Farce today’s and Farcical tomorrows
We have often heard these words John. F. Kennedy ‘Don’t ask what the country did for you but ask what you did for the country.’ Though it is not true that the country did not do anything to the citizen asking the question, it is very true that the citizen did not do anything for the country. These ideas have become old now, in the new millennium where we have crossed the imagining lines of separation and our minds have acquired the ability to think beyond the physical barriers. It is apt for those words, if uttered by any personality, to be transformed as ‘ Ask not what the Environment did for you, but what did you do to it.’ In this case it is not as hidden as what the country does to its citizen so that the citizen couldn’t identify its services, but the service of the natural environment we live is very very essential that we tend to forget it. It is the most fundamental service of all. It provides the oxygen to breathe and it also provides us the source of electricity which powers the world today. Yet, such an inevitable service does get ignored. Why? Because it is free of cost, that’s why! Now let’s think about what we have done to the nature. There’s nothing much to think –we have done nothing for it- it might even seem that our sheer existence might be draining it, but, since we are a part of it we have a right to live which gives us a right to use the resources- a right every living organism has.
So, Is it the case of the citizen doing nothing for the country? No certainly not. In this case the citizen n is not a citizen –he has become a traitor, hurting his own country. That’s what mankind has resorted to and they are hurting our mother nature very seriously.
The main problem with her is the communication gap. She speaks through actions, which are small and barely sensible to our ‘intelligent’ brains. We need a specialist (called scientist/Environmentalist) to decipher them. What do they say?
They say that our fresh water supply is to be reduced. They say the topsoil is to be lost through unnatural flooding. They say the ratio of carcinogens and poisonous gases is bound to increase in out atmosphere. They say the ozone shield is to be reduced slowly so that we get a taste of UV radiation. They say that sea levels are to be increased at the expense of the fresh water ice sheets in the poles. They say that the salinity of our soils is getting a hive. They say that it has decided to do something with our minds that we continue to increase our population indiscriminately.
What do these mean to us? If you want me to read this in a most optimistic fashion, I would say: What if the fresh water supply is down, we can always desalinate seawater and get fresh water. What if the topsoil is gone-a little more of fertilizers can get back the nutrients. The carcinogens and poisonous gases are on the rise- right let’s get some air purifiers in our homes and offices. As for impure water, let’s purify it along with desalination process. Ozone layer –good lets get some protective wear and get clad in it. After all we get a free water purifier. The sea levels are increasing –god- more sea –more fish-more growth in fishing industry. Salinity is increasing – so what? We will engineer the gene to get plants that can grow in such land or probably its nature’s way of telling to switch over to green house farming. The land can be probably used to harvest salt. Population is increasing? What sweet news to hear. More population would mean more notations and variants leading to diversity in the genome. It is very important to have such a diversity that’s what can get us through the process of natural selection.
However optimistic I may sound, the impacts of such telltale signs are so palpable that no one can miss it. Even in my most optimistic view, one can easily find flaws, cases where I contradict myself. So why is that with things so obvious not many people seem to have taken any notice of it. Why is it we are so negligent about the implications of our actions.
Don’t we know that the lowering water levels and the increasing depth of bore wells cannot be going on forever? Do we expect the water to stay at the same level for years to come? Can’t we understand that such indiscriminate pumping of water will one day lead to water problem? Can we think of buying water for our everyday needs – even though some parts of the metropolitan cities are forced to, Can everybody afford such a situation?
Don’t we know that trees not only purify the air out of Co2 but also prevent soil erosion and flooding? Can’t we realize that each piece of furniture we get and every paper we use come out of trees which are being cut for us? The daily newspaper, magazine, note books, books and all our furniture are all our contribution for more soil being eroded and more water wasted to the sea causing floods and destroying everything on their way.
Don’t we know that smoke is not something we can breathe and feel better? Haven’t we seen smokers are a storehouse of all lung problems? Then what makes us think that the automobile we use gives out smoke that is of no concern to us. Do we think that just because this smoke is colourless and gets dispersed quickly its harmless to the atmosphere? Then why is that we tend to use more automobiles, more fire wood, more gas every time without even thinking that we are killing ourselves –our future.
