Greenpeace volunteers unfurl a banner in front of the municipal corporation of mumbai demanding that they become Energy efficiecnt for mumbai.
In the drama of real life, the good times have run out and the early warning signs are here. Some scientists like John Lovelock tell us that we are past repair and hurtling towards the end. Even if that were the Truth, I wouldn’t want to give up. You can read the crisis here but I’d rather, you put your bit for the solution because it’s also equally important to get real and act.
Our very survival is at stake, and Mumbaikars better sit up and count the raindrops and connect it with the 71kg per capita carbon dioxide we emit each year. Boom or bust our Shanghai dreams will depend on our carbon score and the choices we make as produces, distributors and consumers of energy. But first, let us acknowledge that with 900 plus mm rainfall and a loss of 296 lives just behind us, 26/7 is no freak incident.
No one knows what is round the corner next; except that Dr. Pachauri who leads a team of over 2500 scientists at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change at the United Nations warns that climate change will disrupt weather patterns and make our rains, floods, storms, cyclones and droughts more intense and severe.
Every Mumbaikar must now question the BMC’s capacity and ability to lead us and prepare us to meet the next climate change induced crisis. But first things first, the BMC must know yeh climate change kya hai and what has it got to do with the flood causing heavy rains?
Which is why, at grave personal risk young volunteers decided to unfurl a banner at the doors of the BMC to demand that it urgently wake up and act. We were shocked to discover that as of this moment, the BMC did not have the slimmest shed of comprehension about the nature of the beast that is looming at our door. This clueless state of affairs is a crisis of its own, a wheel within a wheel. We were shocked that the solution they prescribe to the crisis is an investment of Rs.1200 crore over five years to improve storm water drains. This is band aid for a patient in the ICU. Too little, totally thoughtless, and very, very irresponsible.
We therefore nailed the problem at the BMC doorstep. They will now know and learn to make the connections that cause the climate change crisis and comprehend the true enormity of catastrophe before us. It is a global warning and the Mumbai floods are one manifestation too close to be ignored any more.
We therefore installed road signs outside the BMC building. These hazard signs depict scenes of trauma that a Mumbaikar has been through and warn that a Mumbaikar’s life has a ‘Climate Change Zone Ahead’. The signs are a citizen’s demand to the BMC that Mumbaikars expect a blueprint and a road map on how the custodians of the city plan to prepare us for the worst and navigate us safely through the climate crisis.
The BMC reacted immediately. Security asked Greenpeace volunteers to disband, quickly dismantled the signs and took them away from sight. We now expect that the BMC address the crisis with similar promptness. It will be costly for Mumbaikars if the climate change crisis is not a firm priority on the city agenda.
It is time the BMC quickly pulled up its climate change rain induced soaked socks and got its act together.
Starting September 20, the BMC is on notice. It now knows the problem. And there is a solution too. Citizens have begun to Switch for Mumbai in small ways. It is now for the BMC to do its part. Mumbaikars will hold the BMC accountable and see how it acts to rally the city to fight the climate change crisis.