Much has been said and discussed about Pachauri. And no, this isn’t to defend him. Far from it.

But this is about climate change and the debate surrounding it.

So who do we believe? Oil companies? Pachauri? IPCC? Scientists who think climate change is real? Scientists who are against.

Or, do we turn to people and places where the impact of climate change is felt?

But it will be met by the same old ‘but it isn’t climate change’ from the denialist camp.

So, let’s bring in the experts. Let’s bring in the amazing powers of your own brain to work here. No data to refute. No scientific quarrels. Just some simple common sense. And since it is your brain, you would trust it more than the IPCCs of the world.

1.     Forget global warming, climate change and 2035. The Glaciers are in poor health. What is the solution?

Why argue what did it. Why not argue for the solutions? How would we reverse the poor health of glaciers?

It’s simple really. Several years ago in Uttaranchal, India it was seen that rains were playing truant. It disturbed the entire weather cycle of the region. And of course caused drought. The Indian Military suggested that the reason why it was so was deforestation.

Of course even the most hardcore denialists amongst us have studied  basic science in school to know how trees affect the water cycle.

After several years of afforestation in the region, aided by the Indian army, rains came back again. And winters were beginning to be normal.

Which brings us to solution no 1:

Leave the ecological fragile areas alone. Conserve them. Say no to mountain top mining. Say no to dams being constructed in the mountains. Stop construction there and preserve the ecology of the region.

Same goes for oil exploration in the ecologically fragile areas. Tar sands. Arctic. Antarctic. Leave them alone. Common sense.

Would it help? Think about it. Why wouldn’t it? Is it so difficult to understand? Go back to school books. Look up ecology. Look up ecological cycles. They have fun diagrams.

2.     Someone said India can’t afford another price rise in food. And so plastic should not be banned completely.  Two words: sustainable development.

The rise in food prices has nothing to do with the packaging. Not if we apply some common sense. But let us pick up school books on economics and study why prices rise. And let us also look at the humungous amounts of corruption to know why exactly prices have risen. But let’s do it in our leisure time.

What we will do here instead is look at the dangers of plastic and what price we would have to pay if it isn’t banned.

Let’s go back 4 years. Mumbai floods. Caused due to choking of drains and Mithi river because of plastic.

Oh no, don’t google for numbers and theories. Come down to Mumbai and see for yourself. Sometimes we should learn to trust our eyes.

You would see this:

http://bit.ly/aPOlew

But with the stink. The amazing stink that will fill your nostrils and go up to your brain and suffocate any thoughts like, ‘we can’t afford a ban on plastic’.

No, really. Try it.

So what about the cost of health that plastic pollution causes? Think about the costs of floods like Mumbai Flood that were caused by plastic pollution. And add some numbers up. What did you get?

So what is the solution?

Let’s look at environment friendly solutions please. We are a smart race and we can think of solutions can’t we?

How many of us carry cloth bags when we go shopping? Is it really that difficult to give up plastic?

Are we being lazy and guising it as science?

Are we too lazy to read things like these? http://www.ecologycenter.org/ptf/misconceptions.html

3.     Sea levels are rising. Sea levels are not rising. Sea levels are rising.

Can we please shut up? Can we use our eyes and common sense please? Allow we to take you on a journey to Sunderbans, India.

Sinking. Silting. Vanishing. And with that will go a tremendously important ecologically fragile area.

Don’t start arguing if it is a result of climate change. Tell me the solutions. How would you save it?

To quote Fred Pearce:

Nothing changes the fact that carbon dioxide is accumulating in the atmosphere thanks to human emissions from burning carbon-based fuels like coal and oil. Nor the calculations of physicists that for every square metre of the earth's surface, 1.6 watts more energy now enters the atmosphere than leaves it.

And we know the world is warming as a result. Thousands of thermometers in areas remote from any conceivable local urban influences tell us that. The oceans are warming too. And we have the evidence of our own eyes. The great majority of the world's glaciers are retreating, Arctic sea ice is disappearing, sea levels are rising ever faster, trees are climbing up hillsides and permafrost is melting. These are not statistical artefacts or the result of scientists cherry-picking their data.

Solution: My common sense tells me, we need to stop our dependence on fossil fuels and look at alternate energy sources.

I don’t want this post to be too long. I think I have made the point. Let us trust ourselves. Let us be involved with the world around us and not just the data we see. Let us not argue endlessly. Let us work together to make this world a more comfortable place to live in for all the species.

Is it so damn hard? Are we really enjoying the fighting so much to not realize that this planet may be in peril because of the vested interests and greed of a few?

How many deaths will it take to realize too many people have died?

A polluted creek covered with trash in Manila, Philippines on 01 March 2009. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources reported in 2008 that the Philippines hosts 50 major polluted rivers, with a majority of pollutants coming from domestic waste. EPA/FRANCIS R. MALASIG

A man collecting dead fish in Guanqiao Lake in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province, which died due to the polluted lake water and the sizzling weather in the city. EPA/ZHOU CHAO

Volunteers try to clear a dam which is filled with discarded plastic bottles and other garbage, blocking Vacha Dam, near the town of Krichim on April 25, 2009. AFP PHOTO / DIMITAR DILKOFF

A cow grazing amidst the piles of rubbish in Dhaka. With over 8000 slums, thousands of people work everyday in the polluted environment of Bangladesh's capital. The city is known to have the 2nd most polluted water supply in the world, contaminated by industrial waste and human excrement. The local authorities in Dhaka do not consider waste disposal a priority and as a result, rubbish accumulates in large piles around the city before it is finally removed. Brunopress

All photographs and descriptions from: http://gigapica.geenstijl.nl/2009/05/mooi_milieu.html