June 5 is World Environment Day:

Mind the Gap

Aditha Dissanayake

Think about it. Every passing second it becomes impossible not to worry about the environment. Just when you feel you know the height of those waves at Arugambay, the innocent bites of the mosquitoes in Sinharaja, the scenic view from the top of the Pidurutalagala mountains, they let you down. They change and turn into an incomprehensibly horrible tsunami, life threatening diseases and fatal landslides. Geologists agree this was true even before humans arrived, but no one can deny our constant digging, drilling, cutting and clearing have accelerated the process.

Like in an imaginary computer game. I am not sure if such a game really exists but for the time being let's imagine its called Mihikatha. In this make believe game, you get 1 point for every year that one human being is alive on planet Earth. The years begin from 1500 A.D and last for a 1000 years.

Just as in the real world, the survival of human beings depends on the people having access to food, water, shelter, safety and other essentials in this make believe game too. When the game begins, you have a planet with enormous untapped resources of fossil oil, water, forests, abundant ocean life and incredible biodiversity on land and sea. There are no humans at this stage.

As the game progresses and the years tick by, you start earning more and more points by introducing more and more humans onto the planet. At one point, you turn on the invention of the combustion engine coupled with the discovery of oil, and then things really begin to accelerate. Food production suddenly multiplies, making food resources incredibly cheap and abundant, leading to a population explosion.

As the points keep racking up, you watch as Mihikatha becomes increasingly taken over by humans. The forests are cut down and replaced with farm lands. The once-abundant populations of wild animals are replaced by concrete highways and housing developments. Oil drilling rigs pump out a heavy portion of the planet's remaining oil resources.

Population growth

Your points are really accelerating now as you watch the human population blow past four billion people, then five, and then six. At that point, on-screen statistics begin to flash red, warning you that world's oil, water, food, soil and ocean health are all reaching critical levels of deficiency. Although you are earning big points from all the human activity, the environmental cost of supporting all those people is now threatening the ecological stability of the planetary ecosystem.

It is at this point you realize that, to beat the high score, you need to keep your human population alive at some level for the next 500 years, and yet the planet's resources are running out, reaching depletion in just 50 years or less. What should you do?

You decide to just watch and see what happens. With your eyes fixed on the screen, the years tick past. Twenty-five years further into the future, the oil runs out, leaving the humans to face an energy crisis. Without cheap, plentiful oil, food production grinds to a halt. Mass starvation takes hold in just one year, leading to disease and the unleashing of a global epidemic. Over the next five years, the human population suffers a massive, catastrophic death rate, plummeting to less than a billion people. Your once-awesome score now looks pitiful. Human civilization has crashed. Game over.

This is surely the outcome facing modern human civilization. But the truth is, this is no game. The possibility is very real. Unless something drastic is done to find a balance between human consumption and the natural environment that supports us all, planet earth is going to crash, too.

How can the human species save itself from its own destruction? Prof. Hiran Amarasekera, Head, Department of Forestry and Environment Science, University of Sri Jayawardenapura, believes the answer lies in turning ourselves into Low Impact Individuals. "Environmentally friendly living not only helps the planet - giving a lighter ecological footprint - but also provides you a healthy, simple and more economical lifestyle," says Prof. Amarasekera. "Just a few small changes in your day to day life will be helpful in addressing some of the global issues such as global warming and also local issues such as solid waste disposal, energy crisis, land degradation and water scarcity."

Environmentally- friendly living

Echoing the words of Henry David Thoreau who, at the age of 28 moved into the tiny cabin he had built at Walden Pond, cleared a field near the cabin (the land belonged to his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson)and planted beans and potatoes and turnips with the aim of stripping life to the bare necessities claiming his acts of self-denial, denied him nothing; while the townspeople toiled away, slaves to their debts and accumulated furniture, Prof. Amarasekera too encourages environmentally responsible Thoreau -like living today in the 20th century. "Anyone can start environmentally friendly living by doing simple things at home such as switching off unnecessary lights and appliances, repair broken taps, save water by turning off the tap when water is not used i.e when shaving or brushing your teeth."

Among the advice Prof. Amarasekera gives are simple decisions like thinking before you buy at the supermarkets or shopping malls, because reducing the amount we consume is the first step in reducing waste. Using reusable goods such as reusable bags (bags made of biodegradable materials instead of non-degradable bags) would also be of immense help when it comes to leading a "low impact life".

Other methods that could be used include utilizing a compost bin to recycle kitchen waste as recycling will reduce the amount of garbage you dispose as municipal waste. "About 85% of what we throw out from households are easily biodegradable waste which will provide us fertilizer for our gardens at no cost. A compost bin takes up maximum 1 sq. m from your garden space. These containers are available in plastic, concrete or metal in many sizes and to suit your budget." Explains Prof. Amarasekera.

He also reminds us that we can adhere to "Green living in the digital age" by using both sides of the paper in printing and photocopying. "In printing documents, print only the portion that is essential after editing. Replace e-mail for normal mail wherever possible. Going digital saves time, paper, storing space and is so much more easy to access than conventional methods of storing." He adds, "It is trendy too!"

Eating locally, as it has become known, has many virtues, he points out. It reduces greenhouse-gas emissions, helps small farmers, and probably encourages a healthier diet. (Who really knows where asparagus come from?). "Consume Sri Lankan products" advices Prof. Amarasekera.

After all, it is better to take small steps on behalf of the planet than to do nothing at all. But the hitch is will this be enough? Will these steps or even bigger ones taken on a global scale, help prevent the drastic effects of population growth, greenhouse-gas emissions, logging, overfishing, and, as Prof. Amarasekera tries to straighten out, sheer self-indulgence? Are we not too late already? Can we reverse the process we have instigated in bringing about an ecological catastrophe of unparalleled scope and significance?

There seems no way around it. Planet Earth is on a track headed straight for destruction. A world-wide collapse is coming sometime this century.

Correct me if I am wrong. I do hope I am wrong.

[email protected]