Preserve Nature to Survive
By Dr Arvind Kumar
Humanity is facing dramatic ecological and environmental changes that are threatening its very existence. We are living like the “unsinkable” Titanic, ignoring the icebergs ahead of us. We are entering a new time, “new waters” and unless we regain awareness of who we are as humans and our relationship with the environment, our present course may find us facing “icebergs” from which there is no escape. Being aware of our evolution from hunter-food gatherers to the present, we know the impact of the agricultural and industrial revolutions. However, the hunter-food gathering societies that lived prior to the agricultural societies did not see themselves as separate from nature, but rather a part of nature. Men, women and children gathered food and shared it equally. It was important to their survival that everyone participated and thrived. There was no wealth and no poverty.
The new story inspires a new consciousness, a new awareness that we are part of nature not separate or dominant. Though we are human, we are not superior to non-humans-trees, plants and all other creatures. We are equal inhabitants of the planet. When we speak of rights, we must not only speak of human rights but the rights of all living entities. That doesn’t mean we don’t cut down trees to build houses, but that we do so with reverence and in ecologically sound ways-replacing what we cut. We don’t clear-cut huge rainforests to graze cattle for Mac Donalds causing dramatic changes to the atmosphere and climate. As Ghandi said, “There are enough natural resources for everyone’s need, but not everyone’s greed.”
