As per the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the world is in emergency mode amid the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature & biodiversity loss, and pollution & waste. The panic button is already pressed and the urgency to protect Mother Earth is now more important than ever as we are heading for the irreversible process of self-annihilation.
Governments, globally have sounded a war cry against environment degradation setting an aggressive agenda to reduce carbon emissions in a time bound manner, but how far the corporate driven political infrastructure across nations will walk the talk is a matter of concern.
Now the only hope to save our planet rests with the billions of inhabitants here who serve as mega markets for the profit driven promoters of mindless consumerism. They need to differentiate between need and greed. The theme of this year’s World Environment Day: – living sustainably in harmony with nature – is a distress call that we all need to attend to.
One entity who is spearheading the movement of creating awareness and motivation campaigns in this regard is Moradabad’s renowned philanthropist and educationist Dr. Arvind Goel. A visionary who has saved thousands from the gnashing teeth of poverty and brought the light of education into millions of homes in the last three decades is deeply concerned with the way humans are ravaging ecosystems. But the man gifted with the divine power of healing touch and armed with the prayers of hundreds and thousands of the poor whose lives he’s changed for the better, has wholeheartedly taken up monumental task to heal our world.
Through his inspiring lectures at the seminars all over the world and in the hundreds of educational institutions he helps run all over the country, Arvind Goel is silently instilling the importance to save our planet in the minds of our populations.
Taking a cue from Mahatma Gandhi’s take on the exploits of consumerism, Goel’s narratives are centered around the idea that the mother earth has enough for man’s needs but not for his greed. Sustainable development must distinguish between need and greed. While poor developing countries need to step up their economic growth simply to live, the developed countries, who have already exploited the planet’s resources for centuries, must tone down their consumption levels. A balance between the consumption of the rich and that of the poor needs to be struck. Technological solutions alone cannot provide the answer to emissions. A mindset change is required. The climate justice argument, which seems to have gone out of fashion, needs to be brought back in discourse and action if global emissions are to be controlled.
At a point when the World Environment Day is seen more as an opportunity for attention seekers who leave no stone unturned to project themselves as environment savers, far away from the flashing cameras and limelight, Arvind Goel is silently building an ever-expanding dedicated workforce that’s reforesting barren lands, cleaning water bodies, making provisions for birds to sustain in individual homes, sensitising farmers against stubble burning, promoting the culture of water harvesting in houses and institutions, etc.
Goel is also drafting an elaborate plan to weave in employment opportunities with sustainable environment care plans and suggesting government many more environment cum employment friendly projects for a country life India with a huge population. One plan that Goel always praises and takes inspiration from is the erection of toilets for half the country in the last seven years.
