Sri Sankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi Swamigal for State control on citizens' acquisitions to check global warming
New Delhi: With a view to building up international pressure to expand the platform of the Copenhagen conference on climate change scheduled for early next month for better operational efficiency, leaders of several religious faiths asserted at a conference in New Delhi on Thursday the need to involve religion in such a mission for a spontaneous connect with the masses for creating the requisite awareness to prevent the impending disasters of global warming and nuclear proliferation.
Addressing the conference on 'Global Warming and Nuclear Disarmament' in the national capital, the Sankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Mutt, Sri Jayendra Saraswathi Swamigal, and the President of the All-India Organisation of Imams of Mosques, Hazrat Maulana Imam Umair Ahmed Ilyasi, highlighted the ill-effects of global warming and nuclear armaments.
The Sankaracharya dwelt at length on the urgent need to curb the material aspirations of the people and their lifestyle. The modern fabrics for clothing and the chemicals of cosmetics etc are harmful for the body and their industry is damaging the soil on a larger scale than meets the eye. The Swamigal also called for state intervention to put a ceiling in place for man's material possessions to avert environmental disasters, illustrating that after one acquires one car one tries to buy one more, leading to more pollution, and when one has one house he aspires to possess several more, that ultimately impacts on the forest cover which neutralises the effects of environmental damages. His Holiness went to the extent of suggesting that separate channels should be built for sewages and effluents and these hazardous wastes should be carried to the oceans, thereby cleansing the rivers. The Government should also consider shifting industrial units to coastal areas, the Sankaracharya made a revolutionary proposal.
Today, mankind is moving towards the path of destruction by atomic power. While in the ancient times man used the bow and arrow to destroy his enemies, where the consequences were limited in every respect, today the scenario is totally different, with nuclear weapons threatening the very existence of mankind, the Swamigal added.
Speaking on global warming at the conference, Maulana Ilyasi said, "Today, global warming has become such a threat that if all the religious leaders and citizens of the world do not come together to fight this, a day would come when all the beings on earth will come to an end. So, together we must take this forward." He said the religious leaders of the world would undertake a world tour to spread awareness about global warming.
"We have started the initiative from India and we will go to Vatican and from there Mecca and on a world tour. We will start the initiative from December 7 at the Copenhagen conference in Denmark," the Maulana said.
During the discourse, the leaders stressed the need to protect our environment by finding simple solutions for global warming and nuclear proliferation. One should be considerate to nature, which gives man so much while he returns nothing. The unbridled expansion of cities by cutting down the trees is raising the level of pollution, they said. The conference was organised by Bureaucracy Today, a newly-launched magazine publication.