Don’t we know that industrial effluents are not sweet looking and tasting fruit juices but are poisonous and aerie smelling fluids? Don’t we know that mixing them with the river water today will cause death of fishes and if the fish did not die, it could cause severe health problems for those who eat it tomorrow? Do we think that such an action is healthier to us?
Haven’t we found that the CFC’s from our refrigerators and air conditioners are the cause for the depletion of ozone layer which can cause skin cancer, increased mutations in both plants and animals which can lead to undesirable changes in their characters. Then why is that we still don’t raise any concern for such an issue? Even after science has provided a better alternative to this destructive compound, they are not being replaced primarily due to the costs involved and more importantly due to the lack of motivation from public. If we know that they are harmful then why is that we don’t even raise a voice against it if not stopping to use it.
Don’t we know that carbon dioxide is a green house gas and as its volume increases the average temperature rises? This is not good news for us –for a country where an air temperature of 46°C and a heat wave can leave more than a thousand people dead. And Co2 emissions are projected to increases the temperature by 3°C in the future. This rise in temperature also means the ice sheets in the Polar Regions, which could lead to a staggering rise in sea level submerging coastal cities or in other words dislocating millions of people. Certainly this cannot make any human mind happy.
The increases in salinity of our soils is chiefly culpable to the excessive use of fertilizers and water logging. This is not a good view as the salinity will adversely affect yield and finally leading to uncultivable waste land. And green house farming, innovative as it may seem to be, is definitely not inexpensive or healthy as the usual land farming. Having known so many facts why do we still continue to make our land so saline?
Don’t we remember that when we were children, the town/city/village we live was less crowded and more harmonious to live? Don’t we feel that the life and times of today is not as good as it was in those days? Is there anyone who doesn’t long for those good old days? What is that we dislike in today’s times? The high-rise buildings? Crowded roads and parks? The increase in automobiles and their side effects or is it the increasing encounters of cynical people? The best answer would be a linear combination of all these. What do these answers purport?
Don’t they mean one simple obvious and dangerous thing-the exploding population?
Is that desirable? Definitely everyone would say No. But nobody seems to be thinking that it is we who have to make that undesirable thing grow any more. In fact we have to realize that the growth in the population is responsible to all our woes. There will be no water if more people pump it and it is not a unlimited resource.
Unemployment- still the same- people have to equip themselves more than before to win a job today- reason since our opportunities cannot grow competing with the population partly due to technology/ monopolization and capitalist ideology and partly due to limited natural resources.
Lowering social responsibility- since we cannot expect a deprived person to follow the roles of law which either deprives them more or doesn’t do any good to their immediate situational needs.
These things aren’t new –they are known for along time- long enough for planners and educationalists to include them in the syllabi of all elementary science and social science textbooks. The students read it definitely, but the problem is the educational institution here is used only as a tool to get money and not as its primary use to impart the mind the ability to think-about future of our society as collective. So what does the student study this for? He does it because he has to study- if he doesn’t he will not get the stamp of approval by this stupid institution to continue further studies or even to show the world that he knows about such things.
So what is the teacher doing?
The teacher is definitely not telling that these are not just statements that have to be remembered to rewriten on a different paper but are actually facts about how to live harmoniously with nature.
The Result: All students know that Greenhouse effect is something that an increase in Co2 causes which results in the increase in temperature by 3°F and global climate changes. But nobody is taught the need for reducing Co2 emissions and to control the emissions is to control the need for unnecessary and luxurious use of fossil fuels- either an automobile or a coking gas. Because the curriculum or the test doesn’t require that. Even if this is being taught it becomes the moral responsibility of the teacher that she/he should follow what is taught or else the student will not understand the urgent need to reduce Co2 emissions.
Since it is difficult to practice what we teach we have decided not to teach at all. What can teachers do, they are just there to explain what’s there in the texts. If the government which decides what’s there in the texts, the author who give shape to the content do not bother to live up to what they want the next generation to learn. Why blame the teachers? We cannot expect dedication to work as a necessary qualification and neither can it be found by interviewing a person.
