Green pledge campaign

Some of you might be wondering why all of a sudden few guys have started cribbing and making hue and cry over environment and all. Well, its all for a simple reason that the saving environment is no more a social issue, it’s a humanity issue. Going forward, what kind of world do we want to leave for our future generations so that they look back on us and say “there lived a generation which made a conscious decision to change their daily lives for the better, or do we want to be remembered as the generation that turned on the heat blinded by our ruthless craze for domination over nature.

There is a concept of Gaia philosophy. According to it, Mother earth is a single unified organism; in this view the Earth's biosphere is consciously manipulating the climate in order to make conditions more conducive to life. It considers earth to be conscious, sentient, and highly intelligent, are usually considered outside the bounds of what is usually considered science. Richard Branson talks about it in his autobiography “Just do it“and wisely says that it is no matter a question of saving environment. It’s a matter of survival now. OUR SURVIVAL.



For anyone still wondering if the threat of global warming is real, here are some facts to substantiate it.

• Average temperatures have climbed 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (0.8 degree Celsius) around the world since 1880, much of this in recent decades, according to NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

• The rate of warming is increasing. The 20th century's last two decades were the hottest in 400 years and possibly the warmest for several millennia, according to a number of climate studies. And the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that 11 of the past 12 years are among the dozen warmest since 1850.

• The Arctic is feeling the effects the most. Average temperatures in Alaska, western Canada, and eastern Russia have risen at twice the global average, according to the multinational Arctic Climate Impact Assessment report compiled between 2000 and 2004.

• Arctic ice is rapidly disappearing, and the region may have its first completely ice-free summer by 2040 or earlier. Polar bears and indigenous cultures are already suffering from the sea-ice loss.

• Glaciers and mountain snows are rapidly melting—for example, Montana's Glacier National Park now has only 27 glaciers, versus 150 in 1910. In the Northern Hemisphere, thaws also come a week earlier in spring and freezes begin a week later.

• Coral reefs, which are highly sensitive to small changes in water temperature, suffered the worst bleaching—or die-off in response to stress—ever recorded in 1998, with some areas seeing bleach rates of 70 percent. Experts expect these sorts of events to increase in frequency and intensity in the next 50 years as sea temperatures rise.

• An upsurge in the amount of extreme weather events, such as wildfires, heat waves, and strong tropical storms, is also attributed in part to climate change by some experts.

[Source: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/12/1206_041206_global_warming.html]

Hence taking all of this into consideration, the objective of our Mission SOS is to sensitize the students junta towards living more greener way of living. Capitalism is alluring and adventurous, yet it has to be Balanced Capitalism.,. what use of resources if there aren’t conditions suitable for living.

As a part of our Mission SOS, we have started a Green pledge campaign. We encourage people to visit the link : http://pages.rediff.com/Mission-SOS/5084 and take a pledge about what activity would you follow or any activity which you have been following which is environment friendly.




Lastly to quote Al Gore,

“We sometimes emphasize the danger in a crisis without focusing on the opportunities that are there. We should feel a great sense of urgency because it is the most dangerous crisis we have ever faced, by far. But it also provides us with opportunities to do a lot of things we ought to be doing for other reasons anyway. And to solve this crisis we can develop a shared sense of moral purpose”

Regards,

Team Mission SOS