The Economic shutdown has had two
types of impact on our lives - negative & positive. the negative impacts
meant loss of jobs, reduction in income, loss of business and in a few cases,
complete closure of certain business models. On the other hand, the positive
effects are rather long lasting and long awaited such as drastically reduced
pollution levels, significantly improved air & water quality, saving of
fuels, shift of focus from unhealthy foods to healthy ones, less wastage and an
overall contained life. Ofcourse, the pandemic has proved to be a great
tribulation to various sectors of society especially the policemen, doctors,
administrators, migrant laborers and gig workers, but what we got in return was
nothing less than phenomenal - a worldwide detox.
What we need
to do now is to take these change of events in our stride and start a new way
of life. We need to let go off the previous state of toxicity and adopt a new
one - one where emphasis is placed on necessity over extravagance. Now that we
have been given an opportunity to amend our ways, one of the key areas for a
rethink would be the dependence on fossil fuels. We already know that fossil
fuels greatly contributes to environmental pollution and exploitation of
nature, yet we continue to do so offsetting health hazards. One should remember
that Covid-19 has been known to exacerbate existing respiratory and other
health conditions often caused due to toxic air. In fact, according to a
research, the death toll in China could have been more had their pollution
levels been regular which are way beyond acceptable levels.
Promote Bio fuels
According to a report from the
International Institute for Sustainable Development’s (IISD’s) Global Subsidies
Initiative and the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (Ceew), 56% of
India’s energy comes from coal, 36% comes from oil & gas, while a mere 3%
comes from renewable energy. The study urges the Union government to use the
pandemic as an excuse to calibrate wasteful subsidies and target investment
towards renewable fuel schemes to balance our fuel consumption and give an
impetus to the ethanol industry. By concentrating more on enhancing and
promoting the ethanol production process in India, we will achieve our
target of 20% blending in the next 10 years. Not only will using ethanol reduce
the cost of procurement and our reliance on imported crude oil, but will also
reduce carbon emissions, carbon footprint, create more rural jobs, make good
use of sugar mills, and make us self sustainable in the long run.
Turn Waste into Wealth
On the bio-energy front, we can
use solid waste that is bio-composted, vermin-composted or anaerobically
digested, based on bio-recycling methods. The Bio-energy plant would
provide a cost-effective means of generating organic manure and megawatts of
bioenergy, respectively. Successfully running biogas programs across our
villages and nearly 100MW worth of biomethanation plant across
cities such as Delhi, Chennai, and Hyderabad are proof of their success for
Indian conditions. A mandatory drive for household-level waste segregation
across urban India would thus be an essential first step.
Just like an
occasional fast helps our bodies purge out toxins and regenerate, the This
economical detox brought down by COVID-19 will have scrubbed our environment
clean and handed us the opportunity for a restart.
