DESTROYING OUR WORLD - DESTROYING OURSELVES!

I was fortunate to see nature at it's best recently when my family and I travelled to a tiger reserve, a national park, a forest, where I could lay eyes on mother earth in all its glory.

It was beautiful, wondrous, overwhelming and breathtaking. The animals, the flora, even the huge, scary spiders, all took my breath away.

I was so happy to see our country doing so much for animals and its forests when I was told by our guide how much the Indian Forest Service is doing to preserve these wondrous places.

Struck by the jungle, in awe of nature and its many wonders I lived in a bubble for a few days. However the happiness and elation was short-lived. Back in our concrete jungle, hating the loud ugliness of it all, I came across the mention of a book called The Vanishing by Prerna Singh Bindra about how our forests were slowly and steadily being destroyed. I haven't read the book yet but an article about the book caught my eye. Can a populous country like India 'afford' to protect wildlife? Is there space for wildlife in a land-scarce, densely populated country, and can wild animals and people coexist, or is the relationship inevitably confrontational? Is conservation and protecting the flora and fauna a hindrance to the growth agenda? Is development inimical to ecological security? The above are some of the questions the author has raised in her book which I plan to read soon. 

Land and resources are being grabbed by a handful few who in the name of development are actually destroying everything that is beautiful.

Yes, development is essential, yes, technology is essential, yes, land is essential, yes, yes, yes...for us humans who multiply by the millions and are thus running out of space, these are necessary evils - a must for our survival.

But what happens when we finally run out of land and resources? Where do our fellow earthlings go (mute and helpless as we already are - victims of our own greed), what will our children do when there is no oxygen to breathe and not an inch to stand on? The recent headlines about the smog filled capital of our country scared the bejesus out of me. No one has answers, no one is doing anything, and the worst of it all, no one including me really wants to do anything about the slow but steady destruction of our world.

Flummoxed and sad I decided to read up about what was happening around the world regarding climate change. While there are many who are taking the reins in their hands, raising the issue globally, doing their small bit to ensure something is done - whatever little they can do, most like me are just silent, mute spectators and participants.

If Greta Thunberg in her own resolute and brusque manner defies those in power, questions them, is she really wrong? Oh I agree and am completely convinced that there are powers with hidden agendas unbeknownst to us who are behind her and propping her up. But I am also glad that these things are coming to the fore and there are people who dare to do what most of us can't or don't want to. Resistance and calls to action though are just the beginning.

Governments all over the world are making fools of its citizens, business houses rule the world and governments, and the very citizens who are being fooled are complicit in this whole rigmarole of deception. It hurts my head when I think about it so I do what most model citizens do, work, pay my taxes, entertain myself, live my life without giving a thought to what governments, industries and citizens like me are up to.

I carry on with my life, my eyes selfishly shut to anything that causes strife in it. I have learnt to run away from the truth, doing nothing to ensure I leave a better world for the future generations including my own children.

What can I even do I justify to myself, what can our government do, what can mere mortals like me do? We have no power, no decision making capability whatsoever nor do we have the will to gain power or capability to do something for our world.

Why is that? Am I no different from the money and power hungry governments, officials and business houses whose greed to become richer and stronger is never fulfilled. How much money is really enough? How many houses are really enough? How many cars and jets are really enough?

But before I question those who are in power I need to introspect the part I and my family are playing in this devastation.

Can I - do I really want to give up plastic and the many many advantages of technology which are harming earth? Can I - am I willing to live a simpler life without cars and aircrafts which are fuel guzzlers or electricity which cannot be produced without essential resources such as coal, can I do without products which require factories, can I exist without the facilities of transportation, air conditioners, refrigerators, phones, wood for paper and the beautification of our homes? Can I - am I willing to selflessly not participate in the endless cycle of production and consumption?

In an influential essay written in the ruins of the Second World War, Martin Heidegger characterised the reduction of the natural world to resources for production and consumption as the crisis of modernity. 

"A self-serving, perfunctory use of technology, he warned, leads to sacrilege, violence and destruction – the very attitudes our current climate emergency is founded upon."

He thought this freedom could be achieved through a form of “wilful non-willing” that releases us from our selfish activities and puts us in a position to interact with nature in a sustainable way. 

There is absolutely no doubt that everyone from powerful nations to the smallest countries, the richest and the poorest, the educated and the uneducated - everyone - all of us need to search our souls, analyse, open our eyes and take action to preserve and protect what's left of our earth and our future. Whether we do it or we can do it is in our hands.