Endangered Ganga

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Pranam. I read this article on another group and wished to share it with you all. I was there just recently.This sounds bad... With Love Shankaree A Sacred River Endangered by Global WarmingGlacial Source of Ganges Is RecedingBy Emily WaxWashington Post Foreign ServiceSunday, June 17, 2007; A14VARANASI, India -- With her eyes sealed, Ramedi cupped the murky water ofthe Ganges River in her hands, lifted them toward the sun, and prayed forher husband, her 15 grandchildren and her bad hip. She, like the rest ofIndia's 800 million Hindus, has absolute faith that the river she callsGanga Ma can heal.Around Ramedi, who like some Indians has only one name, people converged onthe riverbank in the

early morning, before the day's heat set in. Womenfloated necklaces of marigolds on a boat of leaves, a dozen skinny boyssoaped their hair as they bathed in their underwear, and a somber group ofmen carried a body to the banks of the river, a common ritual before thedead are cremated on wooden funeral pyres. To be cremated beside the Ganges,most here believe, brings salvation from the cycle of rebirth."Ganga Ma is everything to Hindus. It's our chance to attain nirvana,"Ramedi said, emerging from the river, her peach-colored sari dripping alongthe shoreline.But the prayer rituals carried out at the water's edge may not lastforever -- or even another generation, according to scientists andmeteorologists. The Himalayan source of Hinduism's holiest river, they say,is drying up.In this 3,000-year-old city known as the Jerusalem of India for its intensereligious devotion, climate change could throw into turmoil

something manydevout Hindus thought was immutable: their most intimate religioustraditions. The Gangotri glacier, which provides up to 70 percent of thewater of the Ganges during the dry summer months, is shrinking at a rate of40 yards a year, nearly twice as fast as two decades ago, scientists say."This may be the first place on Earth where global warming could hurt ourvery religion. We are becoming an endangered species of Hindus," said VeerBhadra Mishra, an engineer and director of the Varanasi-based Sankat MochanFoundation, an organization that advocates for the preservation of theGanges. "The melting glaciers are a terrible thing. We have to askourselves, who are the custodians of our culture if we can't even help ourbeloved Ganga?"Environmental groups such as Mishra's have long focused on pollution of theGanges. More than 100 cities and countless villages are situated along the1,568-mile river, which

stretches from the foothills of the Himalayas to theBay of Bengal, and few of them have sewage treatment plants.But recent reports by scientists say the Ganges is under even greater threatfrom global warming. According to a U.N. climate report, the Himalayanglaciers that are the sources of the Ganges could disappear by 2030 astemperatures rise.The shrinking glaciers also threaten Asia's supply of fresh water. The WorldWildlife Fund in March listed the Ganges among the world's 10 mostendangered rivers. In India, the river provides more than 500 million peoplewith water for drinking and farming.The immediate effect of glacier recession is a short-lived surplus of water.But eventually the supply runs out, and experts predict that the Gangeseventually will become a seasonal river, largely dependent on monsoon rains."There has never been a greater threat for the Ganges," said Mahesh Mehta,an environmental

lawyer who has been filing lawsuits against corporationsdumping toxins in the Ganges. He is now redirecting his energies toward themelting glaciers. "If humans don't change their interference, our veryreligion, our livelihoods are under threat."Mehta and other environmentalists want to see the Indian government hereenforce strict reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, the primary cause ofclimate change.But during this month's Group of Eight conference of the majorindustrialized nations, both India and China, eager to protect their marketgrowth, joined the United States in refusing to support mandatory limits ongreenhouse gas emissions. President Bush has instead pushed a plan fornonbinding goals to reduce emissions."It is a fact that more and not less development is the best way fordeveloping countries to address themselves to the issues of preserving theenvironment, " Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh

said in a publicstatement before leaving for the G-8 summit in Germany.While India is one of the world's top producers of greenhouse gasemissions -- along with the United States, China, Russia and Japan -- itargues that the United States and other developed countries should reducetheir own emissions before expecting developing nations to follow suit.Environmentalists call that kind of thinking shortsighted and say Indiadesperately needs strong laws in place at a time when the country is growingso quickly."Economic growth is important, but can you imagine a billion cars in India?"Mehta asked. "As people become affluent, they want cars and air conditionersand refrigerators. What effect is that going to have on the environment? "About 1 million pilgrims a year visit this ancient, hardscrabble city, manytraveling hundreds of miles on foot. Many of them leave with vials of Gangeswater to wear around their

necks or display in their homes, sometimessprinkling droplets of water into their town's wells, spiritually purifyingtheir drinking water.On the stone steps leading up to the Ganges' famous temple ghats, graffitireads: "Happy is the person who lives by Ganga, Ma" and "I love my India.""The government should realize that climate change will hurt not justcommunities, but also businesses and even the Ganga itself, our most sacredriver," said Srinivas Krishnaswamy, a climate and energy expert forGreenpeace in India."When the Ganga River is threatened, Indians will have to wake up thegovernment to this crisis."

Let my every word be a prayer to Thee, Every movement of my hands a ritual gesture to Thee, Every step I take a circumambulation of Thy image,Every morsel I eat a rite of sacrifice to Thee, Every time I lay down a prostration at Thy feet; Every act of personal pleasure and all else that I do,Let it all be a form of worshiping Thee."From Verse 27 of Shri Aadi Shankara's Saundaryalahari