india

Updated: Aug 26, 2019 05:12 IST

The Amazon Rainforest is on fire, and we are all deeply disturbed. This horrific catastrophe holds a few lessons for us in India.

Our most precious environmental hotspots can become everyone’s business. If Indians are torn up over Brazil’s environmental catastrophe, then the rest of the world can be expected to be-mourn our big environmental losses. If we accept sympathy from world leaders for natural disasters, we can also expect to hear their shock if the best of our forests, grasslands or wetlands are harmed. In short, in the age of climate change, such treasures are no longer ours alone. The world collectively needs them to survive. India has to be mindful of a changing world that will comment on what we’ve understood as sovereign issues till now.

Secondly, we are also an impacted party. Just because Brazil is far away doesn’t mean the pollution won’t reach us. Particulate matter from China have hit Los Angeles and persistent pollutants have been found in Innuits of the Arctic-adrift from the nether regions of North America. Also, the lost forest means less carbon will be absorbed, leaving all of us more vulnerable to the climate crisis.

(The writer is the founder and director of the Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group)