This is what we do to our children- concealing the facts because if we did not , we will have to face the questions from them as to why we did not take any step to say controlling Co2 emissions in the most elementary level. That is what the corporates do to our politicians and they in turn do to the people. Nobody wants to explain the ill effects of the acts we commit, but if we continue to blame like this then we will have to blame the scientists who introduced to the world the new techniques. In such a case we will have to charge Nicolas Otto and Rudolf Diesel first. But that it not justified, since they did not just expect Co2 to be that harmful. No one ever thought so far of the implications of our acts in the history of mankind. Neither did the aborigines of Australia think that burning forests for agricultural land would have caused a difference in their climate. Frankly nobody then could have thought- they did not even know that there was a gas called Co2 and large releases of it will cause a climate changing effect on earth. So they are not to be blamed.
But what about us?
Do we excuse ourselves by saying that we have got stuck in he inertia of a growing economy that we couldn’t stop or at least make any sudden change? No. It cannot be an excuse. Any such inertia cannot be lasting for more than 50 years. And with such a development of science and technology with us which can tell every effect of our acts even before we actually enact them. We cannot excuse our responsibility. So what is happening? Why aren’t we able to act swiftly and save the environment from further destruction .Why? What do the children who are not taught about the ill effects of our environmentally destructive acts do? When do they learn about these ill effects? Will they ever come to know? Even if they come to know will they be accepting it or will they still believe in what they were taught by the schools? They might probably come to know when there’s someone in other countries or other state make it an issue at their place. Or in some cases someone among them understands the issue and rises vociferously. How will they react for it? Will they be able to get out of the maze of their life and understand that the person who raises it does so because he’s worried about the future? Or will they think about the hidden motives the person could be having and view him with suspicion and refuse to even listen to him?
Most of them definitely will do one thing- ignore him. This is not because they do not believe him or so but because they are caught in the lifestyle which doesn’t allow them to think beyond the present or sometimes the immediate future. Their minds are occupied with worries about what they are going to do for the next meal. If they have secured that then for the next one. If that is also taken care of then it is about tomorrow –This constitutes about 30% of our population (India). The next 30% is a little better off (according to the lower 30%) and their mind is preoccupied about what can be done about the children- which school-which college. Or is it about how to buy that refrigerator that automobile that VCD music system. Or about how do deal with that colleague who is always trying to spoil my name before the boss- how to overrule him and get better. The rest of the % is mostly the top brains, it has worries about the similar things but in a little larger scale. –how to invest carefully- how to get that tender- how to solve the labour issues- how to get a better market for the products-and of course how to make his son/daughter to equipped to take care of his enterprise.
There is another small % which worries about the future of the mankind as on whole discards the other issues as less important and tries to broader the thoughts of the rest by highlighting these bigger issues often and fighting for such causes and in similar ways.
Except for this, small% and a little more of the top 30%, the rest of the country has a disabled mind. They tend to say live” what matters if its ‘Ram’ who’s ruling or it’s ‘Ravana’ who’s ruling” They may not be interested in making a difference through the democratic process of elections. They tend to keep their mind closed to any political issues of the country. It is because of them even if a person willing to make a difference to the country’s progress decide to contest in the elections he hardly gets anyone to trust him. This is because we are a Nation of “ Self- centered” people. So much that we cannot avoid searching for a hidden motive in a person’s selfless acts.
So much that we don’t care about anything happening anywhere unless it happens to us.
It is a part of this majority that forms the political class. It is the same, which forms the most impoverished and the middle class.
If we don’t care for each other in the society when are we going to care about the environment? The plants, animals, birds and insects, which do their duty and thus helping us to get our food and cleanse the water and air we need.
But nature is not as we think; it does not have an endless supply or an endless patience to hope changes will happen into the minds of humans. It is not interested in making us realize our mistakes. It receives all the harm we do and is going to pay back to us shortly. And when it pays back we will not be able to stop it. And it will not only hurt us it will also hurt all the other species in earth, which were linked to us directly. And then we will realize –with at least a half of our numbers vanishing and with a largely irreparable damage to our ecosystem left that we are just brief moments in this infinite process of evolution and its because of our mistakes that we lost the chance to go beyond these brief moments though equipped with the knowledge to do so that we lacked the will and were caught in the inertia of our ill thoughts. `
May 15th 2002, Madras.
