We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children

▲

 

1

In ancient India, once a king was walking on a road when he saw an old man planting a mango tree. The king asked- Old Man! are you aware that you'll not be able to taste the fruit in your lifetime. Then why are you planting it? The old man said ' I have eaten fruits from trees planted by our forefathers and therefore it's now my duty to leave plants far out next-generation!'

The above simple story essentially captured what the relationship of humans should be with nature. if the old man had abstained from his duty it would have been likely that the next generation would have been left with fewer fruits to eat. The fundamental law of nature is that every living organism is here for only a finite period. Everybody comes here empty-handed and no one has the luxury to take even a blade of grass with him. Ideally, we should treat our lives as a guest on this planet appropriating only what is required for our needs.

Gandhiji had said 'There's enough for man's need but not for man's greeds' the above message cant be more relevant than in the present context. The population of the world has crossed 7 billion now and with each addition in the number, we are straining the resources of the earth.

Now if we take into account the availability of resources per human then it has been declining sustainably over the decades because the resources of the earth are finite. What is interesting however is the fact that human greed has increased substantially and it knows no bounds. These two trends are mutually incompatible and have precipitated into several crises.

Let's have a bride look over the kind of situation our greed has created. A human being far a decent life requires access to water, clean air, house, electricity, education, social security and employment. Today we face tension in all these spheres of life! If we take the case of our own country then we have 16% of the world's population and only 4% of freshwater resources. Besides this, there is a huge variation in the amount of rainfall received with drought and flood being registered at the same time of the year. This naturally calls for judicious use of water and the practice of environmentally sustainable methods like watershed management. However, throwing all cautions to the wind we have overdrawn our groundwater resources, polluted our rivers which are a lifeline for the millions of population. Total over half of the country lacks access to clean drinking water in the absence of which outbreaks of diseases like cholera, diarrhoea are frequent.

Taking another case of air and environmental pollution, we see today that the emission of greenhouse gases like Co2 have threatened the very existence of human being on earth. According to an estimate by International Pale for climate change, it has been estimated that if the rise in temperature of the earth goes beyond 2 degrees then it could be catastrophic for the earth as millions of populations and their livelihood would be threatened and low laying coastal areas which have more then 50% populations would be submerged.

It will not be thus wrong to say that we are cutting the same tree on which are sitting. Now the question is since nature has enclosed us with a mental faculty that has the unique capacity to make a rational decision then why are we behaving so irrationally?

A reason for the above stems from the fact we all have joined the bandwagon of 'growth at any cost' All countries want to outdo each other in terms of GDP growth. GDP growth is fundamental and a sale barometer no which we are judging a country's success or failure. Little thought is out over how sustainable the growth is. The problem also lies in the fact that it's very difficult to compute the losses to the environment in monetary terms. If in future we can factor in them it would dawn upon us that we are actually taking 1 step forward and 2 steps backwards. After the Big Bang event of 'Industrial Revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries in Europe and America, the gulf between developed and developing countries have widened at an alarming pace. Many of the countries that were colonised in Africa, South America and Asia have very poor economic and social indicators. The burden gets doubled when the region has more than 80% worlds population. It's but natural that people of this region would aspire to become like their counterparts in the USA and Europe. Thus the desire to narrow down this gap is further leading to the exploitation of resources in an unsustainable way.

Worldbank has calculated that if only India and China were to have some level of income as that of the US then we would require at least 7 earth-like planets. so definitely the idea to replicate the west and fall prey to consumerist culture is not the way out of this quagmire. Although late, world community today has started recognising the futility of over reckless behaviour and thanks to sustained campaign for environmentalist, scientist, the civil society they concept of sustainable development has found its due place in public discourse and in our policy-making starting from 1972 Stockholms conference, the landmark Rio Summit of 1992, Kyoto protocol and increased emphasis on renewable energy the world has started to learn from its mistakes and is now willing to trade-off growth with the environment. However, several contentious issues remain to be addressed at the global level. First developing country like India, see it unfair that they have to cut their emission level since the per capita level of the US are 10 times more than India. On the other hand developed countries owning to their less population argue that is absolute terms China and India are the biggest polluters. We have to concede that both sides have some justification in their standings.

So having discussed why? and what? of our reluctance to leave it for our future generation, now we discuss how to bequeath more to our children while ensuring that our current needs are met without conflict. The first and foremost should be the use of nature in a sustainable way. Today, fortunately, nature has been endowed with the inexhaustible resource of energy in the form of solar, wind, hydel energy and technology although expensive exists that can harmers these regard would be like winning the half battle. For the real part, we should have a strong value education framework in our school. what other good way than to learn from nature itself where except humans all other species collect only what they can consume and even a polar bear stores energy for 6 months only! almost all our religious texts have highlighted this fact that from excessive greed anger which leads to conflict delusion and irrational decision making, we need to put a full stop to this vicious cycle.

Another step would be towards making lifestyle changes. for example, while we fondle remember our last outing in a restaurant we fail to recall the last time when we had planted a tree. Moreover, we should develop a feeling of compassion sympathy and practice the kind of act given to people who lack resources. Focus on equality and justice would go a long way in reducing conflicts. let's emulate the practice of the old man in our lives so that our children are proud of us like we are proud of our forefathers.