It’s here to stay, ‘weather’ you like it or not!

My apartment has been busy putting up a rainwater harvesting outfit all week and it’s been the hot topic of discussion among our neighbours. Each time the sky turns deep, dark and brooding, and the rain begins to fall in silver sheets, we run downstairs to check the inflow and the filters. We gather to find out if the water levels have risen in our tanks and to make quick estimates of how many rain drenched days we need to become self-sufficient. The buzz in my building is almost tangible; it far exceeds the excitement of other eventful times, like the evening when we spent hunting for a lost kitten or the day we spent discussing mysteriously stolen milk sachets, a la Poirot.

The weather has always been a useful conversation starter, I’ve discovered. Everywhere I go, any discussion about the weather is the prelude to instant bonding. “So did you hear that the south-west monsoon has hit Kerala a day early,” says a guest and soon, there is an animated discussion about monsoon trends spanning a decade. If anyone happens to say, “This has been the hottest summer ever,”… it is met with a shower of opinions that could ramify into discussions of summer desserts, movie releases this summer and hot weather holiday plans.

In many countries, weather TV is a huge hit and here too, people wait to hear the weather reports every night on the news. But, what is interesting today is the fact that people are looking seriously at climate change and not just sitting back to record the vagaries of the weather via conversation.

Recently I was introduced to Kiran Pereira, of Infosys Technologies Ltd, who is hard at work on their project called ‘Sustainability’, which includes climate change. “The slowest changes are the most dangerous,” she says. “For instance, Bangalore once had over a hundred lakes but so many have been lost over the years. If the change had happened immediately, people would have jumped in and done something about it, but since it happened so slowly, it did not even get noticed by many people. It’s the same with climate change in the world, which is taking place slowly, but surely.”

According to Pereira, people should pay attention to what’s going on climate-wise and in the environment. “One of the initiatives that people can take is to construct buildings thoughtfully,” she adds. “Some years ago, many of our buildings were made of glass but when we realised that these buildings created too much heat, we began constructing green buildings with special ceilings that allowed light to enter but kept out the heat. Also, it is a known fact that planting trees can bring down the temperature of a place by many degrees. Anyone can do this easily.”

Her point? Don’t just talk about the weather. Think about it. Watch the changes that are happening. See what part you can play.
For those of us who love to talk about the weather, it’s perhaps time to take the next step. Even those of us who subscribe to the view of the person who said,  “Weather is a great metaphor for life — sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad, and there’s nothing much you can do about it but carry an umbrella”.

Everyone can do something, however small, to make a difference. Even if it’s as simple as checking out how much water you can save this monsoon as water bathes the earth in our part of the world.