IMPHAL, September 16: If mother-nature is defeated in a war against man`™s greed, there will no one left to celebrate the victory. Even in victory, it will be mankind who end up loser, said Prof. Rajmohan, Department of Chemistry Manipur University.
The academic said this in a function on the 30th anniversary of the Vienna Convention on Ozone, now celebrated as the International Ozone Day.
The function was held under the slogan `Ozone is All there is between you and Ultra Violate Rays.`
The programme was organized by AMWJU under the sponsor of Directorate of Environment Government of Manipur.
Speaking as chief guest of the function he said it is in mankind`™s interest to recover and protect the world`™s ozone layer by reflecting on indigenous knowledge ways of life.
He said if we used `chinghi` instead of shampoo or conditioner lipstick cosmetics items and know the ecological value of a tree, we would have in our own ways contributed to the fight to save the ozone layer.
Manipur has lots of potential for tourism, gifted as the state is with bountiful nature, but we people are also falling to the modern lifestyle that seeks to exploit and control nature, he said.
If a tree has a life of 20 years, the unseen value the tree adds to everybody`™s life is must greater than its value as timber or fuel, he said.
Manipur has so many invaluable flora and fauna, and many of them contain natural anti-toxins for curing cancer and other dreaded diseases. The people must take care of them and protect them, but they must also be wary that outside agencies who recognize their values can end up patenting them before the locals realise it.
He further said that mankind also release or use Chloro-Floro-Carbon, commonly known as CFC, and this has been proven to be damaging to the ozone layer of the earth.
This Ozone layer filters dangerous UV rays, IR rays which are harmful. They destroy the Chlorophyll of plants, he said.
In 1919 scientist invented CFC solvent instead of water as reagents in various laboratory experiments.
In the 1920s the used of CFC increased and came to be used in making Super Sonic fuel, coolants in refrigerators and other cosmetic items. These are everyday implements in the modern man`™s life therefore the ozone damaging gas came to be release into the atmosphere uncontrollably.
But in September 16, 1987 the NASA found that the atmosphere above South America and Antarctica were depleted of ozone layer.
Alarmed at the discovery, 30 years ago, the international community signed the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer. Under its Montreal Protocol, the world united to slash the production and consumption of CFCs and other ozone-depleting substances.
He said that scientists have succeeded in putting the stratospheric ozone layer on the road to recovery by sending up ozone gas.
This year in Paris, a collective path forward on climate change is being forged, he said, calling the people of the state to contribute to the effort to save the ozone layer in their own ways.