Making sense of the world.
Posts tagged Environment
Urban Fall
Dec 14th
© Yurok Aleksandrovich | Dreamstime.com
The trees have all gone. Cut down ruthlessly in mindless greed. The soothing bird sounds replaced by the intrusive noise of construction machinery. The fresh cool breeze transformed into a soiled, discomforting oily presence leaving a fine layer of dust everywhere. The wide open space now jammed edge to edge with cement and steel. Right before my eyes, a suggestion of Eden has rapidly degraded into a stifling nightmare.
Another block of flats rises inexorably next to ours with no breathing space in between. We will soon be able to climb over our balcony into our future neighbor’s. In some of our rooms we will have to keep the lights on during the day. This is not just happening next to us. It seems to be happening everywhere. A city named for its once abundant banyan trees is busy digging its own grave and doing it with gaurav, pride, one step away from the proverbial fall.
Oasis? You Must Be Joking!
Oct 31st
The largest cruise liner yet built was launched from Finland on Friday, October 30. Oasis of the Seas is five times larger than Titanic and 40% larger than any other cruise ship in the world. It rises 20 stories high and stretches 1,200 feet. The ship accommodates 8,400 people on board. There are parks, squares, arenas, 12,000 plants, a 750-seat outdoor theater, an indoor theater seating 1,300, four swimming pools, volleyball and basketball courts, a mini golf course, and blah blah blah.
Exciting! Impressive! Symbol of man’s progress and dominion, or, is it destruction?
Why would someone sail on the high seas to play golf? Or volleyball? I lived a couple of decades in the mountain town of Manali. And saw people coming to this beautiful Himalayan paradise, supposedly on holiday, but holed up in their rooms watching movies and what not. Now, why would people do that? They could do that back home in Delhi or Mumbai, or wherever.
What about the 8000 people doing potty on board? That’s a lot. Where does it all go? It is claimed that none of the sewage will be discharged in the sea. Maybe that’s why they made it so big, so several day’s contributions could be carried and dumped, where? Your guess is as good as mine. I wonder how the dolphins feel about it. Like the little boy in Slumdog Millionaire running to meet Amitabh Bachhan.
What about the garbage? The fuel emissions? Looking at pictures of the ship and reading about it gives a disorienting feeling. Is there really an environmental crisis? Or a fuel crisis? Or an economic recession? All those economists and environmentalists must be joking. Or has the situation gotten so bad that you have to call this monstrosity the Oasis of the Seas. That’s irony.