After deciding to forward the report on climate responsible lifestyle initiative at the governor's house in Kolkata, Gandhi made his intention to sensitize other bulk consumers, both institutional and otherwise, clear on Monday.

Speaking at a seminar of scientists, the Governor urged the community to not only study the threats from an asteroid strike billions of years later but also the immediate threat of climate change "The multiple shocks created by climate change are not going to wait for 6 billion years. They are not going to wait 600 years; not even six decades. Global warming and mean sea level rise are changing the face of the earth. West Bengal's river banks and estuaries, where land crumbles like a biscuit into a coffee cup, shows this phenomenon dramatically. Climate change propelled by man, though working through the instrumentation of natural' phenomena, is real and here," Gandhi told a glitterati of scientists.

He followed it up with an impassioned appeal for scientists to act. "As the most powerful species on earth, made more powerful by the instrumentation in our hands, we are likely to see everything we know and have founded, collapse before our eyes like the permafrost dropping into the sea or landslides caused by Aila in Darjeeling or shattered embankments in the Sunderbans. Scientists have been agents of change. They have changed things by what they have understood; they have changed things by what they have explained. But, most significantly, they have changed things by what they have done. This is the time."

On Monday evening, Gandhi had pointed to the disproportionate use of energy by bulk consumers, particularly government institutions. "There is a general lack of concern for resources that come free' with a tendency to use them too liberally, even thoughtlessly. There is often also an unwarranted feeling of entitlement among high users. In extreme cases, there could be overuse or exploitation. A mindset change is needed to usher in more thought out responsible actions," he said.

While lauding efforts to reach the moon with the Chandrayaan project, he urged upon them to launch a mega project like Prithviyaan that included sub-projects Himayaan, Vanayaan, Jalayaan and Vaayuyaan to protect the mountains, forests, water and air of pollutants.

Quoting from Anthony Giddens, former director of London School of Economics and member of the House of Lords, whose book The Politics of Climate Change came out only a few weeks ago, he said: "Doomsday is no longer a religious concept, a day of spiritual reckoning, but a possibility imminent in our society and economy. If unchecked, climate change alone could produce enormous human suffering. So also could the drying up of the energy sources upon which so many of our capacities are built. There remains the possibility of large-scale conflicts, perhaps involving the use of weapons of mass destruction. Each could intersect with the other..."