Mumbai: Any solution to global warming and climate change must be universal, through collaborative measures rather than l
eaving one nation or a single nation responsible to find answers. Almost 900 people surveyed over the past week, suggested that governments had to work together to find answers and share technology that provides sustainable development.
Conducted by the social change community- I Am Who I Am, the survey received 837 responses and concluded that change or an attempt to change needed to be participative be it individuals or governments.
Titled “Do You Care about the Environment”, the survey covered large parts of urban India, including Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Jaipur, Hyderabad, and Pune. 92 per cent said that governments must have a policy on environment and sustainability. Effectively ruling out ad-hocism, the respondents felt public policy must be stated by a government.
The respondents also said that if the world had to improve the environment, it had to be treated universally important to all. In effect, a slippage in green cover does not impact merely that region but influences other regions. This is an argument that several developing nations have argued at international forums insisting that technology should be shared and at affordable prices.
*Survey indicates that environmental issues should be part of public policy
Who is responsible? Not one single cause is what comes out clear in the survey. Over 43 per cent of them felt it was a combination of industrialization and the lack of sustainable options. The respondents did not shy away from taking responsibility for climate change as they admitted that most of the problems the world faces is man-made. In many ways, they may have agreed with the belief that the heating sun is a problem but global warming has been accelerated by man himself.
On a positive note, almost all of the respondents (over 96 per cent) were ready to throw their hat in as part of the solution.
As pointed out by one of the respondents, “Change can happen only if it is affected at the community level. To make the world a better place to live in, the least that one can do is be more considerate towards the nature and do little things like recycling waste, judicious use of water, electricity etc.