Global Warming/Climate Change is affecting us in many ways. In fact due to covid restrictions they are surprisingly seeing all causes of death have reduced in India right now. India usually has a lot of deaths from pollution-related health problems, car accidents, etc. I know locally we have been deeply affected in the summers by the wildfires. Other parts of the world have been affected by floods, droughts or heat waves. This can affect the food and water supply. As Sikhs we have responsibilities towards making efforts to preserve the environment that we live in. We know Guru Har Rai Ji grew herbs in his gardens and respected nature greatly.
There are many things we can do to be eco friendly, starting off with use of our cars (car pooling, biking, walking). I worked on part of the planning for making the city bike friendly although that never really came to fruition and it continues to be a safety issue. We can still try to bike in the areas where it is safe to do so. Selection of vehicles of course depends on where you live. A “smart car” certainly isn’t safe to drive in Northern BC in the winter, but we can make choices that are more eco-friendly rather than less. The same is true when we select our appliances. We re-bought our appliances a couple of yrs ago and they are all a lot more green. We can shut off our lights when we leave the room, and make sure we are using our energy efficiently. We can change our lightbulbs to more energy efficient ones. In the summer we like to hang our clothes outside to dry, it is a great way to save energy. One of the things we like to do at my house when changing the summer to winter wardrobe, or putting the winter clothes away and bringing the summer ones out, is to pack up some of the clothes to donate them. Of course the mainstay of being eco-friendly is reusing and recycling.
Another interesting thing is how we can make our Gurdwaras more green. I think one of the obvious ways in langar is to make sure we are using reusable plates, and not running the whole dishwasher for just one plate. I saw some great suggestions online such as planting lots of flowers. It would be lovely if the Gurdwara could have a garden for growing our own Sabjis. There have been huge tree-planting projects from EcoSikh and other organizations. Having an air-drier for hands is also better than having towels and paper towels. Another way is travelling to the Gurdwara together or walking. We should not have big fireworks celebrations as you can see the polluting effects of these on Diwali in India. I'm sure there are many more ways we can save energy at the Gurdwara Sahib, similar to how we do in our homes with appliances, lights, and general measures like ensuring there is enough insulation.
I think one of the things we have learned from covid is that we are using too much. We travel to the grocery store too often. We were wasting too much food. We were shopping too much. We were driving around unnecessarily. Now that we are stuck inside our homes we are realizing perhaps how much we could do without, or with less. Think about what changes you could be making.
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People can hire help. But they should also know how to be self sufficient. Do their own work - Learn to grow food, learn to fix stuff. As Guru ji said - apn hathi apan ape hee kaz svarie =
ReplyDeleteI saw some pictures today of Punjab Gurdwaras -Perhaps never have I seen such clarity in my lifetime except perhaps in Alberta
ReplyDeletehttps://www.facebook.com/PunjabSpectrum/photos/pcb.3500972679919300/3500971543252747/?type=3&theater