The world loves disaster tales and global warming caters to this taste. This is obvious in the way how global warming and climate change have become buzzwords at all forums from intellectual gatherings to celeb parties. Everyone wants to sound knowledgeable on the subject that has become fashionable now. That is in no way a bad thing for the earth. But the moot question is how far are all these people who talk and discuss greenhouse gas emissions aware that they too can do their bit, and do it by very minutely manipulating their lifestyles.

Chances are that very few will be aware and even fewer willing to do anything. That is the danger we need to prevent the global warming-climate change headlines from becoming. Just another chance to outwit the competitor, to break the news, to become sought-after experts! Every smart entrepreneur will leverage the maximum out of climate change, whether it be for his products or his publicity. That sort of trivialising is the danger we expose ourselves to at this point. We cannot afford that. The environmental disaster that is staring us is real and this is no more about a vague tomorrow some thousand years down the line but as close as a few decades. The figures have been much touted and everyone by now knows the damage a rise of even a mere 1 to 4 degree Centigrade can cause to the planet. The rise in greenhouse gases registered a sharp peak around the industrial era and any thinking person should not need any further proof. More than ever before, more than any cause ever needed perhaps, the planet needs every individual to do his/her bit to mitigate the crisis.

This time around the theme for the world environment day is melting ice and climate change. Of course! Glaciers are melting and not only in the Arctic. Even in the Himalayas, these huge chunks of ice that provide to some of the major rivers are fast losing their bulk. This will eventually mean that these rivers will very soon become seasonal rivers and probably die out some day. Can one even begin to imagine the implications in the Gangetic basin? Water availability for irrigation and drinking will become scarce. Health problems will increase. The IPCC reports have outlined what governments need to do. It is up to the public to make sure that the rulers pay heed to the crisis, as also tweak their lifestyles that suit a sustainable living mode.