I would like to start with an observation: Have you ever seen a bird’s nest on a cellphone or microwave tower? You would not – Radiation from the towers affects them. The honeybees are becoming fast extinct. When they leave their home to collect nectar from flowers, sometimes far away, they use magnetic navigation, built in their system, to come back. But these towers disorient them and they go missing.
Humankind, instead of protecting the environment and ecology as stewards, has exploited it indiscriminately and we are now facing our own extinction along with the environmental disaster. There is warning of disaster as the writing on the wall.
According to NASA, the polar ice caps are melting at an alarming rate of 9% per decade. The thickness of the Arctic Ice has decreased by 40% since the 1960s. According to scientists at the U.S. Center for Atmospheric Research, if the current rate of global temperature rise continues, the Arctic Ice will completely melt by 2040. Further, antarctica at the South Pole has about 90% of the world’s ice (which is 70% fresh water for our global supply). The ice covering is around 2,000 meters thick. It extends to almost 14 million square kilometers – about the size of the U.S.A and Mexico combined. If all this ice melted, the sea will rise by 60 meters! And many parts of the world would disappear, getting submerged in the sea.
World Economic Forum expressed its concern last year that water scarcity, that is lack of fresh water resources, as one of the largest global risk over the next decade. Two-thirds of the global population, namely 4 billions of our fellow human beings, suffer from severe water scarcity at least one month of the year. Another half a billion people face similar situation all year round. And half of the world’s most populated cities experience acute water shortage. Only about 0.014% of water available and accessible is fresh. Otherwise, about 97% of the water is saline, which is not good for consumption. Industry-exploitation of water resources has escalated the water crisis. By 2030, demand of drinking water is going to exceed the supply by over 40%.
Already a year ago, Cape Town in South Africa became the first city in the world to run out of water. The Govt declared ‘Zero Hour’, a drought condition, where water supply was cut for three-fourth of the population. Due to climate change, you experience either drought or floods – This is the scenario we experience practically every year in India as well, especially in the north. At this rate, it was amusingly said that by 2050 the children would ask their grand fathers pointing out to the metal pipes around the house. And the Grandpa would say: These were water pipes and when you opened the valve water used to come for the plants and to washing etc. By then, it is predicted, there won’t be water to wash our clothes and so people would use use-and-throw-dresses, which itself would create stinking junk problems.
Air pollution is another factor that is causing panic. Just as in Japan, people would soon have, in cosmopolitan cities such as Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Chennai, clear air kiosks to breathe in clean air. Air pollution could be harmful even when it is not visible. New scientific studies show that some pollutants could be harmful to public health even at low levels. In the west, during the flowering season, high pollen count causes throat infection. Long- and short-term exposures to fine particle pollution can result in premature death and could be the cause for cardiovascular system, including heart attack and strokes. Fine particle pollution is harmful to respiratory system. Ozone can induce asthma attacks, might aggravate lung diseases leading to even permanent damage to lungs through long-term exposure. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide too cause such damages. Airborne lead pollution could induce neurological effects in children, such as behavioral problems, learning deficits and lower IQ etc. And this could result in high blood pressure and heart diseases for adults.
We need to address the ill effects that affect our home, the Mother Earth. The General Congregation, the highest legislative body of the Jesuits, during its 36th session held in 2017 has asserted the need to take care of our Common Home. “Pope Francis has emphasized the fundamental connection between the environmental crisis and the social crisis in which we live today. Poverty, social exclusion, and marginalization are linked with environmental degradation. These are not separate crises but one crisis that is a symptom of something much deeper: the flawed way societies and economies are organized (GC 36 D2/29).
The universal concern today is creating green initiatives to ensure healthy environment both for nature and for ourselves. The Jesuit Madurai Province has indicated as one of the five priorities for the next decade (2019-2029), ‘preserving and protecting the environment’. Every college campus, as it is the anvil of making a new culture of environmental protection, is the important and effective forefront of progressive ideas and programs, with workable models to implement. This is the case when it comes to Loyola Campus.
Loyola has created a sustainable Waste Management Program that will address various forms of waste through an integrated transformation cycle, resulting in usable energy – Cooking gas and chemical free food. Loyola Biogas Plant aims at extracting biogas from kitchen waste generated from Loyola campus. It is estimated around One ton waste. A state-of-the-art biogas plant has been constructed, which is processing all the food scraps in a hygienic and environmental friendly way. The produced gas is used as cooking gas in the Loyola hostel kitchen. The slurry output from the biogas plant is combined with dry leaves and garden scraps resulting in a high quality manure through composting.
Over 100 percolation wells have been built to harvest Rain Water in order to recharge the ground water. Loyola has established effective Solar Power Plants and they are successfully generating electricity from solar power. On a regular basis plantation is being done all over the campus.
Loyola campus is a mini sanctuary: One could find about 35 species of birds; and at least 12 species of butterflies, according to our survey conducted in 1998. Now it has grown richer and greener. The recent survey indicates that there are 28 species of trees in Loyola Campus, numbering to about 1,100 trees.
Today we need to convince ourselves that if we live we live with our environment, and if we die we shall die with our environment. And so for our continued health and for the healthy ecological system we need to work with diligence. I am sure that this workshop on ‘Biodiversity and Climate Change’ would throw light on the present scenario and the future steps to be taken. I appreciate the efforts of Dr Selvanayagam, the Dean of Research, and the LICET management for giving importance to the need of the hour. I wish the workshop all success.
Francis P Xavier SJ