Audit...!

If extravagant living is the first cause of the environment catastrophe approaching the only livable planet of our galaxy at an alarming speed, negligence and indifference is a close second. As such, many of the time all such ungenerous acts could be ill-motivated by the greed for more, the number of incidences that splurge out from ignorant or ‘innocent’ deeds is not less nonetheless. If we can sort the list of elements that are being criminally wasted, with single criteria of being scarce and would disappear soon, it will reduce to 4 fundamental elements of existence –

1. Air – In extreme conditions a creature can live for some time without anything but air. Since breathing is essential for respiration that cannot be put on hold naturally, lungs need to inhale oxygen and expel carbon dioxide. Oxygen is a product of atmosphere i.e. fresh air and the human intellect is yet to develop a system to produce Oxygen to match the levels of its demand by the universe. Till that point when the ever-evolving human will triumph over the nature, we will have to do with whatever Oxygen is produced and maintained by the atmosphere with the help of trees that we are chopping like anything for the exasperating industrialization to cater to the want of more! If the most evolved species on the face of this planet doesn’t come to senses soon, it would have to practice the art of Pranayama… holding the breath for as long as possible because there would be no fresh air available for respiration.

What can we do?

• On personal level avoid smoking, excessive and unnecessary use of any energy source including but not limited to motorized transport.
• On society level avoid cooking or any activity using fire produced by burning coal, firewood or kerosene.
• On Government level limit any industry producing smoke beyond the permissible levels in any vicinity.

2. Water - Scientific experiments say that a human can survive for 3 weeks on water without any other intake. But without water the period of sustenance drastically drops down to 2-3 days and in some exceptional cases with favorable weather conditions it could be stretched to a week at the most. There dawns the Sun of the eighth day and poof! You would need yogic or tantric abilities to live past that single week without water. If this knowledge is common or has anything to do with conventional wisdom, our world [thought] leaders must have encountered some epiphanies to compensate the need of water, I guess! What else can explain our wasteful attitude towards this element that not only forms almost 70% of human body but help it survive as well!

What can we do?

• On personal level consume less water for all personal chores and recycle used water wherever possible.
• On society level avoid unnecessary washing, watering or storing for public use and religious events.
• On Government level review the entire water collection, treatment and distribution system for its optimal use, find and fix all the points of leakage and refrain from water-intensive undertakings like concreting.

3. Land – To sustain beyond a week we need solid intake along with water. This could be natural like fruits and vegetables or man-made like various culinary from different cultures and regions of the world. Whatever it may be, the basic ingredients need to be produced and even in that sector human is yet to invent an effective alternative to land that provides for all the vegetarian food a human can consume. In the wake of New Developed Civilization clustered with Smart Cities and inhabited by Smarter Citizens, Land has turned into a hot selling commodity beating even the precious metal that ruled the market for centuries together. The marketers are behaving as if they have the special ability of eating and digesting the wealth created by dealing the land that produces the food required for the nourishment of body. Now by acting like this, are they being the super-species or the doomed fools, only time will tell! Oh, but we are dreadfully running out of time, aren’t we…?

What can we do? 

• On personal level consume only the land that is absolutely essential for living comfortably and not for boasting affluence or investment for future provision, without cultivable land there would be no future!
• On society level avoid selling purchasing land as a market commodity, instead facilitate farming activities on the open land that is available and utilize it so as to increase the soil quality and groundwater level.
• On Government level review the entire land use policy and declare adequate area of land as ‘Reserved for farming activities forever’ and encourage redevelopment and smart reuse of land that is transformed to Non-agriculture already. Discourage the use of land as an investment or market tool. 

4. ? The fourth element in the list could be 'Energy' as we are also running out of it miserably or 'Time' which we are not left much with actually or 'Earth' itself that is bleeding badly and is likely to succumb to all the injuries it has suffered from its dearest child. However I will conclude this list with an element that is disappearing faster than the speed of light and has the potential to balance everything else if put to practice sensibly. That element is Awareness or being Conscious or Empathetic!

If each and every individual just become aware of what, why, how and how much it is consuming for whatever reason and make a self-assessment of its personal balance sheet of habits and behavior on a regular basis, everybody would come to know what was the Capital Invested, how many Assets are (de)generated against which Liabilities and what’s the resultant Equity, by what Profit Margin the Depreciation is claimed and last but not the least, what our species have as c(r)ash-in-hand for our business called Civilization!

For this final but actually governing all the rest elements, what we can do on any level is –

• Review development, Rethink prosperity and Reform the values.
• Respect Nature, Regard Environment, Revere the evolution.
• Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. 

By the way this Financial Statement of this business would be CSR-Proof as there would be no Profit left and there is no provision to earmark 2% of Loss in the CSR Act, I believe!

Let’s do the Audit before it’s too late… Way to go!