Happy Realisation?

So I heard Lewis Hamilton is depressed and the team folk are getting him help. Recently he went public saying how being vegan is the only sustainable way to the future. He, of course, meant to talk about climate change and the natural balance. Responses came in many forms. Someone said "the guy who drives a Formula 1 car and has a private jet is asking me to eat cabbage!" Someone else said he's trying to get his massive following to think greener and we need to look at the message and the larger picture. I see his point. Until now, I didn't like the guy. I believe he came in a strong car and went to another team where he happened to suffer for a little while before the engine regulations worked in his favour.

But that's beside the point. After the whole #ClimateStrike initiative by Greta Thunberg went viral, I realised one thing. One person CAN make a difference. Again, people, like they always do, hit back saying, "She's a kid!", "What does she really want?", "Go back to school!". But, she was right, wasn't she? Even if she's touring the world (on a sailboat, I might add!) and even if she's "not speaking of other great scientists who have developed world-saving tech" she did do one thing. She made some people aware about the scale of the mess we're in; about the depth of the hole we've dug for ourselves. She spoke at a point where it's getting even deeper and soon we won't be able to come back out. A few others have realised, too. Of course they have. However, the world's population is over 7 billion. People consider "1%" a small number. One per cent of 7 billion is 70,000,000. That's 70 million, or 7 crore in local speak.

Many of those have access to water, some don't. Food, even less so. The point is, we need more people to wake up to the scale of the problem.

Now, another topic is transport. Or, cars, in my case of reference. Yes, we've enjoyed racing, and driving some fine examples. I know I enjoyed my share. However, one thing is clear. The world is running on oil and money. And something is going to give very soon. Particularly the environmental balance. What we did then, doesn't work now. Times have changed. Priorities need reassessment.

Schools don't function as they did before. Traffic doesn't have the same share of space as before. Consideration is taking a back seat, because people seems to have become seemingly expendable. There are so many, if one can't do something right, someone else will? Is that so? The very idea of a co-operative world is being drowned by desire. Individual desire. Worse, individual need to be better than the next? It's not a competition. Or, is it? Is it truly survival of the fittest? Surely seems like it now. But I digress.

Back to Hamilton. It is depressing. Yes. When one realises something about the world and about themselves doesn't fit any more. We've been conditioned over the years to believe certain things, do things a certain way and expect certain things in advance because "that's just how the world works". Get up, take a bath, change, make the bed, get on the bike or in the car, ride/drive to school/college/work/whatever. People took things for granted. They wasted water, electricity, trees, forests and now, there's a price to pay. You may wonder why this is relevant. You know all this. But, as I've always believed, understanding is one thing and acceptance is another. Do you accept that an entire established life needs to change? No, it's not a lie. It's just a change that must be brought on. If not by us, the world will fight back. It's an old planet, it's been through a lot and it can take care of itself. We're not killing the planet with our doings, we're only killing our future, and ourselves.

People asked me what I'm on about. What's with all the posts? After seeing what Greta had to say, I feel I've woken up from a bad dream and have to live a nightmare. It's true, what some said. What she said is scary. And it is. Our future is inevitable if we don't change today!

What's hard is to accept it. I love cars. I love motor-racing. I love going fast. However, I also realised that has to stop. I can't enjoy those things any more. They're coming at a terrible price. The sound of combustion, of big engines and the roar from the exhaust – things that used to make me smile and make my heart flutter – have become sins. Not to the world at large, but to me. I cringe. It's a painful feeling of mixed emotions that I fight every day. That is what is depressing. Realising that what you enjoy, and have enjoyed all along, is something that needs to stop. The world is built on that platform. How can it be?

A change so big would mean a new system. A new normal. Jobs will be lost. Skills will be redundant. Yet, new ones will surface. They have to. With so many mouths to feed there is no question. The thing is, we need to realise and start adapting now, or the world will simply leave us behind. What's worse is that the Earth will fight back anyway.

I'm not asking anyone to go vegan. I know I won't. Yet, turn off your bike/car at signals. Long or short. I started doing that. Ride/drive easy. The more you're on the accelerator and back on the brakes hard, the more fuel you're burning. The key is to cut down on carbon emissions - specifically carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide among other more deadly unburned hydrocarbons and oxides of nitrogen. Save water. Don't waste electricity. You may be paying a fixed amount but it isn't yours to throw away. We're still using coal-fired thermal power plants. That's not clean. The reality is that renewable sources aren't enough to cater to us all. That's why the need to use all forms of energy sparingly. Also, electric cars are only as clean as the source of electricity powering them. If your electricity is coming from coal, your electric car is pretty much just as harmful to the environment. Battery material mining and their life cycle and supply chain is another matter altogether, so look deeper into things that don't make sense. Hybrids are the best way forward until clean, hydrogen-powered transport solutions become mainstream. Research. Find out for yourself. Don't take mine or anyone else's word for it. Go ahead and take that step.

The time to make a choice is now. We can't give up everything. That's not right. But we can try to change slowly and tell others to do so as well. It's about time. Wake up. Realise. Speak your mind. Be heard. Listen. Understand. Be considerate. We all want to get out of this alive. It's still not too late...