Tirtha Acharya
Life is a sojourn between birth and death; therefore, to understand the essence of life, and to extract the elixir out of it, one needs to have patience, and let life take its own course. As human beings, we are gifted with the capacity of reasoning; let’s not exploit this quality for our vested interests. Using this attribute for the betterment of humanity makes this world a better place to live in and makes life easier for every being. This planet earth is not meant for human beings only; it is for all beings that are created by nature. In our daily lives we are interdependent on each other, and if by chance the harmonization among these aspects is disturbed that would paralyze the entire system. Similarly, the gift of nature such as mountains, rivers, flora and fauna, which exist in this world have special roles to play. Being indifferent to these aspects of nature will make life difficult.
Excessive use of carbon products, deforestation, urbanization and machines may seem to have made life easier and sophisticated, but their impact on nature is becoming a grave concern to all of us including the flora and fauna. Scientists and experts on the subject are now warning the concerned authorities to be aware of the situation and take stringent action to stop the world from deteriorating even further. Don’t we want our progeny to witness the grandeur of nature? We are being insensible in misusing our power and being arrogant to become better than the others. Jealousy is one of the factors that has made us void and has led us to believe that the world will not exist after we are gone. It is paradoxical to assume that it is not too late, and we still have time to protect this planet. Let me relate a movie 2.0 that I watched recently. Though it is a fiction movie, some of the issues raised in the movie were sensitive and insightful.
We watch movies, read books, listen to speeches delivered by prominent figures and momentarily praise them but eventually ignore the messages they try to relate in connection with the degrading condition of our ecosystem. The movie which I watched a few months back was also trying to warn people by portraying the issue of excessive installation of cell phone towers being a threat to birds. Let me take you back to 20 years ago. I still remember hearing the chirping of birds waking me up from my sleep, but these days we hardly get such an ambiance in the morning because the birds are being killed by the scattering radiation of the towers. Is it not our responsibility to protect these birds from being extinct?
We brag about our achievements in the field of science, but a tiny virus hasn’t only crushed the so-called advanced world, but also has proved how insignificant and trivial are the human achievements against the power of nature. Similarly, there are many instances like the devastating tsunami of Japan; deadly wildfires in Australia, massive earthquakes in Nepal which are some of the supernatural instances that have claimed many lives and made many people homeless. Science may have developed or invented some of the technologies that may alert the scientists about the probable threats, but do they have any technology to avert them from happening?
I know undermining scientific developments and inventions may not be a prudent idea, because the tool which I am using to express my idea is a gift of science; the medicines which I take are the noble inventions; and the inventions of train or plane have made this world a global village. However, deep down, we know how natural resources and nature have been exploited in the name of scientific discoveries to achieve momentary pleasure and relief. Similarly, the race among the “5 G” network favoring nations like Korea, the USA, and China to adopt this technology because of its greater speed transmission, a lower latency and therefore greater capacity for remote execution and so on and so forth. But have the IT professionals and companies involved in creating this latest technology informed the users about the negative aspects associated with it? As has been mentioned, this technology will provide greater speed but it will inevitably cause a large usage of energy among the consumers, which is one of the main contributors to climate change. Additionally, manufacturing and maintenance of this technology produces waste that could have detrimental effects on the environment. Besides installations of transmission towers and the radiation transmitted through them could be harmful to birds and to the ecosystem.
Therefore, to save our ecosystem and to save the world from further degradation, policymakers should come up with a policy that could take science and nature in a balanced way to make this world a better place to live in.
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