We are witness to climate change in our own lives: the sun has got hotter and the rains as unpredictable as a new bride. The subject is no longer a concern for scientists and decision makers for it’s we who will bear the brunt sooner rather than later.
Nobody understands this better than Ms. Padmaja Mitra, a petite 28 year old software professional in Bangalore. Her credentials are impressive too; engineering from BITS, Pilani and Masters from IIM, Bangalore. She has a one year baby and it’s as happy nest.
I am her colleague in BPL electronics and we are family friends. The “Mitras” visit us on festivals and her husband would join me for cricket matches at the Chinnaswami.
Padmaja visited us on Deepavali and it was quite unforgettable as I got some lessons on climate change. We were talking in the study while the TV blared in the drawing room. Padmaja immediately went to switch it off chiding,” Electricity should not be wasted”.
I foolishly remarked that such acts are trivial and makes no difference when world leaders do nothing to either reduce greenhouse gases or even sign the Kyoto treaty.
This time I had a real dressing down, “Gautam, we have less than 10 years to save the planet. The earth’s atmosphere is a fragile thing and soon there won’t be Polar bears in Alaska as the forest cover diminish. We are clogging the atmosphere with more of carbon dioxide that what the planet can handle”
“Each one of us can make a difference; like at least switching off the computer at the end of the day and the monitor if it’s not required in the next couple of hours”.
I knew better not to argue with her and soon she started an eco-club in the office for enlisted people on environment protection. She compiled a list of dos-don’ts and distributed it to everyone in the company including the CEO and COO.
Drive less:
Use car only IF necessary. Walk to the near by grocery store, if not use a bicycle and never use a motored vehicle for visiting anyone in the neighbourhood.
Use walking/cycling, 2 wheeler, 4 wheeler in that order of preference. Try using a bus at least once a week.
Check the mileage of your vehicle and get it serviced regularly. Use AC as sparingly as possible in the car.
Save electricity
Use ONLY energy saving CF bulbs. Switch off lights/fans when not in the room. Use zero watt bulbs in the areas like balconies that could do with basic lighting.
It is better to switch off the electrical appliance than leave it in stand by mode (Instead of switching off the TV with a remote, switch off at the power button).
Go solar for your hot water requirements and straightway your electricity bill would drop by 30%. The installation is costly but that’s the reason govt gives loans at 2% interest rate!
Save water
Make sure you/your family members/servant maid don’t leave the taps open when not required.
When using a fully automatic washing machine, use it at full load as much as possible. It would save lot of water and electricity.
Get rain water harvesting done at your building/apartment complex. It is easy, not expensive, efficient way of re-charging the ground water.
Soon Padmaja succeeded in persuading the management that they must bear the expenses of planting 500 saplings in each city before the onset of monsoon and expenses incurred in maintenance for the first three years as the plants sprout.
Today, these projects have given the company so much of positive publicity that we are planning to educate our customers as well.
It just takes one committed individual to set the ball rolling and thank God for the Padmajas of the world.
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