We have often heard these words John. F. Kennedy ‘Don’t ask what the country did for you but ask what you did for the country.’ Though it is not true that the country did not do anything to the citizen asking the question, it is very true that the citizen did not do anything for the country. These ideas have become old now, in the new millennium where we have crossed the imagining lines of separation and our minds have acquired the ability to think beyond the physical barriers. It is apt for those words, if uttered by any personality, to be transformed as ‘ Ask not what the Environment did for you, but what did you do to it.’ In this case it is not as hidden as what the country does to its citizen so that the citizen couldn’t identify its services, but the service of the natural environment we live is very very essential that we tend to forget it. It is the most fundamental service of all. It provides the oxygen to breathe and it also provides us the source of electricity which powers the world today. Yet, such an inevitable service does get ignored. Why? Because it is free of cost, that’s why! Now let’s think about what we have done to the nature. There’s nothing much to think –we have done nothing for it- it might even seem that our sheer existence might be draining it, but, since we are a part of it we have a right to live which gives us a right to use the resources- a right every living organism has.
So, Is it the case of the citizen doing nothing for the country? No certainly not. In this case the citizen n is not a citizen –he has become a traitor, hurting his own country. That’s what mankind has resorted to and they are hurting our mother nature very seriously.
The main problem with her is the communication gap. She speaks through actions, which are small and barely sensible to our ‘intelligent’ brains. We need a specialist (called scientist/Environmentalist) to decipher them. What do they say?
They say that our fresh water supply is to be reduced. They say the topsoil is to be lost through unnatural flooding. They say the ratio of carcinogens and poisonous gases is bound to increase in out atmosphere. They say the ozone shield is to be reduced slowly so that we get a taste of UV radiation. They say that sea levels are to be increased at the expense of the fresh water ice sheets in the poles. They say that the salinity of our soils is getting a hive. They say that it has decided to do something with our minds that we continue to increase our population indiscriminately.
What do these mean to us? If you want me to read this in a most optimistic fashion, I would say: What if the fresh water supply is down, we can always desalinate seawater and get fresh water. What if the topsoil is gone-a little more of fertilizers can get back the nutrients. The carcinogens and poisonous gases are on the rise- right let’s get some air purifiers in our homes and offices. As for impure water, let’s purify it along with desalination process. Ozone layer –good lets get some protective wear and get clad in it. After all we get a free water purifier. The sea levels are increasing –god- more sea –more fish-more growth in fishing industry. Salinity is increasing – so what? We will engineer the gene to get plants that can grow in such land or probably its nature’s way of telling to switch over to green house farming. The land can be probably used to harvest salt. Population is increasing? What sweet news to hear. More population would mean more notations and variants leading to diversity in the genome. It is very important to have such a diversity that’s what can get us through the process of natural selection.
However optimistic I may sound, the impacts of such telltale signs are so palpable that no one can miss it. Even in my most optimistic view, one can easily find flaws, cases where I contradict myself. So why is that with things so obvious not many people seem to have taken any notice of it. Why is it we are so negligent about the implications of our actions.
Don’t we know that the lowering water levels and the increasing depth of bore wells cannot be going on forever? Do we expect the water to stay at the same level for years to come? Can’t we understand that such indiscriminate pumping of water will one day lead to water problem? Can we think of buying water for our everyday needs – even though some parts of the metropolitan cities are forced to, Can everybody afford such a situation?
Don’t we know that trees not only purify the air out of Co2 but also prevent soil erosion and flooding? Can’t we realize that each piece of furniture we get and every paper we use come out of trees which are being cut for us? The daily newspaper, magazine, note books, books and all our furniture are all our contribution for more soil being eroded and more water wasted to the sea causing floods and destroying everything on their way.
Don’t we know that smoke is not something we can breathe and feel better? Haven’t we seen smokers are a storehouse of all lung problems? Then what makes us think that the automobile we use gives out smoke that is of no concern to us. Do we think that just because this smoke is colourless and gets dispersed quickly its harmless to the atmosphere? Then why is that we tend to use more automobiles, more fire wood, more gas every time without even thinking that we are killing ourselves –our future.
