Summits after summits, Conferences after conferences, at national as well as international levels, concerning welfare of the mankind are being held on a day today basis across nations transcending boundaries. Terrorism, Climate- change, Bio-diversity, Economy, all are subjects needing urgent attention besides other subjects of importance. Negotiations, deliberations, consultations through interactions are the only ways out for something substantial to come out, something positive to emerge albeit slowly and gradually. Besides the aforesaid subjects, sports, cultural activities, tourism etal are all prominent avenues towards improving relations between nations.
In the run-up to the Cancun Summit on Climate-change, a summit on bio-diversity Conference on Bio-Diversity (CBD) was recently held at Nagoya, Japan attended by 193 nations. Heated discussions, arguments, debates, took place amidst concerns of bio-diversity facing serious threats under a hostile environment. Many of them already extinct due to the criminal apathy of mankind. As the threat of extinctions looming large before everyone's eyes, naturally the seriousness of the situation dawned upon each nation belatedly and all began to think on the lines of rescuing the bio-diversity from total extinction. Hence the discussions, debates, consultations and deliberations hold the centre-stage. While the discussions and deliberations gain momentum, the ways of tackling the threat came up and the need for technical and financial assistance to the needy countries naturally came up, still coming up among the nations assembling at the venue. All countries are supposed to be genuine in their approach, unfortunately the severe recession across US and European nations are pointed out as reasons for tightening their purse-strings. Naturally notwithstanding the gravity of the situation, here I refer the dwindling bio-diversity, the needy countries often end up receiving peanuts from those responsible ones. At present Asian and South East Asian countries comparatively better placed than their Western counterparts being aware of the serious consequences of the threat to bio-diversity do their utmost to save the situation. For instance Japan reportedly has earmarked US $ 2 billion dollars exclusively for protecting bio-diversity. Similarly a country like India known for its rich bio-diversity on facing serious threats due to variety of reasons is very particular in rescuing its rich 'wealth'. Moreover environmentalists and social activists like Medha Patkar, Arundhati Roy, Ramaswamy R Iyer, Sunitha Narayan, Sugatha Kumari and Dr.R.V.G.Menon, are vigorously keeping a close vigil and whenever ecological plunders by greedy men are being committed, never do such men care for the future of mankind, these environmentalists and social activists plunge into the arena and launch massive protests and agitations thus forcing the plunderers to withdraw from the scene. In addition to the environmentalists and activists many an environmentalist across the country has taken upon the mission of protecting our environment by the anti-environmentalists who claim round the clock, they are for development and for the development in society we should have to make sacrifices hence blindly opposing the 'pro-developmentalists' like them is foolish. But they infact, never care to ponder over the long-term consequences of destruction of forests and lush greenery, flora and fauna and other biological organisms getting choked to death by the venomous effluents being pumped into the rivers by the river-side factories waiting to affect us badly. Progress of a society infact means sustained development and that means co-existence of environment and progress. For the sake of one, one need not be and should not be sacrificed at the altar of development.
When I first happened to read about the Conference on Bio-Diversity Development (CBD), I was somewhat embarassed as whenever I thought about bio-diversity and the importance of protecting it that which naturally came to my mind was Climate-Change and Global warming. Actually bio-diversity and climate-change are in one way or other interlinked, the disaster caused by climate-change and global warming, naturally affects bio-diversity. The depletion of Ozone layer due to the greenhouse carbon emissions and the resulting rise of sea-levels posing threats to a few countries below sea-level getting submerged, the melting glaciers causing massive floods, destroying vast areas of crops across the nation followed by sweltering heat which brings about wide-spread droughts, rivers getting dried-up causing mass harm to bio-diversity, farmers forced to leave farming with the paddy and wheat fields turning barren, driving people to starvation and deaths, farmers finding no way out to continue with their tradition of farming, also due to their inability to remit their debts for the loans availed of from financial institutions often end up in availing loans from modern day Shylocks at sky-rocketing interest rates and upon arrears go on mounting up day by day find salvation in deaths by consuming pesticides or by hanging. All the aftermaths of man-made destruction of ecology in the name of progress. The climate-cycles like upset apple-carts, violate rules affecting the majority and also the rich bio-diversity.
CopenHagen Summit 2009 held in Denmark was a failure, a Himalayan failure, except for some platitudes, nothing positive worth mentioning emerged even after conferences after conferences - held in Delhi it was held by BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries sometime back, later in China it was held and our Minister for Environment and Forests, Jairam Ramesh attended the conference and after the discussions and deliberations Jairam Ramesh then and there predicted that 2010 Cancun Summit in Mexico in November will most certainly be another Copenhagen as he was not expecting a positive result. I think he went all the way to China to predict the outcome even before it being held to praise China and to make a dig at our Home Minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram.
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