Article by our intern Michael Duspiwa from Austria.
When people in the “Western
World” talk about India, in terms of pollution, waste handling, and
environmental awareness, usually the perception of those persons is really bad.
This has to be understood by Indians, because the main impression foreigners
get in the country is that there are less concerns about the environment in
India. This article does not aim to attack a people, it should show that
Western countries, which are considered as the good guys in the above mentioned
terms of pollution, waste management and environmental awareness, can
effectively learn and copy some habits and issues from India.
Pollution of air and land is
an essential topic for every single person on the planet, it therefore should
not be considered as the matter of one nation or someone else’s issue. This is
a problem, which has to be addressed and it is led into the wrong direction by
Western countries, as they think they are already doing enough for the
environment, and argue like: “The others should do also something.” This is not
the right attempt. Of course everybody has to contribute to make the world a
better place, but can someone do too much for the welfare of the society?
The idea of this article is to
show that not judging the others for doing something wrong is the right way,
but rather that the things done by the individuals in a better way count and
matter the most. We decide about our environment by the way we live, eat,
communicate and go from point A to point B every day.
Thus addressing especially
western people, the following YOU can learn from people in India:
- People in India use less wrapping for food, such as buying fruits and vegetables on the street simply involves no plastic bags and other wrappings. This is a common habit of Indians buying fruits, whereas in Europe people tend to buy everything in the supermarket, which in the end results in more waste. Just because you cannot see the garbage in Europe, does not mean it is not there
- Another issue, closely related to the food is water. Do we really need a bottle for our water, all the time? A thing I observed is that drinking water is available in one bottle for re-use, at all food stands, shops and bakeries. An Indian therefore is more used to drink water there, whereas for a European it is much more common to bring your own bottle of water everywhere, and after use throw it to the garbage
- What Indians do better than any other nation in the world is actually what they do not do, namely eating meat. This point will be examined in detail in another article, but so far it can be said that by not eating meat, India is having more food available in general which results in less starving people. This is due to the fact that for producing 1 calorie of meat, 4 calories of wheat or other food for the animal has to be sacrificed
- What I am trying to say is that not just countries like India should improve their environmental awareness and the need for environmental friendly businesses, but also the Western world has to do on a constant basis. All the time there are just talks about the others which have to be more “green”, the other countries which have to do more for the environment, but in the end it is the individual contribution to the above mentioned suggestions, which make a difference. And yes it does make a difference, if just one starts to do so
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