Don’t we know that industrial effluents are not sweet looking and tasting fruit juices but are poisonous and aerie smelling fluids? Don’t we know that mixing them with the river water today will cause death of fishes and if the fish did not die, it could cause severe health problems for those who eat it tomorrow? Do we think that such an action is healthier to us?
Haven’t we found that the CFC’s from our refrigerators and air conditioners are the cause for the depletion of ozone layer which can cause skin cancer, increased mutations in both plants and animals which can lead to undesirable changes in their characters. Then why is that we still don’t raise any concern for such an issue? Even after science has provided a better alternative to this destructive compound, they are not being replaced primarily due to the costs involved and more importantly due to the lack of motivation from public. If we know that they are harmful then why is that we don’t even raise a voice against it if not stopping to use it.
Don’t we know that carbon dioxide is a green house gas and as its volume increases the average temperature rises? This is not good news for us –for a country where an air temperature of 46°C and a heat wave can leave more than a thousand people dead. And Co2 emissions are projected to increases the temperature by 3°C in the future. This rise in temperature also means the ice sheets in the Polar Regions, which could lead to a staggering rise in sea level submerging coastal cities or in other words dislocating millions of people. Certainly this cannot make any human mind happy.
The increases in salinity of our soils is chiefly culpable to the excessive use of fertilizers and water logging. This is not a good view as the salinity will adversely affect yield and finally leading to uncultivable waste land. And green house farming, innovative as it may seem to be, is definitely not inexpensive or healthy as the usual land farming. Having known so many facts why do we still continue to make our land so saline?
Don’t we remember that when we were children, the town/city/village we live was less crowded and more harmonious to live? Don’t we feel that the life and times of today is not as good as it was in those days? Is there anyone who doesn’t long for those good old days? What is that we dislike in today’s times? The high-rise buildings? Crowded roads and parks? The increase in automobiles and their side effects or is it the increasing encounters of cynical people? The best answer would be a linear combination of all these. What do these answers purport?
Don’t they mean one simple obvious and dangerous thing-the exploding population?
Is that desirable? Definitely everyone would say No. But nobody seems to be thinking that it is we who have to make that undesirable thing grow any more. In fact we have to realize that the growth in the population is responsible to all our woes. There will be no water if more people pump it and it is not a unlimited resource.
Unemployment- still the same- people have to equip themselves more than before to win a job today- reason since our opportunities cannot grow competing with the population partly due to technology/ monopolization and capitalist ideology and partly due to limited natural resources.
Lowering social responsibility- since we cannot expect a deprived person to follow the roles of law which either deprives them more or doesn’t do any good to their immediate situational needs.
These things aren’t new –they are known for along time- long enough for planners and educationalists to include them in the syllabi of all elementary science and social science textbooks. The students read it definitely, but the problem is the educational institution here is used only as a tool to get money and not as its primary use to impart the mind the ability to think-about future of our society as collective. So what does the student study this for? He does it because he has to study- if he doesn’t he will not get the stamp of approval by this stupid institution to continue further studies or even to show the world that he knows about such things.
So what is the teacher doing?
The teacher is definitely not telling that these are not just statements that have to be remembered to rewriten on a different paper but are actually facts about how to live harmoniously with nature.
The Result: All students know that Greenhouse effect is something that an increase in Co2 causes which results in the increase in temperature by 3°F and global climate changes. But nobody is taught the need for reducing Co2 emissions and to control the emissions is to control the need for unnecessary and luxurious use of fossil fuels- either an automobile or a coking gas. Because the curriculum or the test doesn’t require that. Even if this is being taught it becomes the moral responsibility of the teacher that she/he should follow what is taught or else the student will not understand the urgent need to reduce Co2 emissions.
Since it is difficult to practice what we teach we have decided not to teach at all. What can teachers do, they are just there to explain what’s there in the texts. If the government which decides what’s there in the texts, the author who give shape to the content do not bother to live up to what they want the next generation to learn. Why blame the teachers? We cannot expect dedication to work as a necessary qualification and neither can it be found by interviewing a person.
