When the last tree has fallen,
When the last drops of water are polluted,
When the last bird ceases to sing,
Will “they” realize that money cannot be eaten.
Reading these somewhat crazy lines, I was joyous, at being finally able to have convinced myself, that this human race has faintest of hopes of living out the new century. I had been troubled for a pretty long time at, what seems to me, a race to extinction.
I am an educated, liberal and informed individual. Having been educated at the best of the institutions, I developed a deep admiration for Mother Nature and her so “wily” ways. Listening to my Guru and his talks on “biomimetic” methods, I sensed a deep concern in him. Of late, all he talked of was “Green” Chemistry.
I connect to people, people my age and people “not” my age, irrespective of who and what they are, thanks to my rootless upbringing. I used to be appalled at how short sighted “genuinely” gifted men can be. Talks of Dollar salaries, Ivy League scholarships, Religion, Music, Social ills, Politics, Sports with the latest analyses and opinions were a lively experience. But sadly, no one thought of what I think is the issue.
The planet we live on is dying and no one seems to take notice. Do we care? Yes, we do. We have moved to unleaded petrol, CFC free refrigerants and catalytic converters and what not. But the question is has the pace slackened and if yes, then by how much and finally, how long do we have.
Now I must be sounding a pessimistic paranoid. Believe me, if I am one, then there is cause for, a need. Try and look from this perspective, my perspective. Living a fast paced lifestyle, cozily wrapped up in all amenities, with hi-tech technology. Should there ever be a need to concern myself of some hard facts, about law and order, governance, poverty, illiteracy. Would I not be better off not thinking of them, but then thanks to the naturalist upbringing shudders my conscience, urging me to go back to the “labs” for the “future”. I am still in that dilemma but not for long.
Living in one of the most polluted cities, stricken with poverty, disease, strife and violence, it is quite demanding on one’s psyche. Now just “pretend” to be receptive and open to this idea. Think of this earth as an inorganic being. It has similar transport processes as “us”. The oceans, the atmosphere and the “hot” lava. Vegetation can be likened to lungs and “us” animals as some “platelets”. But as of now, human race, is a cancer, which has nearly finished off other “platelets” and has suffocated the earth, by wiping off the “lungs”. We are the “cancer”, multiplying and corrupting (polluting) everything in our grasp. Everything. We may have the most amazing technologies, but isn’t nature outwitting us at every step. The battle is on, and it is “Earth vs. Cancer”. Will nature (earth’s immune system) eliminate humans or will humans win. Eventually for humans, it is death, as once a cancer afflicted patient dies, cancer goes with it.
My concern is for human race and nor do I hate neither despise it. I have great faith in human resilience and spirit of man kind but the shortsightedness with which it is pursuing its shallow aims, unsettles me at times.
Even though there are campaigns and organizations for protection of our abode, they are at times too narrow in their outlook. This makes them redundant, for they concentrate on some seemingly important goals but not the whole picture. How can the whole picture be so “obscure” is disturbing.
When Rolf Edberg says “What has gone wrong, probably, is that we have failed to see ourselves as part of a large and indivisible whole. For too long, we have based our lives on a primitive feeling that our "God-given" role was to have "dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. We have failed to understand that the earth does not belong to us, but we do the earth." There is no sense of belongingness to this place which we call earth. People love to fall in “love” without knowing what love really is.
This is exactly what the problem is. In fact, we do not realize that if there is a few degrees change in the global temperature, the world would be pushed into another ice-age and we are nearing one. In our country, how many “green patches” which can truly be called “forests” are there. Even when they are classified as forests, there is indifferent human intervention. Does the human race, claim that it can survive alone on this planet, then it is mistaken and if it does not, then why is it cleaning away the habitats of other species.
The group of environmentalists is not a bunch of hypocrites, but are those people who believe that under present conditions of duress, animal life is more valuable than human life. I am not against their argument, but I cannot support them. They give a classic example, you have only 100 elephants, but have 10000000 human beings. Now tell me if given a choice, which would, you save?
