Embrace mother earth

Embrace mother earth

February 2024

Embrace  Mother  Earth 

Let’s not forego the environmentally friendly practices that  we adopted during the pandemic and continue to embrace  them for the sake of a healthier and more livable planet,  says Sujatha Rao 

As the lockdowns across the globe in 2020 and  2021 negatively impacted the way human  beings live and work, paradoxically, the air  pollution decreased in cities, and global emissions  went down by 7 per cent (as per Global Carbon Budget 2020). But without systemic changes, and  with the economic recovery, these emissions are  bouncing back.  

If there’s anything positive that we learned from the  tragedy of COVID-19, it is the reality of how little we  actually need in our lives.  

With the non-lockdown period opening only for a few  hours in the morning, and with only essential things  to sustain us, we discovered with renewed eyes, how  small that essential list is. We realised with a start  that for a great part of our lives our “wants” lists have  been ruling over our much simpler “needs” list.

With the perils of overuse of ‘steroids,’  ‘antibiotics,’ ‘Zinc supplements,’  overindulgence in ‘junk food,’ excessive sitting,  overdrinking, in fact, over-anything, constantly  hitting us from the news around us, we woke  up to the reality of the adage ‘less is more’ like  never before. 

As we enter 2024 lets not forget what we  learned in the pandemic hit times and continue  to practice them to avoid another similar  catastrophe. 

What the pandemic taught us about  minimalistic sustainability 

 “You have consumed 1,44,000 litres of oxygen  to recover. Now please plant ten trees after going  home” was an appeal made to a 41 year old  woman who had just recovered from Covid in  Nagpur by the doctor who treated her. A doctor  in Ahmednagar of Maharashtra urged his  patients to plant a sapling on his prescription  paper through a rubber stamped message. 

It’s heartening to note that, a lot of people took  up gardening within their small houses and  apartments to avoid purchasing vegetables  from outside for fear of contracting the disease.  Having gotten used to growing their own  vegetables, these people then continued with  this sustainable practice beyond the periods of  lockdown. 

Bicycles got a new lease of life with roads  getting less crowded and with people  wanting to do some kind of exercise. 

Due to the fear of contracting covid, many  people took to stairs, instead of using the  elevator.  

Quite a few people came up with their own  innovative solutions through homemade  hand sanitizers and handmade reusable  cloth masks. Across a lot of houses, the old  sewing machine was put to good use in an  attempt to repurpose their old clothes. 

People went paperless by adapting to  the digital practices – be it for fund  

People continued with the practice of growing vegetables even after the pandemic was over. 

Morgan Stanley reported that after the pandemic, a  good number of investors started rewarding the shift  of inflows into funds screened for environmental,  social and governance (ESG) from the traditional  funds, which is indeed a welcome trend.

transfers or cashless transactions. A lot of  people started the sustainable practice of  digital subscriptions for newspapers and  magazines. 

Companies woke up to the possibility  of Working From Home, saving a lot of  avoidable usage of valuable resources such  as electricity, stationery and space. 

Thanks to the lockdowns, a lot of youngsters  learned to cook at home and found what  a necessary life skill cooking happens to  be. Quite a few enthusiasts amongst them  went further ahead and tried their hand at  baking, grilling, wine making or coming up  with their own cocktail of an original dish. 

Sustainability practices in business Morgan Stanley reported that after the  pandemic, a good number of investors  started rewarding the shift of inflows into  funds screened for environmental, social and  governance (ESG) from the traditional funds,  which is indeed a welcome trend. 

Gen Z veered towards products and processes  that are more sustainable, being more  

concerned about environmental changes.  Naturally, the brands which relied heavily on  the future generations fell in line by evolving  strategies around sustainability in their  narrative.  

Beam Suntory, the third largest producer  of distilled beverages committing US$1  billion towards making positive impact on the  environment, and Eleven Madison Park, one of  the most famous three Michelin Star restaurants  in New York going vegan as its renowned Chef  Daniel Humm opined, “We’re not saying anti meat, but we’re saying pro-planet,” are two  such cases in point.  

Sustainability practices at an individual level  The following Five Rs are significant in living  with minimalistic sustainability practices in  the future. 

