Pic source: http://answersafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Somalia-Famines.jpg
As the world is progressing at a rapid pace, the gap between rich and poor is widening at an equal pace. From buying essentials (be it food, clothes etc.) to buying more than what is needed has become part of our lives. Talking of food, not many of us take the problem of food wastage seriously although we know that there many people around the world who are starving. So why have we evolved to a stage where we camouflaged the empathy towards the society with pathetic mindlessness of rampant wastage of everything we have. Money we earn is invariably related to the wastage and pollution we generate in our everyday lives. The more we earn, the more we take things for granted.
Gone are the days where we had some fresh air to breathe and water to drink. Everything has a price on it now, like travelling to a park for fresh air and buying clean drinking water. Though most of us are able to afford this, there are people out there who neither have access to it nor have the ability to buy it.
An article published in Vox website says, “In February 2017, the United Nations estimated that 100,000 South Sudanese were starving, and that 5 million more — 42 percent of the country’s population — have such limited access to proper food that they don’t know where their next meal is coming from” . Most recent reports estimate that 20 million people in Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen are at risk of dying due to lack of food.
While terrorist groups are controlling most of the natural resources, human induced climate change has become real threat. Our lifestyle has huge impact on climate change every day, while there are many who are ignorant of climate change, there are many who understand climate change but fail to embrace sustainable lifestyle. As we impact the changing climate by consuming more than needed through our careless lifestyle, the impact of our activity may not effect us but could effect millions living in poverty around the world. Famine in Africa is one such catastrophe as a result of human induced climate change.
When you waste water, food and pollute air, always be mindful that you are not just putting yourself at risk but many others across the world including future generations. Mind boggling technological advancement on one hand and acute hunger on the other hand, it’s our responsibility to strike a fine balance between such extreme imbalance.
Hope we embrace a sustainable lifestyle just the way we embrace new technology.
Hope we come from the darkness of ignorance into light of holistic and comprehensive understanding that impacts of our activities.
Everyone deserves happiness, let’s do our bit to make our world a happier place.
-- Aditya Koppula