Another group is of the developmental Economists-Environmentalists. This predominant category fights for animal rights, fights for preservation of green cover. But if it is unavoidable, then they are usually ready for relocation of green cover.
I belong to a third category. My first priority is my nation and the people. But I also realize that long term development is impossible if we destroy the environment. So I fight for its preservation. I fight in all the ways I can and at all times I can.
But then sometimes I have this absurdist urge of letting go of my faith in mankind. If you ask the reason, all I will say is that I am disappointed by the way I have seen them reacting to the mess around us. It is so obvious that this planet cannot sustain our activities for long, if they continue unabated. Can we not understand this SIMPLE fact?
The human load on this earth increases while you read this. How many humans can this earth take and for how long. Talking in terms of India, the land and the climate cannot sustain more than 25 crore individuals on a long term basis. Now that we are closer to 105 crores, can we take notice of this fact? I am not going to elaborate on how to achieve this or the statistics to support this. The government seems not to be doing anything in this regard and I do not find education to be a differentiating factor in this either. I find the stand taken by people on this issue very sad, but I guess it ain’t their fault.
George Harrison put it so eloquently –
"We’ve got to save the world
Someone’s children, they may need it.
So far we’ve seen
the big business of extinction bleed it.
We’ve got to save the world.
We’re at the mercy of the few,
With evil hearts determined to
Reduce this planet to hell,
Then find a buyer and make a quick sale.
We’ve got to save the world
someone else may want to use it.
It’s time you knew
how close we’ve come.
We’ve gonna lose it - we gotta save,
we gotta save, we gotta save the world".
Quoting John Fowles, just for the sole reason that his anger brings in me a feeling of dread. “So I felt this burning summer. In form I might belong to humankind; in reality I seemed one of a ravenous self-destroying horde of rats. I am glad there is no God. If there were, I cannot imagine that we rampant, myopic and insatiably self-centered creatures should be allowed to survive a single day more".
After all, we cannot expect nature's forgiveness forever.
When the last drops of water are polluted,
When the last bird ceases to sing,
Will “they” realize that money cannot be eaten.
Reading these somewhat crazy lines, I was joyous, at being finally able to have convinced myself, that this human race has faintest of hopes of living out the new century. I had been troubled for a pretty long time at, what seems to me, a race to extinction.
I am an educated, liberal and informed individual. Having been educated at the best of the institutions, I developed a deep admiration for Mother Nature and her so “wily” ways. Listening to my Guru and his talks on “biomimetic” methods, I sensed a deep concern in him. Of late, all he talked of was “Green” Chemistry.
I connect to people, people my age and people “not” my age, irrespective of who and what they are, thanks to my rootless upbringing. I used to be appalled at how short sighted “genuinely” gifted men can be. Talks of Dollar salaries, Ivy League scholarships, Religion, Music, Social ills, Politics, Sports with the latest analyses and opinions were a lively experience. But sadly, no one thought of what I think is the issue.
The planet we live on is dying and no one seems to take notice. Do we care? Yes, we do. We have moved to unleaded petrol, CFC free refrigerants and catalytic converters and what not. But the question is has the pace slackened and if yes, then by how much and finally, how long do we have.
Now I must be sounding a pessimistic paranoid. Believe me, if I am one, then there is cause for, a need. Try and look from this perspective, my perspective. Living a fast paced lifestyle, cozily wrapped up in all amenities, with hi-tech technology. Should there ever be a need to concern myself of some hard facts, about law and order, governance, poverty, illiteracy. Would I not be better off not thinking of them, but then thanks to the naturalist upbringing shudders my conscience, urging me to go back to the “labs” for the “future”. I am still in that dilemma but not for long.
