For the last two and a half centuries or so, a great movement has been going on. Initiated in England, it soon spread all over Europe and then, leaping across the seven seas, it gradually engulfed all lands of this fair Earth. Never ceasing, never stopping, it continuously marches forward, forever striving fro perfection, forever forging new roads in pristine wilderness. The emissaries of this movement, this ‘Grand Design’ as it were, are perpetually engaged in the onerous task of the expansion of its domains and the widening of the spheres of its dramatic and drastic influence…
This movement is of rape. Of Plunder. Of Destruction.
This movement is of industrialisation, a movement which has lent to this human race unnatural and unprecedented power over the natural elements, making him/her the arbitrator of the fate of all the myriad species on Earth…
The forward march of machines into our world has not only irreparably scarred the beauty of the natural world, it has also choked and throttled the bond that holds all men/women to that greatest manufacturer of all- Nature…
In his/her haste to produce more, infinitely more, the Western man/woman of the nineteenth century went around heedlessly extracting resources and mindlessly polluting the elements. But yet, he/she may be pardoned, for it is very probable that neither did he/she understand the true import of his/her actions nor were there any who could have successfully pointed out to him/her the folly of his/her apocalyptic ways.
No, it is the modern industrialist whom one must condemn for consciously not listening to this last desperate call of Nature- what else except base action for petty self interest can such a deliberate turning away from the correct path in full knowledge of the disastrous consequences of doing so be regarded? Reports flowing inform all over the world betray the same sense of desperate anxiety. Hitherto unexpected rises in global temperatures have led to huge scale melting of glacial ice all over the world. Acute water shortage, disease, starvation, war, death- all of these confront humanity with a single minded determination never before witnessed in the entire history of this marvellous race.
And how do our governments react to this? Putting up sad faces and helplessly wringing their hands, they contemplatively shake their heads- in short, they put up as good a farcical disguise as possible and whole heartedly and stupidly commit the same mistakes again…
In a day and age wherein ‘development’ and ‘growth’ are the mantra of life, government policies are getting more and more influenced by considerations of the head than of the heart. Economic jargons like GDP, FDI, per capita income etc. dictate national policy, while issues infinitely more pressing are pushed to the sidelines. Witness this in the positions of the governments of India and china, the fastest growing polluters on this planet, on cutting down carbon emissions-while blaming on one hand (rightly and justifiably) the West for much that is wrong with the environment today and asking it to mend its ways, they seek on the other for themselves an amnesty from compulsory reduction of carbon based pollutants, the only reason being the ‘great losses’ which their so called ‘stupendously growing’ economies would incur if such a measure were to be forced onto them.
What could be more suicidal?
This movement is of rape. Of Plunder. Of Destruction.
This movement is of industrialisation, a movement which has lent to this human race unnatural and unprecedented power over the natural elements, making him/her the arbitrator of the fate of all the myriad species on Earth…
The forward march of machines into our world has not only irreparably scarred the beauty of the natural world, it has also choked and throttled the bond that holds all men/women to that greatest manufacturer of all- Nature…
In his/her haste to produce more, infinitely more, the Western man/woman of the nineteenth century went around heedlessly extracting resources and mindlessly polluting the elements. But yet, he/she may be pardoned, for it is very probable that neither did he/she understand the true import of his/her actions nor were there any who could have successfully pointed out to him/her the folly of his/her apocalyptic ways.
No, it is the modern industrialist whom one must condemn for consciously not listening to this last desperate call of Nature- what else except base action for petty self interest can such a deliberate turning away from the correct path in full knowledge of the disastrous consequences of doing so be regarded? Reports flowing inform all over the world betray the same sense of desperate anxiety. Hitherto unexpected rises in global temperatures have led to huge scale melting of glacial ice all over the world. Acute water shortage, disease, starvation, war, death- all of these confront humanity with a single minded determination never before witnessed in the entire history of this marvellous race.
And how do our governments react to this? Putting up sad faces and helplessly wringing their hands, they contemplatively shake their heads- in short, they put up as good a farcical disguise as possible and whole heartedly and stupidly commit the same mistakes again…
In a day and age wherein ‘development’ and ‘growth’ are the mantra of life, government policies are getting more and more influenced by considerations of the head than of the heart. Economic jargons like GDP, FDI, per capita income etc. dictate national policy, while issues infinitely more pressing are pushed to the sidelines. Witness this in the positions of the governments of India and china, the fastest growing polluters on this planet, on cutting down carbon emissions-while blaming on one hand (rightly and justifiably) the West for much that is wrong with the environment today and asking it to mend its ways, they seek on the other for themselves an amnesty from compulsory reduction of carbon based pollutants, the only reason being the ‘great losses’ which their so called ‘stupendously growing’ economies would incur if such a measure were to be forced onto them.
What could be more suicidal?
This just like saying that we can’t do the right thing because it’s difficult. Remember the story of the man who cut off the branch on which he was sitting? Can you see the analogy, the terrible similarity no? For though it is true that the West is responsible for almost all of the mess that the world is in today, it is also undeniable that the West will be the least affected by this mess simply because it has the resources to bait itself out of it. Not just that, the West, atleast the E.U., which, from THE polluter has become THE champion of the cause, has also humbly acknowledged its mistakes and is trying its best to work out a solution. Nature gave Europe that rarest of the rare- a second chance, a chance to once again stand up on its feet…
On the other hand, grossly over populated countries like China and India really cannot afford to cut off their branches simply because they will not get a chance to redeem their mistakes afterwards. Therefore, while it is true that ‘developing’ nations, like ours, will suffer the most from the inevitable catastrophe to come, a disaster which is not of their own making, it is also undeniable that these very ‘economies’, if they continue going upon their current, unsustainable way, will catalyse the already picking up steam process of decay and degeneration. This is one case where pointing fingers will prove to be totally futile, where passing the buck will most certainly prove to be fatal…
Industrialisation is in itself an irreversible process and to attempt to undo it will only betray extreme lack of comprehension. All that is needed is the humanisation of industrialisation: to see the world of men and women not as a separate but an integral part of the natural world and to work diligently towards not the deadening but the toning down of the feverish pace of this (presently) self-destructive progress and putting in its place a system of compassion, understanding and foresight, a system wherein are put to use the qualities of not just the head but also the heart…
There is before this generation, the generation of you and me and countless others, a great big challenge, a challenge that will require the shouldering of a responsibility that will in turn require courage, intelligence and, most importantly, the will to unhesitatingly and readily act…
The Merchants are everywhere- ready to sell bodies, lives, souls. They are ready to barter all that is good and real in this world for all that is bad and illusionary.
We must not let that happen. We must not let this Planet be put up for Sale…
Venus, the Earth’s neighbouring planet on the ‘sunny side’ is, quite literally, a gas chamber. That is to say that its atmosphere has a tremendously high percentage of carbon dioxide which, by trapping all the heat radiated back from its surface to space, makes it an inferno of scorching heat and blinding dust. Life in the organic form, which needs more of oxygen and (dramatically) less of carbon dioxide, can naturally not flourish there…
Scientists and astronomers recently came up with a startling revelation- Venus at one time did have surface and sub surface water. Perhaps life in the ‘organic form’ did exist there…
Supposing that it did, the big question becomes not how but why and what. Why did it come to an end? What cataclysm erased all traces and forms of life from the Evening Star?
There are no easy answers.
That’s exactly what some other form of life will wonder when it looks at the earth say a millennium later.
Unless, of course, that we do something about it, the greatest problem of our times, right now.
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