My name is XXX XXX, I live in a small town in India. The reason you see the XXX is because my personal details are not important and I don’t want to take credit for what I have done. Actually I haven’t done anything. I just made a tiny contribution to stop someone or rather something, from doing something wrong (in my opinion of course).
I am sharing a course of action that I took to support Greenpeace and oppose Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC).
I work for a foreign company (can’t mention the name, it’s against company policy) and my salary goes to my HSBC account. To support Greenpeace’s ongoing campaign against the Jaitapur nuclear power project in India, I wrote to the nodal officer through my online banking account. Here’s what my email said.
"Hi,
You may find this email unusual, well it is.
This mail is in support of "Greenpeace" and against HSBC's decision to fund Jaitapur nuclear plant.
I officially declare that I will close down my account if HSBC continues to fund this project. Most probably your reply will be, ‘you have nothing to do with it’ or ‘you can't do anything about it’.
Well that's understandable, even I can't do much about it but I am doing what I can. I expect the person reading this mail to behave in a similar way; it's not about you and me it's about us.
This is my salary account and I promise next month's salary will not be credited in this account till I am sure HSBC withdraws its funding.
Try and let HSBC's big shots know about this.
Thanks."
Here are a few reasons why I did this:
1. Those who know what nuclear energy is and what happens to the nuclear material will know that it is not safe. What is the life of any radioactive material? Well mathematically it’s eternity. Don’t be surprised, it’s true. Only organisations created by humans have put a safe limit to its exposure. There are safe renewable energy options which are cheaper and sustainable. They can help us meet our energy requirements without threatening our lives.
2. Consider this simple maths - what are the chances of the nuclear plant facing an emergency like in Japan? Is it zero? Can’t be zero because it has happened before. So according to probability its chances are non-zero. Even if the chance is minimal (like our ministers say, who are not mathematicians by the way), the risk involved is really high. So why would we want to risk a nuclear emergency in our country, when we know that it will impact generations?
There are some of us who understand this really well, and there are some of us who don’t. Maybe that is the reason why some of us are reluctant to support what I am supporting right now. It’s okay not to know or understand something. But it’s not okay not to trust someone who knows.
Greenpeace as far as I know, and as far as I have seen some of its activists, is doing the correct thing. Some people think that Greenpeace hinders everything and does nothing. To understand Greenpeace, you have to look deeper into all things they go against. There are a lot of environmental crimes happening on this earth and they oppose that. At the same time they work to promote solutions like renewable energy which do not hurt the environment.
What’s wrong with opposing something that is wrong? Repeat that question and you’ll realise, that there is nothing wrong with it.
The author of this blog is a Greenpeace supporter.