Confessions

I sat sipping my green tea.

A few kilometres from where I sat, a bridge distance away to be precise, scientists spoke about the sea level rising twice as fast as was initially predicted. No, I did not panic, even though the town where I live touches the ocean. As the hesitant, conservative, righteous men of science spoke in a tone louder than ever, in a prelude to the much touted Copenhagen summit to be held in the same city later this year, we people poured into our work, for most which involved kicking more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

My thoughts went back to the Ganges; I had only a year back taken a rafting trip across it, as I had done a year before that. The water level had gone down considerably, and no it was not because of the global warming, at least not entirely. An embankment was created further up, while setting up the sulphur rich river to generate electricity for energy poor town and villages. Nothing wrong with the thought, expect that it would lead to disappearing of some marine life, collection of some silt at the base of the dam, which will not transfer its richness to the soil further down the river, and I must mention, it would make the surrounding towns more vulnerable to the earthquakes.

My green tea is almost finishing. I should go and refill the antioxidant rich drink. Antioxidants are good for me, and I will live longer, perhaps long enough to witness the absence of tigers, whales, sharks, and thousands other species, of which I do not even know the names, forget seeing them. Or, am I simply paranoid? I should allege green tea, news reports and climate conference proceedings to possess hallucinogenic properties.

I often cross the Oresund Bridge on the way to work in Copenhagen. The decision to build this bridge took literally a lifetime, and building it took another eight years. The decision was constantly debated over on whether such a construction, which is half under water and half over it, would impact the marine life. Eventually, the governments decided to go ahead with the construction and the recently conducted studies showed that marine life has actually improved in the shallow water between Sweden and Denmark.

On the way, I look out of my train window and see the spread over wind farm in the middle of the ocean moving perpetually, in sync with its most wondrous and natural environs, as if creating, not harnessing, the most clean energy by itself. Amidst this all, the Oresund Bridge rises like a mythical structure. All this reminds me of the mountains and rivers back home. Why are we still not using the wind and the sun?

I remember last year, sometime in the early half, standing by myself in the City square in Copenhagen. It was a bit late in the day, and slowly the crowd was building up. The bunch grew a few times more than it usually is on a normal day and soon we stood next to each other as the lights went off. A statement was made; it was the Earth day.

A few months later on a bright, tiring, dry, very normal day, weary eyes popped up as I stepped into the Pudong airport in Shanghai. The airport, flanking a huge corner outside the city, reminded me of the spic European airports, and only when you start noticing the Chinese signs, sitting quietly next to the English ones, you realise that you are deep inside China. The expansive airport rightly serves as a precognition of the new city that lay beyond. And you think: well, we are reaching there, we are catching up.

Soon enough, I was in Gurgaon. On that day, the sun was long gone and the lights carried the smooth transmission to the dazzling brilliance. The sun is barely missed through the matrix of the street lights and neon signs. The city is lit up like a birthday party. Inside your conditioned energy devouring machine, on a crowded red light, sipping a fair trade coffee, the thought comes to you again: we are almost there.

You do not roll down the window, not to allow the toxic air in. You do not think of mountains and air, of the river, or rising ocean level (how would it impact you anyway?), of water scarcity, for you live in water rich neighbourhood that pumps gallons every minute from the common resource underneath, or of heat, which is just an inconvenient experience while walking from the parking lot to the cooled malls.

You do not think of being more responsible, being green is just a new fad (“my coffee is Oxfam, fair trade and 100% carbon neutral”).

I sip the last of the green tea. This is the greenest I have been today.

Author: Nitin Chaudhary