Greetings to all the people who love our Earth. I happened to see the Documentary "The Eleventh Hour" on HBO and became more convinced to start at least certain small things at home like switching off the lights  when not necessary and not keeping the electrical and electronics items on standby mode.

Companies like Exxon fund the deniers of global warming. You can judge how active the climate deniers are ,by the way they attack Pachauri for a wrong data the IPCC ( Intergovernmental panel on climate change)  submitted on Himalayan glaciers. Though there may be a few exaggerations here and there the fact remains the earth is hurting and we have not figured out how to change our ways. 

There is ample evidence that the Permafrost beneath the Tundra across the North is melting. The effects of global warming are happening first and fastest in the Arctic. Things are happening faster than what the scientists indicated. In places like the Arctic an increase in the average temperature at the lower range will have an amplifying effect. 

In the documentary they say that by the end of the century or may be in a few decades most of the Arctic will be ice free. The climate change will have a very strong impact on the global water cycle. It is going to change rainfall patterns. We will have more severe floods and droughts . River flows will change. The climate change will threaten food security, water security, security against storms and hurricanes. It is an international security problem akin to any other security problem.

The UN estimates that by the middle of the Century there may be 150 million environmental refugees at any given time because of climate change.

Every living system, meaning, coral reefs , the forest cover, oceans, aquifers,water, the conditions of the soil, biodiversity etc in the biosphere is in decline and the rate of decline is accelerating. The fact is there isn't one living system that is stable or improving. These living systems provide the basis for all life.

In the oceans 90% of the big fish are gone in the last 50 years and hence we are fishing deeper and further into the sea. We are putting too much pollution into the oceans. 

The forest cover in many countries have been lost . Seventy (70) countries in the world have no longer have any intact or original forests.

They say a study has been done to prove that when there is a 9 to 12 inch flash flood a single massive tree can grab 2.15 lakh litres of water and prevent it from running off. It captures it ,cleans it and puts it back in the aquifer. Take that one tree away and you get flood, soil erosion and you have lost 2.15 lakh litres of water from the local water supply. That water is also running downstream destroying and polluting the ocean .

We are technologically advanced but we would never be able to do what nature does for us. I gave it a fleeting thought when I watched the Bee movie with my kids at home but didn't give it a  serious thought  untill I saw this documentary. What can we do to pollinate all the flowering plants and how much would it cost us ?. What would it cost us to take CO2 (Carbon dioxide) out of the air and put oxygen back in it which all the green things in nature do for us for nothing. Mind boggling questions aren't  they.

It seems a crude  estimate was done several years ago by Dr. Robert Conztanza ( US ecological economist) that it would cost us $ 35 trillion a year to do what nature is doing for us for nothing. The total of all the annual economies in the world at that time was $ 18 trillion.

I found these words " our industrial system is a waste making system " very apt.  In industries today for every truckload of product with lasting value they say 32 truck loads of waste are produced. We cannot continue to dig up the earth and turn it into waste.

In nature , there is no waste. One organism's waste is another's food. That is the model for the industrial system that must eventually evolve.  a waste free industrial system.

The most striking part for me in the documentary was a comment by the psychologist James Hillman who said " We are psychically numbed . we numb our senses from morning till night whether it is with noise or loud music or light at night. So nobody sees the beauty . And if we've lost the feeling of the beauty of the world then we are looking for substitutes" . Golden words. If we begin to see the beauty of the world again we will naturally start doing things to heal our planet. 

There are more than a million environmental and social justice  organisations taking up these causes. It is the fastest growing movement on earth. Let us become a part to bring in a new economy that will be powered by renewable energy instead of fossil fuels. A diversified transport system instead of an automobile centered system. Instead of a throwaway economy an economy where everything is reused.

Energy is the key. With abundant , affordable and clean energy we can solve a lot of problems. The documentary says there is more than enough energy coming from the sun every day to run every factory, every house and every automobile on earth 13,000 times. The wind energy has evolved to a the point were it can compete price -wise with traditional fossil fuels.

On reading this if you say What can I do? I wanna do something.  Then you have already made the first choice because you know you have to do something. Do some research, educate yourself, find the people you are comfortable with and then get involved.Healing the damage of industrial civilisation is the task of our generation.

Personal action is important. Don't waste water by letting it run while brushing or shaving. Use cfl bulbs, use energy efficient products, maintain correct tyre pressure,recycle whenever possible. Every time you buy a product you are saying "I approve of this object. I approve of how it was made, the materials that are in it and what is going to happen to it when I no longer need it and throw it away. " So take a bit of time to study the label of product you are buying.

Having said all these I come to the final part of the documentary where the words were prophetic it said , What if we choose to eradicate ourselves from this Earth by whatever means? The answer - The Earth goes nowhere and in time it will regenerate and all the lakes will be pristine. The rivers , the waters, the mountains, everything will be green again . It will be peaceful . There may not be people but the Earth will regenerate. Do you know why? Because the Earth has all the time in the world and we don't.