1. Refuse 

When Samyukta, a Vegan by choice, refused  to wear the conventional pattu silk sari for  her wedding, quoting the PETA study which  highlighted that around 3000 silk worms are  killed to generate 1 pound of silk, it didn’t  go well with her orthodox extended family  members. However, with the support of her  vegan life partner, it wasn’t difficult for her to  enforce  her choice  of apparel  at her own wedding. 

Learning to  identify and refusing  unsustainable waste  may take conscious  practice. But this ensures  the best way to nip the unrecyclable products such as  plastic covers from entering  our lives, in the bud. 

2. Reduce  

Sowmya is a hoarder. Over the  years, she has stuffed so much into the  cupboards of her house that they have  started to spill over. Though their house  is quite big, they are already running out  of space, as new stuff keeps on getting added  year on year. The idea of sorting things out  overwhelms Sowmya. 

A onetime exercise of sorting things, out and  arriving at those that need to be donated,  thrown away can make the family breathe easy.  One can access online help groups such as “free  your stuff ” for ideas in this regard. 

Remember – the less you have, the less you  have to lose. 

3. Reuse 

Leela is quite innovative when it comes to ideas  for reusing stuff. Her house is full of artifacts  generated out of items to be discarded, be it  from broken glass or torn cloth. She even has her  own tasty recipes   dished  out of peels  and skins  of vegetables for that healthy  fiber quotient in  the diet. 

Not everything that is  broken or old needs to  be discarded. Unlike the  Western countries, India  is well known for getting  the household items repaired,  reused and repurposed. Be it a  mixer grinder in the kitchen, or  even the footwear that gets repaired  on the road by a cobbler, our penchant  for getting the maximum juice out of a  product is well known the world over. This  practice, we find is quite a healthy practice  for sustainability, as it extends the life of the  products at use, thereby being environment  friendly in its own way. 

Thankfully, sustainability is woven into India’s  textile culture. Our unstitched apparel Sari  is the epitome of sustainability. It defies the  concept of “one size doesn’t fit all,” making it a  perfect example for reuse.  

We also have countless examples of not letting  the fabric go waste in our design practices, such  as borders being cut and reused elsewhere,  old saris converted into blouses, ghaghras and  lehangas, with patchwork being a recurrent  fashionable theme. 

4. Repurpose 

Revanth has designated a particular area in  his office as “up-cycle ideas station” for his  employees to drop new ideas for repurposing  the existing items. He feels it is serving the  interests of his newly found start-up very well. 

For items that can’t be refused, reduced or  reused, one can try repurposing it. For instance,  one can use the wasted printer paper for scrap  paper, cardboard boxes for storing items,  binder clips to hold power cords in place, extra  coffee mugs for holding stationery items such  as, pens, pencils and staplers.  

5. Recycle 

What can’t be dealt with any of the above ‘R’s,  finally need to get recycled. Recycling is one  of the most important green initiatives. The  garbage bins separation in to blue and green  is a healthy initiative aimed at this practice.  Newspapers, card board pieces, tins, bottles,  jars, tetra packs etc are recyclable items go into  the blue bins, whereas wastes of plants and  animals and other biodegradable items go into  the green ones.  

In India, certain municipalities penalise the  residents for non compliance with the waste  segregation, which is an environment friendly move. 

Conclusion 

Sustainability and minimalistic approach  towards life is no longer a ‘good to have’  

practice. It’s imperative that we practice these  for the very survival of our human race.  

After the disaster the world witnessed in  Chernobyl, it is worth noting that nature  is reclaiming its space in those ruins, even  as it wears a deserted look, due to its being  still uninhabitable for human beings. The  lesson from the nature is loud and clear,  as it is beautifully expressed by Sir David  Attenborough in the following words. 

“This is not about saving our planet, it’s about  saving ourselves. The truth is, with or without us,  the natural world will rebuild.”

Sujatha Rao is a retired banker. She has been contributing articles to various newspapers and magazines over  the last two decades. Two of her short stories were placed third in Times of India’s national level Write India  contest (Seasons 1 and 2). Her first book titled In the Company of Stories was published recently. Her other  interests include reading, traveling, practising yoga, and mindfulness.