Finding A Way

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
Vasureddy@aol.com

Doomsday scenarios have always been a topic for discussion for mankind.  For mythological followers the world has always been in danger of apocalypse and coming to an end.  But the human kind has always found a way to survive, rebuild and even flourish.  Most times a combination of habits, abuse and indifference, all of these manmade that continue to plunder the precious ecosystem that we all share and live in.  Perhaps we should never expect human beings to be respectful to anything.  The biggest issue human beings have is the “me” syndrome.  We are creatures who put “me” ahead of anything and anyone.  For human beings the good earths, its nature, our surroundings, everything in life only come after “me”.  Living life revolves around “I”, “me”, “myself” and everything else doesn’t really matter.  Almost all the time there is nothing that matters except self-interest.  For earthling with this highest intelligence (as we know) we human beings are also inherently selfish.

Destruction of earth’s natural, limited and precious resources in the name of development has been so quick and furious.  In only a hundred years, the destruction has been so furious for the nature to have a chance to regenerate and replenish itself.  Adding to the destruction and constant abuse of nature, humans have also been multiplying exponentially, putting additional burden on earth.  Earth doesn’t have infinite resources and has taken billions of years to create what we call natural resources.  There is no way regeneration of what we are destroying can happen in relative time lines to the accelerated consumption, and most times wasted and destructive attitude to our surroundings.

Countries being wiped out, cities and their people completely destroyed and displaced, ethnic cleaning (if this was even a human process) and atrocities towards our fellow human beings, abusing women, children and older citizens, war in the name of politics and religion, plundering someone else’s wealth (simply greed and strength), color and race; and every other negative connotation that has ever existed have been constantly used to destroy not just fellow humans but their life and habitat.  We have become experts at killing and looting and plundering fellow humans, and we have not spared other living beings and habitat we live in.  As quickly as we think and create, we are also masters in using our own intelligence and inventions against one another.

While much of our energy is spent on the “me” only  syndrome and a lot of focus going into religion and color, while attacking each other, the same can be in parallel to our imagination for a better world.  While we are destroying the environment we are also looking at sustainability for future.  We can do it by turning the human energy into creating solutions for sustainability.  Wind, solar, nuclear energies can be transformed into sustainable energies that will protect the environment and don’t leave us in a depleted planet.  Reusing and recycling and avoiding plastics and dumping everywhere (one of the surveys says we will have more plastic in the ocean than fist by 2050) and consumption with reason and limits can begin to sustain us.  We must remember that the last 100 years have seen science and innovation that is unparalleled (really the Indian mythology of communications and transportation form thousands of years past has come true) and every single day we keep discovering ways to better communicate, better transport and better build, and just about better everything we do.  The worst part of the better we do things also is bringing the better we fight, better we hate and better we differ as people.

We can find ways to coexist and we can invent and reinvent our own space and enterprise to reinvigorate the earth.  We have the intelligence and we have the reason to find a way to sustain and support earth.  Moreover we have a reason to find a way to protect earth and protect each other.  There is no other place for humans like earth and there is no other place that we now know which will sustain our life as we know it.  There is absolutely no way that we can believe that there is no future to look forward to.  We can find a way to keep earth habitable, perhaps even reverse the exaggerated destruction of our habitat, and simply start nourishing our environment one day a time, and for sure we will find a way to keep it sustainable for the human race as long as we inhabit the good earth.  For sure we are smart enough to find a way for our own sake.