Relevance: UPSC Ethics Simplified Draws your attention to topics related to applied ethics. UPSC has recently been focusing on current issues and raised some ethical questions for the candidates. In the past, we’ve covered war and morality. Today, Nanditesh Nilay, who writes fortnightly for UPSC Essentials, puts on his ethical glasses to look at another important issue that needs our immediate attention — Air pollution.
“The world has more of us, sooner or later,
Gaining and spending, we waste our power…”
Wordsworth’s frustration with mankind is very visible and relevant to our present times which are murky and dark. We are travelers in this world but do we belong to this world? If so, why do we fail to heal the environment? Our environment needs more human values rather than merit-based endurance from all those people close to the profit margins. Shouldn’t we think more sensitively and compassionately to remove pollution from the natural sky? The middle and upper classes liked to be identified as important intellectuals. But do they think about the intrinsic relationship between man and nature? Where are all these questions above? What about them? Meditate.
Let’s ask some more basic questions. Are we self-aware and self-regulating people? Are we wise and kind? If the answer is yes, why are we not able to save our lungs in post-pandemic times? It was our lungs that were defeated by COVID-19 and now pollution and a dangerous air index are covering the entire environment, and are defeating the meaning of life. Why didn’t we learn anything from the epidemic? It is not death but life that marks the existential relevance of the most apt ideas of Herbert Spencer or Charles Darwin. We still live in a time of pollution. Aldous Hawkes said, “Maybe this world is hell on another planet.”
Now let’s try to see this dark world of man-made pollution. For farmers, their fields, gardens and nests are a piece of land under the open sky. Now the question is whether it is fair to put all the blame for burning straw on them or not? Many industries are using waste to generate energy and thus help people and the environment. Why can’t we create a system of advance purchase of all straw from farmers through public-private partnership? Is it that hard? During covid when vaccination became a possibility for the whole nation, we saw the goodness of decision making for the human race.
Recently, the Supreme Court asked whether the lungs of tenth and twelfth grade children are different. The Supreme Court asked all state governments in Delhi and NCR to close schools. Why are we waiting for the Supreme Court to take all the calls for goodness and humanity too? Aren’t compassion and care part of ethical decision-making at various levels in organizations? If so, why wait until the intervention of the judiciary? Compassionate governance is essential for a developing country like India and decisions must be taken with a strong focus on human relations. Courts may codify the law in letter and spirit but common courtesy and care should be part of governance and normal life.
Now what will happen to the poor people in India? Don’t they have the same right to clean air as rich people? They don’t have air purifiers. We know very well that money is the greatest value for any developing country where elections are fought indiscriminately on historical basis. Chunvi Muddas who Poverty and unemployment. After voting, what will happen to the people who clean our roads, schools, hospitals, offices and what about their lives? They are not even wearing masks. Treating the lives of the poor according to the constitutional values of equality and brotherhood is not a sign of a healthy democracy? Why is it mandatory to wear a mask? Why is there no common pain and concern for the poor who deserve clean air like the rich? During the pandemic, it was such a satisfying sight to see everyone vaccinated. But the present polluted environment urges us to make care and compassion a normal way of life and this is nothing but ethics in governance.
Millions of vehicles ply on the roads and a family of four has at least two vehicles. Don’t you think about our role in pollution and increasing the temperature of the earth? What are we doing with ACs especially those centered in every room or going solo in SUVs? Are we not guilty? Why target only tuk tuks or other vehicles? And what about the miserable lives of those trucks and drivers and conductors? Why are some cities in the world turning into gas chambers? The reasons are simple. We are seen as people or sisters and brothers as rich and poor. So the urgency of compassionate decision-making for this type of pollution is missing.
We are living with a pandemic experience where the pre-pandemic and post-pandemic world cannot be one. But as we have seen, we are nothing but apathetic people. Why is this? Why does global warming not destroy the sleep of people? Water crisis, air pollution, hunger, poverty and many other basic issues are not at the center of human reasoning. Why? Aren’t we willing to know that Covid has taken our dreams? Every conversation in the world is becoming political. No problem. But politics is politics with the spirit of service, not at the mercy of vitality or politics. Care and compassion should be a normal life conversation for people. But who will do it? Who will lead it? Leaders only. There should be uniformity in the conduct of citizens all over the world and it should not be less than ethical and moral.
It is a painful sight to see children coughing, allergic and asthmatic under masks. We cannot expect the Supreme Court alone to think about the people’s lungs. Let’s corsair goodness and the world may find that pleasant sight of mankind under the clear air.
Let’s end with the first stanza of Marcus Natan’s poem ‘Childhood’,
“When did my childhood go?
was the day i stopped being eleven,
Was there a time when I understood hell and heaven,
not found in geography,
and therefore could not
Was that the day!”
Let’s save childhood and humanity by being less strangers in this world. The time has come to unite and be enlightened Sum bonus Or that ultimate goodness.
Points to ponder: Lungs are secular and so is life. Make a comment.
(Author of ‘Being Good and IA, Insan Ban’, ‘Ethikos: Stories in Search of Happiness’ and ‘Kyon’. He teaches and conducts courses on ethics, values and behavior. He has been an expert/consultant. UPSC, SAARC countries , Institute of Civil Services, National Center for Good Governance, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Competition Commission of India (CCI), etc. He holds PhD in two disciplines and from ICSSR Gandhi is a Doctoral Fellow in Studies UPSC Ethics Simplified (Concepts and Caselets) fortnightly.)
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