Who is polluting the earth

There is widespread evidence that our planet is in great peril arising out of environmental degradation . The air and the oceans are slipping into an irreversible ecological disbalance which threatens to wipe out life on earth. Everyone agrees something has to be done and done urgently. And the spotlight invariably turns on industries, automobiles etc as being among the top polluters. Governments across the geographies are looking for ways to control pollution but has not been able to bring about any significant impact. We continue on our chosen path of ravaging the environment.
But why is it that in spite of concerted efforts by both developed and emerging nations on arriving at a consensus on actions to be taken, precious little could be done so far. The answer partly lies in the fact that it is we ourselves who is to be blamed for the mess we are in. How. Lets see. We are a community of wasteful and careless individuals. We are a throw away society . Consider this situation. We want to buy newer and newer models of automobiles, without giving the slightest thought on whether we really need to change the model . The number of cars and two wheelers that are junked every year, long before end of its useful life, is mindbogling. Now think about the price . The sticker price is all we tend to think of. The actual cost however far exceeds the currency paid. It starts with the mining of iron ore from which steel is made and also mining of coal which is used in the furnace. Then there is the cost of stowing the excavations. All these requires expenditure of energy adding to the carbon emission. Just to put in place, the automobile’s cost to the environment only begins with the manufacture. Once on road its a drive to continue polluting. Consider another situation. Its the area of computers and other electronic gadgets. With the phenomenal rise in computing speed, made possible by newer and newer processors older computers have disappeared. Components of these computers have found their way into some melting pot somewhere for extraction of few ingredients using questionable processes which release extremely toxic wastes into the environment. Again this is an example where something useful has been relegated to waste and replaced without thinking whether all of us really need to give up what we have. Surely most of us could , for our routine and mundane requirements, do with older equipment. By needlessly replacing our possessions we are placing a tremendous amount of strain on the environment. Then there are those needless packaging , the double packaging i.e. Most of these packaging provides little extra protection but provides extra advertisement space for the manufacturer. Why is it done that way. Because we like it that way and we haven’t given a thought on its environmental cost. Like we must have our medicine pills to be technicoloured and don’t give a thought on whether the colour was required to be manufactured at all for adding to the pill. The illustrations could go on and on.
The bottom line in all this is that we must realize that everything we buy and every product that is manufactured costs the earth something in terms of environmental degradation. We undertake most intricate budgeting exercises to be able to make our purchases, but so far as the environment is concerned we don’t pause to check the balance. And the balance is running out and running out fast. The wake up call has been given. Lets not pretend to sleep.