Skip to main content

Why should We Strive for Sustainable Circular Economy?

We will talk about recycling in this post. However before we begin talking about practical methods let's go through a couple of concepts, one is a philosophical topic from the vast sea of the Vedic literature and the other is a concept, first raised by two British environmental economists, which has been adopted by European Union, UK and few private companies in the USA as well.

#1 What is a Prarabdha Karma?

According to Vedic philosophy, every action will result in a reaction; i.e. every effort we make has a reaction on our destiny (by the way destiny here simply implies a future state, not fate) during an appropriate time. We as humans beings are making choices every moment that affects our now as well as future(s). 

And all of these actions (Karma) impact our circumstances, preferences, tendencies etc. And by the way, Karma is not to be confused with fate. We always have the free will to act on our choices. However, we must bear fruit to all our actions; whether in this lifetime or the subsequent ones. 

And the portion of the Karmas that impacts our current life is called the Prarabdha Karma. The word Prarabdha (प्रारब्ध) literally means "begun or set in motion". So our previous efforts are always impacting the current circumstances we face as well as future ones.

#2 What about Circular Economy?

In the simplest of words, this is a way to give back to the system (in our case the pale blue dot we call our home and yet are so careless about it) through various processes like recycling, reusing, refurbishing and concepts like waste management; and this is achieved via long-term sustainable designs. 

We, as in human beings or industries or businesses, are constantly consuming resources available to us, with little or no mindfulness on the aftereffects of the consumption cycle. Once a resource is consumed it generates a waste, whether in form of chemical, biological or in a lot of cases a non-biodegradable waste; which impacts everything that surrounds our 'home'. 

The mindset that European Union, UK, and other countries are trying to adopt is of a sustainable future by promoting circular economy as a society. Mckinsey estimates that moving towards such an economy can dramatically lower Europe's mobility, food and built-environment (these are the three basic human needs) cost by 2030. 

 Now what?

 So there is both a philosophical as well as economical case for promoting a mindset where 'use-and-throw-and-forget' is not the first choice; rather human beings, society, countries, and world as a whole promotes sustainable long-term practices that are going to benefit us all in not just current lifetime but future too; especially if you think future generation is not disconnected from you, rather it's you in a different lifetime!

 In my next article I'll talk about some methods that can help you reach your personal sustainability goals; beginning with a mentality shift and moving on to practical methods like recycling. But you can check out the following references to begin some reading on your own.

 References:

 You can read more about Karma here:

You can read more about Circular Economy here:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Scuba Diving 36 feet deep in Goa (Surreal but Nice!)

"Surreal but nice" that's what Hugh Grant's character managed to blurt out, mesmerized by the beauty of Julia Roberts (in the movie Notting Hill ). And this was the exact thought that was running in my mind as I was rising from a depth of over 35 feet under water in the Arabian Sea near Goa, India. I had just finished my first dive (rather second dive of my first dive) with grouper fish, tailor fish - and many more - knelt at the bottom of the ocean floor and touched a ship wreck that sunk more than sixty years ago! It was a surreal experience that has left me with a feeling of self-satisfaction as well as endless curiosity. The two feelings very rarely take a house together in my mind. Probably the last time they shacked up together was when I got an admit for my Master's from State University of New York . The feeling of gliding underwater among the fishes, water pressure trying to burst your ears drums, flying over huge boulders of rocks under sea; like an un...
23 comments
Read more
The debate on Times Now Summit 2022 between Salman Khurshid, Dr. Vikram Sampath, Sai Deepak, and Pavan K Varma showed how disconnected the left, right, and the middle are from each other.  We all know these 'luminaries',  as Rahul Shivshankar, Editorial Director & Editor-in-Chief  @TimesNow introduces them.  How left and right  do not apply to Indian political viewpoints  is a matter for another time, therefore pardon my use of the western paradigm of left and right for the rest of this blog post. Times Now Debate, 2022 We all know Sai Deepak through his YouTube debate with  Asaduddin Owaisi  (Sai Deepak in fact moderated the debate) a few years back. And since then he has authored a couple of books on the historical context that surrounded the drafting of the constitution of India between 1946 to 1950. His first book on India, that is Bharat forced us to rethink colonialism and introduced an entirely distinct scholarly way to look at middle-e...
Post a Comment
Read more

What is Vulgar Propaganda?

Nadav Lapid called the movie 'The Kashmir Files' a propaganda movie while making his comments at the International Film Festival of India 2022 held in Goa last month. I'm not going to talk about the resulting controversy and eventual apology by Mr. Lapid. He was not only disrespectful of the freedom of speech of director Vivek Agnihotri but conducted his jury duty unprofessionally by taking a political stance. I'm only interested in the accusation of propaganda that Mr. Lapid so casually hurled at 'The Kashmir Files'.  The Kashmir Files What is propaganda?  The best definition that I could find is available on a website called  https://disinformation-nation.org/how-propaganda-works/ where it defines propaganda as 'an agenda' to promote a specific cause or ideology to a 'targeted audience' and a 'massaged message' which may alter or omit the facts. Propaganda can take various forms of communication to propagate the agenda.  And especially...
Post a Comment
Read more