated to the recent generations. We need to change our mindsets and ideologies towards a better and sustainable celebration of festivals in sync with nature. Real wisdom behind celebrating festivals lies in valuing the nature created by the divine and not in exploiting it. Let us be the agent of change, take responsibility and motivate people to celebrate festive occasions in a joyful, meaningful and eco-friendly manner.

“Waste to Wealth” : ‘Think locally, Act globally’

What was a waste land two year back behind our quarters at Kanpur is now a source of fresh vegetables and banana leaves. It is noteworthy to mention about the guy named 'Dhiren' who was chiefly instrumental in giving it a facelift by his sincerity and hard work. Dhiren, who was studying in 12th class wanted some livelihood for him to support his family and gardening proved to be the solution for him. Because of his workmanship and sincere nature, he has been employed by four more houses for developing kitchen gardens and now he earns respectfully to support his studies & family.

Such kind of terrace & kitchen garden not only provides fresh veggies but adds to the positivity and beauty of living space. Attached picture speaks volumes about his work.

India has so much of waste land and innumerable unemployed Dhiren's in search for a meaningful vocation. Can people like us give them the lead and positive directions?? 

Often, we talk about big things and miss out on small actions at individual or local level. As social activist Howard Zinn once said, “We don't have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.”