This book is the reflection of my thirty-seven-year long professional career in the petroleum industry. Health, safety, and environment management had been my responsibilities for a number of years. Like many other industries, the petroleum industry also involves highly polluting activities. Stringent regime requires the industry to take every possible measure to comply with current environmental standards. Generally, most of these measures are high-tech pollution abatement solutions-first polluting and then the clean-up practices. Although, as responsible and law-abiding corporate citizens, we did whatever was required by the statutory regulations, I often questioned myself whether we were really doing the right thing. Is polluting the environment, and then retrofitting it with clean-up technologies the right way of environment protection? In my opinion, it is not, as it doesn’t address the basic tenets of environment and thereby environmental protection.
As a young engineer responsible for process design and the development of petroleum processing plants, I always questioned the rationale of technologies that required extensive raw materials, energy, chemicals, catalysts, and other consumables, and produced a lot of waste and pollution. Viewed from a broader perspective, it becomes clear that the spirit of environmental protection is not only controlling air-water-soil pollution, it involves building a resource-saving, environment friendly, and sustainable society that promotes a harmonious coexistence of man and nature. Caring for nature vis- -vis us is the real spirit of environmental protection. Environment is not something that s out there, its everything that affects our life. It is our total interdependence on every other creature, system, and force of nature. By not recognising this, we will end up destroying not only what s out there, but also ourselves, as we too are an intrinsic part of nature.
Imagine our forebears from heavens visiting us! What do you think will be their reaction? Quite likely, they may not even recognise this world they lived in. Our highrise cities; sprawling concrete homes with gas, water and electricity; big, sleek cars; coloured cellphones; large, flat, high definition colour TVs; and all other luxuries may not really impress them. But our polluted air, dirty rivers and lakes, scarcity of water and power, heaps of garbage, crowded cities, traffic jams, poverty, hunger and social divide will surely despair them. Though the economic standard of living in USA, Japan and western Europe has increased impressively since 1980s, the quality of life in general has deteriorated in most parts of the world. We live in 21st century, saddled with environmental crisis and burgeoning problems of poverty and social inequality around the world.
His Holiness Dalai Lama rightly says, "Disregard to our natural inheritance has brought about the danger that now threatens the peace of the world.... Such destruction of the environment and life depending upon it is a result of ignorance, greed and disregard for the richness of all living things. This disregard is gaining great influence. If peace does not become a reality in the world and if the destruction of the environment continues as it does today, there is no doubt that future generations will inherit a dead world.
To undo the wrongs we have done, we have to go back to nature. But going back to nature does not mean you go to forests and live in the jungle, bathe in rivers, etc. or abandon a comfortable living. We say back to nature because man and nature are interdependent, and must coexist harmoniously. This book should act as an emergency call to governments, policy makers, and the common people around the world, to make a U-turn from the disastrous path of unnatural, fast economic gains.
We write this book, not because we are great writers, but because we love nature, and want to spread the gospel of living in tune with her. Some readers may find the book a bit too general, devoid of technical details, and not very academic. Yes, perhaps they are right. We purposely kept the book simple, omitting technical jargon, and a host of statistical graphs and data that may confuse the general reader. We believe that living in tune with nature is a matter of simple common sense which requires a proper mind-set and not hi-fi radical technologies. Lastly, we have enjoyed writing this book. We hope that you will not only enjoy reading it, but also live with it.
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