The Earth Hour joke

As you read these lines, the Earth Hour 2011 would have concluded in India. The global event is meant to create awareness about the need to take action against climate change and it involves turning off non-essential lights and other electrical appliances for an hour on the last Saturday of March every year. In a country where people are subjected to long power outages throughout the year, it is a cruel joke that takes tokenism to the realm of absolute absurdity. It highlights not only the intellectual poverty of environmental activism in our country, but also the fragmentation of the modern mind throughout the world.

As glamorous local celebrities are enlisted to promote such useless global activities in the name of creating awareness, the real issues are brushed under the carpet. The need for creating environmentally sound policies is buried under the glitzy hullabaloo of special events organised to mark the occasion. Politically correct speeches are made, a show is made of planting saplings or conducting painting competitions on the theme, prizes are distributed, and after much mutual praise, the participants and torchbearers of environmental protection go home satisfied that they've done their bit. The question is: How effective are these awareness raising gimmicks in actually addressing the problems they highlight?

According to a news report, the Earth Hour is to be marked by an event at the Parliament House as well. As the lights are switched off and platitudes thrown about, resolving to protect the environment, no questions will be asked about why every single megawatt of power generation capacity added by the present government is dependent on fossil fuels. There will be a lot of breast-beating about what is happening to the environment, and the government would mouth its sincerity to the cause, but it will not tell us why it has not taken any concrete steps to harness the abundant environment-friendly alternative energy sources or the time-tested hydel-power, instead of opting for one hazardous and expensive power plant after another.

The Environmental Protection Agency and departments will join the professional environmentalists in upholding the cause and undertaking token activities considered to be good for the environment or to raise awareness, but they will not answer for the violation of environmental laws that take place right under their environment-friendly noses; violations that are destroying the environment much faster than their Earth Hour and other similar showcase activities could possibly handle. Rather than wasting their time, energy and resources on such window-dressing, wouldn't it be better for those entrusted with the task of protecting the environment to do the job that they are paid by the taxpayers to do?