Swarna Kamal Chowdhury’s Academic Discourse

Essay
Nature’s benevolence is fast drying up because of human avarice
Man is an integral part of the environment, yet he is the arch-enemy of it. For centuries, man has been thriving
on its generosity. But in his quest to make life very simpler and more luxurious, he has turned a blind eye to the damage
caused to the environment. Our greed to get the most out of everything has made us contemptuously neglect the
environment, although we all know that our very existence depends on it. A careful analysis of why there are imbalances
in the environment will highlight numerous mistakes and aberrations on our parts. After doing so, there are certain traits
in us that have led to the present situation. The first is the innate tendency to discriminate. After dividing the world into
geographical entities by drawing imaginary lines called 'borders', man has divided societies on the basis of colour, creed,
religion, etc. The immediate effect of such division is bias. Every element of the environment, be it land or water, has
been exploited.
It should not be surprising that after enduring so much, the environment also runs out of patience sometimes.
And then its fury is unleashed. This is quite evident from the fact that the rise of sea level due to global warming is giving
nightmares to scientists across the world. It is posing a serious hazard to the existence of a number of islands by
threatening to wipe many of them off the world map. Nature is hitting mankind back in some other spheres as well. In
parts of India, climate changes due to heat wave render the crops useless and on occasions this happens right before
the harvest. Being primarily an agrarian economy, it becomes very difficult for India to cope with such a challenge. This
makes evident that the environment retorts whenever it is tampered. Another very compelling example is that of yaks.
Yaks, that are suited to very cold climate and are confined only to upper regions of the mountains, are brought down to
lowers areas where tourists throng because they are a major tourist attraction. Lately. It has been found that these yaks
meet untimely death because their bodies are not able to adapt to the warmer conditions downhill. In turn their owners
suffer heavy loss. Another area where meddling with environment can have dire consequences is land pollution.
Whenever waste is not disposed of properly, the dump becomes the perfect breeding ground of pathogens resulting in
epidemics such as plague and dengue. Other diseases, such as asthma are one the rise in large cities where air pollution
is more acute. The groundwater level has been plummeting in more of the cities due to improper use of the precious
water resources. Whenever there us scarcity of water, people fight it out to get their share when the local water tankers
arrives in their locality. These examples clearly, indicate that whenever man disturbs the environment balance, he is in
fact digging his own grave.
Human beings have for long been at war with the environment. Nature has been treated as a source of resources
to be tapped and as a sink to dump wastes. Economic performance, based on 'reductionist' science, has failed to
differentiate between income and capital. We have lived off the interest generated by the earth's natural capital assets.
Environment has reached a critical juncture on account of progressive degradation. This has provoked the World Bank
to advance a warning – "Soil that is degraded, aquifers that are depleted, and ecosystems that are destroyed in the
name of raising incomes today can jeopardize the prospects for earning income tomorrow." Humans are the most
dominant animals in the biosphere. Like other living organisms, humans also depend upon nature for their survival.
However, dependence of humans on environment is greater than that of other organisms because they are more than
mere biological creatures. Human beings are the only living beings who can change their environment to suit their needs.
But, in the process, have upset the nature balance.
Human beings have been cutting down trees indiscriminately to create land for farming and housing to meet
the needs of the ever-increasing human population. As the human population has increased, human requirement of
firewood, furniture and wood for industrial and agricultural uses also increased. This has resulted in large-scale felling
of trees, leading to deforestation. Many birds and animals have been rendered homeless due to loss of their habitat. As
a result, many of them have had to migrate to different places. Many species of birds and animals like tiger and panther
cannot survive except in forest. Many carnivorous animals have turned man-eaters, as they do not get sufficient food in
the forest. Destruction of habitat leads to extinction of some species. This disturbs the balance in nature. Again, human
beings have destroyed large number of birds and animals by hunting. Hunting is done either for sport, for food or for
greed. Tigers, panthers, deers, crocodiles, snakes, etc. are killed for their skins. Elephants are killed for their tusks,
peacocks for feathers and a large variety of birds and animals hunted for food. Indiscriminate hunting of animals can
lead to their extinction. Increase in human population has led to increased deforestation to meet the growing demands
of food and housing of the increased numbers. Overpopulation has led to population of land, water and soil. Population
can be defined as an irreversible change in the physical, chemical or biological characteristics of air, water and land that
may harmfully affect human life directly or indirectly. The substances, which pollute the environment, are called
pollutants. Air pollution is mainly caused by the burning of fuels like coal, petrol, wood, kerosene in homes, smoke from
cars, buses, trucks, etc. and the smoke emitted from powerhouses and industries.
More than half of the world’s wetlands disappeared during the past century; half of the remaining coastal
wetlands are likely to be lost by 2080. According to the World Commission Report for the 21st century, more than half
of the world's major sources of water are so polluted that they may endanger human health and poison surrounding
the ecosystem. That system is already contaminated by industrial, agricultural and urban wastes. The devastation of our
planet is proceeding at such a rapid pace that it now threatens the future of humanity. The problem brings out a conflict
between the concepts of 'price' and 'value'. According to the principles of economics, a commodity that has no price is
like Nature's goods - also known as public goods - are vulnerable to indiscriminate exploitation.
Today's economy is thriving on the massive use of natural resources. This is overloading the Earth's capacity to
absorb pollutants. This can disrupt the natural cycles to replenish slowly-renewable resources such as soil and
groundwater, and to sustain genetic and ecological diversity. Nature is normally benevolent to us. It provides a range of
beneficial services, collectively known as ecosystem services, such as waste detoxification, pollination, air and water
purification, bio-diversity maintenance and soil generation. But nature's benevolence is fast drying up because of human
avarice.

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