For a person living in a hot country, cool breeze, cool water and every thing cool is simply fresh. Trees play a vital role in beating the heat. This may be contrary for a person living in the western hemisphere. For the cold weather one might not need a tree to rest under and sooth the heat waves. Still I was surprised by the sheer number of trees and the awareness people have for trees in the northern hemisphere. Forests are very well protected and even collecting fire-wood is near impossible in most western countries.
The high ways in US and Europe mostly have fences on either side of the road. No one is allowed to park their vehicle and venture into the near by woods. This is quite contrary to what you will see in India, where any one can park their vehicle, clean them in the water bodies, venture into the woods near by; dump the waste and whatever one can do.
The lack of awareness on “Tree conservation” is cancerous to our civil society as we have created a polluted and UN-inhabitable world for our future generation. Every parent wants to give the best to their wards. Even if they did not have access to a lot of things during their childhood days, they strive hard to give the best possible for their kids. In contrast, Parents give the worst of climatic disaster to their kids. Lack of awareness is the key here. Adults today do not understand the importance of climatic change and the impact its going to have on every one.
During my visit to a Tsunami hit village, the fishermen around the coast were not aware of climatic changes affecting and changing their lives. The changing coast line, the tidal waves hitting them hard, lost landscape, lesser fish are all “God's act” in their opinion. It is really difficult to help them understand that there is so much man has done which is affecting them.
The real estate market has driven the trees completely out of our cities. Every rule is floated by the builders and there is no space for green in apartment complexes. They are merely concrete jungles with hardly any green around. Government can do a lot in encouraging green space in cities with tighter norms. When corruption is wide visible in every table of government offices, the builders are forced to shell out money in every table and hence compromise on building quality, green space and building lay-out plan.
Preserving green must be a collective effort. Public and government must co-operate with each other. In todays world no one can shrivel his responsibility towards improving the green space around us. Even if a country fails to improve the green space it will be a disaster for the entire humanity. We have just one planet and we have to preserve it like never before.