Living in one of the most polluted cities, stricken with poverty, disease, strife and violence, it is quite demanding on one’s psyche. Now just “pretend” to be receptive and open to this idea. Think of this earth as an inorganic being. It has similar transport processes as “us”. The oceans, the atmosphere and the “hot” lava. Vegetation can be likened to lungs and “us” animals as some “platelets”. But as of now, human race, is a cancer, which has nearly finished off other “platelets” and has suffocated the earth, by wiping off the “lungs”. We are the “cancer”, multiplying and corrupting (polluting) everything in our grasp. Everything. We may have the most amazing technologies, but isn’t nature outwitting us at every step. The battle is on, and it is “Earth vs. Cancer”. Will nature (earth’s immune system) eliminate humans or will humans win. Eventually for humans, it is death, as once a cancer afflicted patient dies, cancer goes with it.
My concern is for human race and nor do I hate neither despise it. I have great faith in human resilience and spirit of man kind but the shortsightedness with which it is pursuing its shallow aims, unsettles me at times.
Even though there are campaigns and organizations for protection of our abode, they are at times too narrow in their outlook. This makes them redundant, for they concentrate on some seemingly important goals but not the whole picture. How can the whole picture be so “obscure” is disturbing.
When Rolf Edberg says “What has gone wrong, probably, is that we have failed to see ourselves as part of a large and indivisible whole. For too long, we have based our lives on a primitive feeling that our "God-given" role was to have "dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. We have failed to understand that the earth does not belong to us, but we do the earth." There is no sense of belongingness to this place which we call earth. People love to fall in “love” without knowing what love really is.
This is exactly what the problem is. In fact, we do not realize that if there is a few degrees change in the global temperature, the world would be pushed into another ice-age and we are nearing one. In our country, how many “green patches” which can truly be called “forests” are there. Even when they are classified as forests, there is indifferent human intervention. Does the human race, claim that it can survive alone on this planet, then it is mistaken and if it does not, then why is it cleaning away the habitats of other species.
The group of environmentalists is not a bunch of hypocrites, but are those people who believe that under present conditions of duress, animal life is more valuable than human life. I am not against their argument, but I cannot support them. They give a classic example, you have only 100 elephants, but have 10000000 human beings. Now tell me if given a choice, which would, you save?
Another group is of the developmental Economists-Environmentalists. This predominant category fights for animal rights, fights for preservation of green cover. But if it is unavoidable, then they are usually ready for relocation of green cover.
I belong to a third category. My first priority is my nation and the people. But I also realize that long term development is impossible if we destroy the environment. So I fight for its preservation. I fight in all the ways I can and at all times I can.
But then sometimes I have this absurdist urge of letting go of my faith in mankind. If you ask the reason, all I will say is that I am disappointed by the way I have seen them reacting to the mess around us. It is so obvious that this planet cannot sustain our activities for long, if they continue unabated. Can we not understand this SIMPLE fact?
The human load on this earth increases while you read this. How many humans can this earth take and for how long. Talking in terms of India, the land and the climate cannot sustain more than 25 crore individuals on a long term basis. Now that we are closer to 105 crores, can we take notice of this fact? I am not going to elaborate on how to achieve this or the statistics to support this. The government seems not to be doing anything in this regard and I do not find education to be a differentiating factor in this either. I find the stand taken by people on this issue very sad, but I guess it ain’t their fault.
George Harrison put it so eloquently –
"We’ve got to save the world
Someone’s children, they may need it.
So far we’ve seen
the big business of extinction bleed it.
We’ve got to save the world.
We’re at the mercy of the few,
With evil hearts determined to
Reduce this planet to hell,
Then find a buyer and make a quick sale.
We’ve got to save the world
someone else may want to use it.
It’s time you knew
how close we’ve come.
We’ve gonna lose it - we gotta save,
we gotta save, we gotta save the world".
Quoting John Fowles, just for the sole reason that his anger brings in me a feeling of dread. “So I felt this burning summer. In form I might belong to humankind; in reality I seemed one of a ravenous self-destroying horde of rats. I am glad there is no God. If there were, I cannot imagine that we rampant, myopic and insatiably self-centered creatures should be allowed to survive a single day more".
After all, we cannot expect nature's forgiveness forever.
Comments
I am so tired of all this... but I am going to fight it all the way