Water, water, everywhere,

And all the boards did shrink;

Water, water, everywhere,

Nor any drop to drink, says Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Says I,Water, water everywhere.

And we did find a connecting link,

As half of Germany sinks,

by nature's fury in the blink.

Water, water everywhere and all our hopes are on the brink.

The ravaging floods, the magnitude of devastation and the agony of those affected can't be summarised in mere words as East and Southern Germany wade through the rising waters. The whole of Central Europe has been put on high alert owing to floods wrecking havoc in this part of the world. The heavy rains that unleashed for several days led to severe damages the extent of which is unimaginable. The swollen Elbe river damaged the fields, inundated properties, took away the lives of many and left others shattered and homeless. As the waters have now receded, the losses and heavy toll inflicted by nature become visible, the cost of which runs in billions of euros along with many irreparable damages such as the casualties. It's very easy to write or talk about the catastrophe, but those who lived through this ordeal know better than any one of us how nature's forces when threatened, could unite together in a moment to wipe out the biggest and the strongest of cities without any trace. All the measures to safeguard ourselves hopelessly fail against one supreme power, God! Like it's said-there is always something larger than what is large. But the question is still the same as before, have we learned the big lesson yet? Ironically, the answer too remains unchanged as before, 'No we have not yet learned.'

Time and again we have paid heavy prices for our misdemeanors against nature, nonetheless we are even now on the same self destruction mode which would eventually sound our death knell...but by then it would be too late to make amends! We have often read about Global warming, green house gases, the abnormal pattern of seasons, the rise in global temperature etc, etc but how many of us actually pay heed to the implications all these factors could have on our environment and eventually on our lives. I am sure many of us would not even care to read such articles dealing with environmental hazards and most of us would just turn onto the next page of the newspaper to read Page3 or the happenings in Middle East or how is dollar getting affected or the value of Euro. We frankly don't give a damn to our environment to put it in plainer words. Understanding of Nature and its laws requires time, to protect our planet from the potentially precarious repercussions of global warming requires coming out of that moronic mentality ' ignorance is bliss', believe me, it's nothing but the bane of mankind.

Marking a day as World Environment day and celebrating it by lighting candles for a day, won't solve the problem nor will it prolong the longevity of our planet. Without sounding too preachy, let me just put it this way, our little attention and caution in day today life could bring about a remarkable improvement in our environment which otherwise is in a state of great peril. Declining green cover, increased and over industrialization, unplanned construction and most importantly human greed when all these factors combine together to manipulate nature then the revenge comes in the form of Tsunamis, the hurricanes, earthquakes, floods and droughts. In short, world seems to be in the spell of black magic, what we see, we hear and read, are only sufferings at large, East, West, North or South! No matter how much we shrug off our roles in contributing towards Global warming, truth can't be denied the majority of causes are due to us and the future effects on us would be even severe and scarier.

Earlier in the month the floods caused by torrents which sabotaged large parts of Germany caught the headlines and the more latest prey to these floods is India where the dance of fury continues to play havoc. With thousands dead, double the number missing and thousand others stranded, the calamity is far from over. Flooding is said to be the most immediate and expected outcome of Global warming. Due to changes in climatic conditions, the warming of seas has created ' Thermal expansion' which in turn has raised the sea surface levels. Already the steep rise of oceanic waters by 4-8 inches has been attributed to the above phenomenon according to National Geographic. Scientists have predicted an increase in sea levels worldwide due to melting of polar ice caps. As the earth is highly susceptible to climatic changes, droughts and wild fires would become a recurrent feature owing to Global warming in Sub Saharan region. Killer storms like Hurricanes and cyclones too would be more frequent. The ravages of nature, the colossal apathy of humans, certainly the future looks grim.

Our obsessive reliance on electricity produced from carbon burning power plants releases enormous amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere. According to a report nearly 40% of the US CO2 emissions come from electricity production by burning coal which further amounts to 93% of emissions from electric utility industry. Keep aside US how many of us do actually turn off the lights when leaving the room? Even these basic and tiny steps can do a lot to conserve energy. I wonder at times, if all of us turn eco friendly then what would happen to Las Vegas and Dubai, they would suffer massive black outs.

Another causal factor is our present day car/ SUV culture. With the alarming increase in our population and the even bigger demand for cars, we are increasing the use of fossil fuels for transportation and manufacturing. I really admire the well developed and efficient European public transport in general and Germany's in particular. Majority of people prefer using public transport over cars any day, European public transport model need to be promoted globally.

The abnormal pattern of climate leading to floods in some areas,droughts in many more and increasing the tectonic activity carries jeopardies for mankind to cope with. 'Climate change is expected to have the most severe impact on water supplies. Shortages in future are likely to threaten food production, reduce sanitation, hinder economic development and damage eco systems. It causes more violent swings between floods and droughts.' The Guardian.

The failure of crops and loss of livestock due to interrupted rains for two consecutive years led to the recent great famine in Somalia. According to BBC, nearly 260,000 people died during the famine that hit Somalia from 2010-2012. Half of them were children under the age of five, says the report by the UN. From time to time, Nature has warned us, hit and whipped us severely, but we continue meddling with it and its forces.Transgression is often punishable. We keep raising our selfish and destructive hopes high and nature keeps razing them to ground year after year. It's time for some serious introspection and some serious amends, for we won't be given yet another chance!