World Environment Foundation

Millions of people across the globe have joined hands to launch the biggest ever drive to combat climate change. The human chain will extend from Australia to Alaska spanning different continents to draw attention to the catastrophe of climate change. The chain cmmenced from Palampur in Himachal Pradesh on 9 June 2006. 2500 environmental enthusiasts and participants of the 8th World Congress on Environment Management participants in it. The chains around the world were participated by former prime ministers and parliamentarians.

Speaking to newsmen on the occassion, Dr. Madhav Mehra, President World Environment Foundation said “humanity is facing its biggest ever crisis far beyond its collective capacity to solve. Launching of Global Human Chain is a wake up call for businesses, governments and other organisations that their very existence is threatened by deteriorating eco systems and they must take radical and proactive action to minimize greenhouse gases” which are the cause of global warming.

Dr. Mehra asserted, “A bizarre irony lurks behind the climate change debate. It is not realized that Climate Change can be halted not at cost but profit. Investments in improving energy efficiency and on renewals can offer rich dividends to companies. Solar cells have started becoming competitive for household electricity generation in villages unconnected by electric grids. Wind electricity generation promises to become the foundation of a new eco-economy. Advances in wind turbine technology have lowered the cost of wind power. Wind electricity can be harnessed to electrolyte water to produce hydrogen, the fuel for highly efficient fuel engines”.

Shri Suresh Prabhu former Union Minister for Environment said " Dr Mehra's 11 point programme named PROACTIVATE was the need of the hour to combat climate change and regenerate environment.

PROACTIVATE is an acronym that stands for :

P is Price all natural capital. Paul Hawken in his book “Natural Captalism” quotes that scientists operating the Biosphere 2 experiment in Arizona (USA) discovered that even the investment of $200 million on it was inadequate to maintain life-support levels of Oxygen for eight people living inside. Our planet performs this task daily at no charge for 6 billion people. Once we are conscious of the cost of the natural capital we will be tempted to do many savings.

R is about radically increasing the productivity of natural resources especially efficiency of the energy usage. We should think how we can leapfrog existing technologies and wring hundred times more outpur from the same unit of energy.

O is for opting minimalist life styles. Americans use 80 tonnes of natural material per person per year, which is thirteen times that of developing countries. 80% of the world population cannot fulfill their basic needs. Minimalist life style while saving environment ensure there is enough for everyone.

A is for adoption of zero waste and closed loop systems. We need to learn from nature. Nature works in a closed loop system. Why with all our technology we cannot do the same Nature abhors waste. You never see a dead bird. All organic material is decomposed and nutrients are made available to living organisms. We must redesign our production processes, recycle everything and turn waste into raw material.

C is for capturing carbon dioxide from the air by planting forests. With new technology CO₂ can also by captured from concentrated waste streams like emissions from power plants and burying it out of harm’s way in geological formations.

T is for turning to renweables and decarbonisation. To combat climate change we need to start lowering the rate of usage of fossil fuels, the source of 84% of America’s and 75% of the world’s energy.

I is for investing in green technologies and green stock. Investors are already clamping down on emitters of greenhouse gases and going for green-stock for long term. Royal Dutch/Shell considers it “highly probable” that over the next half century, renewables could provide half the world’s energy requirement.

V is vigorous pursuit of good governance system that uses market mechanism to make polluters pay. Eight Nobel Laureates and some twenty seven hundred fellow economists have concluded: that market oriented polices to protect the climate by saving energy can substantially raise living standards and benefit the economy.

A is for activating women groups & teenagers the two sections of society who can drive social change.

T is train everyone to eco-innovate to cause least environmental impact. In every action we need to be guided by an eco-compass with six sides; minimize energy intensity; minimize material intensity; minimize toxicity; minimize use of scarce resources; minimize transportation; and recycle on revalorize everything.

E is execution. Nothing is going to happen until someone executes it. So begin the change with yourself. PROACTIVATE and save the climate. The alternative is to allow our planet to annihilate.