This is what we do to our children- concealing the facts because if we did not , we will have to face the questions from them as to why we did not take any step to say controlling Co2 emissions in the most elementary level. That is what the corporates do to our politicians and they in turn do to the people. Nobody wants to explain the ill effects of the acts we commit, but if we continue to blame like this then we will have to blame the scientists who introduced to the world the new techniques. In such a case we will have to charge Nicolas Otto and Rudolf Diesel first. But that it not justified, since they did not just expect Co2 to be that harmful. No one ever thought so far of the implications of our acts in the history of mankind. Neither did the aborigines of Australia think that burning forests for agricultural land would have caused a difference in their climate. Frankly nobody then could have thought- they did not even know that there was a gas called Co2 and large releases of it will cause a climate changing effect on earth. So they are not to be blamed.
But what about us?
Do we excuse ourselves by saying that we have got stuck in he inertia of a growing economy that we couldn’t stop or at least make any sudden change? No. It cannot be an excuse. Any such inertia cannot be lasting for more than 50 years. And with such a development of science and technology with us which can tell every effect of our acts even before we actually enact them. We cannot excuse our responsibility. So what is happening? Why aren’t we able to act swiftly and save the environment from further destruction .Why? What do the children who are not taught about the ill effects of our environmentally destructive acts do? When do they learn about these ill effects? Will they ever come to know? Even if they come to know will they be accepting it or will they still believe in what they were taught by the schools? They might probably come to know when there’s someone in other countries or other state make it an issue at their place. Or in some cases someone among them understands the issue and rises vociferously. How will they react for it? Will they be able to get out of the maze of their life and understand that the person who raises it does so because he’s worried about the future? Or will they think about the hidden motives the person could be having and view him with suspicion and refuse to even listen to him?
Most of them definitely will do one thing- ignore him. This is not because they do not believe him or so but because they are caught in the lifestyle which doesn’t allow them to think beyond the present or sometimes the immediate future. Their minds are occupied with worries about what they are going to do for the next meal. If they have secured that then for the next one. If that is also taken care of then it is about tomorrow –This constitutes about 30% of our population (India). The next 30% is a little better off (according to the lower 30%) and their mind is preoccupied about what can be done about the children- which school-which college. Or is it about how to buy that refrigerator that automobile that VCD music system. Or about how do deal with that colleague who is always trying to spoil my name before the boss- how to overrule him and get better. The rest of the % is mostly the top brains, it has worries about the similar things but in a little larger scale. –how to invest carefully- how to get that tender- how to solve the labour issues- how to get a better market for the products-and of course how to make his son/daughter to equipped to take care of his enterprise.
There is another small % which worries about the future of the mankind as on whole discards the other issues as less important and tries to broader the thoughts of the rest by highlighting these bigger issues often and fighting for such causes and in similar ways.
Except for this, small% and a little more of the top 30%, the rest of the country has a disabled mind. They tend to say live” what matters if its ‘Ram’ who’s ruling or it’s ‘Ravana’ who’s ruling” They may not be interested in making a difference through the democratic process of elections. They tend to keep their mind closed to any political issues of the country. It is because of them even if a person willing to make a difference to the country’s progress decide to contest in the elections he hardly gets anyone to trust him. This is because we are a Nation of “ Self- centered” people. So much that we cannot avoid searching for a hidden motive in a person’s selfless acts.
So much that we don’t care about anything happening anywhere unless it happens to us.
It is a part of this majority that forms the political class. It is the same, which forms the most impoverished and the middle class.
If we don’t care for each other in the society when are we going to care about the environment? The plants, animals, birds and insects, which do their duty and thus helping us to get our food and cleanse the water and air we need.
But nature is not as we think; it does not have an endless supply or an endless patience to hope changes will happen into the minds of humans. It is not interested in making us realize our mistakes. It receives all the harm we do and is going to pay back to us shortly. And when it pays back we will not be able to stop it. And it will not only hurt us it will also hurt all the other species in earth, which were linked to us directly. And then we will realize –with at least a half of our numbers vanishing and with a largely irreparable damage to our ecosystem left that we are just brief moments in this infinite process of evolution and its because of our mistakes that we lost the chance to go beyond these brief moments though equipped with the knowledge to do so that we lacked the will and were caught in the inertia of our ill thoughts. `
May 15th 2002, Madras.
