The title is in two parts. In the first part is ‘Nature’ which stands for whatever is natural in this world, as existing before the advent of humans. The system of things existing, the rules of physics, chemistry and biology as designed by nature itself. This is not about God per-se because for humans God represents everything which he does not understand and this metaphor has been constantly changing over the centuries. I am therefore highlighting things tangible, substantial and those that adhere to procedures and maintain a unique balance within themselves. The second part is ‘inclusive progress’. The phrase ‘inclusive development or growth’ has become cliché ridden pandering to the socialists as well as the capitalists theories and thought propaganda. For want of a better word I replaced this with ‘progress’ and my indication is towards a happy living condition for all life forms. This leans heavily into a spiritual concept of a contended life, living in harmony with nature and each of its components.
At a macro level to start with,
let me draw everybody’s attention to the fact that nature is not a constant and
consistent phenomenon. Temperatures, chemical contents, energies of different
types, and several such forces which have a huge range and variety, react
differently when their components say hello to each other. Nature definitely
follows rules but it can get wayward in the intensity of application of its own
rules. Events in nature happen spontaneously, caused by some factor and ending
into its defined conclusion. Once a process gets rolling it is no more in
anybody’s control. Spectacles’ life gravitational waves, bending of light,
black holes are not yet fully deciphered. We don’t even know how and why water
came to exist on this planet after its existence as a ball off volcanic and
molten material post the big bang. A meteor crashing into this planet is not
and cannot be a rare event, though the size and velocity may differ.
Nature does not merely mean that
which exists on this planet alone. The whole of existence including all the
galaxies and spaces surrounding this planet is nature itself. The fact is we
know hardly a miniscule proportion of huge tangible reality. We are baffled by
what ‘dark matter’ stands for. We cannot see beyond some many thousand light
years into space with our telescopes. We know that our moon is moving around
our planet and in turn our planet is moving around our star the Sun, but we are
not aware in which direction is the Sun moving. We would be dumb to assume that it is constant
and non-moving. We cannot deny that everything around is constantly reacting.
It would be therefore wise to acknowledge that we should be prepared to expect
the unexpected at all times.
At the micro level we humans have
rather ruined ourselves with our gifted capability of desire and self-centeredness.
Every life form on this planet suffers from insecurities of existence because
of which all of us try to eat up or destroy the weaker species. However we
humans execute this trait to an extreme form. We try to mold everything around
us in the pretext that it will make our lives comfortable and easy and will
help our survival into the future. We toy with nature resources available on
this planet under the garb that they exist merely for our consumption. We dig
up fossil fuel, burn it to make energy, to run our factories and our air
conditioners and also our transport. We care little about the permanent
collateral damage caused because our focus is on the immediate and yet temporary
advantages gained. We annihilate wild beings like tigers, elephants and
dolphins for our desires. Beings which are not so wild, like cattle, chicken
and fish, we do rear but only to kill them for our palate. We have cut trees
extensively to expand our homes, communities and agriculture. Such large scale
manipulation of nature has never been documented before.
This widespread callous rape of
whatever is provided in nature could have been understood as parochial human
behavior had it not been for the way in which we treat our fellow humans. We have become grossly narrow-minded and
massively engrossed in the nurturing of our personal egos and personal wealth
that we no more care for the well-being of other humans. We don’t think twice
about side-effects before manipulating drugs for medical treatment or selling
them costly, we have popularized the use plastic even when its harmful effects
are well documented, we extensively use pesticides in our agriculture knowing
well that it would harm us. At another level we encourage GM seeds which by
itself is a direct manipulation of nature.
A fragile nature ecology and
selfish human psychology, both are accentuating the inevitable early
destruction of the current life forms existing on this planet. It has
definitely happened before when the planet went through the previous couple of
ice ages and subsequent melt downs. Today we are talking about weather change
and global warming; we are facing extensive drought and forest wild fires in
some parts of the world and excessive rain and flood damages in other parts of
the world simultaneously; we are seeing temperatures swinging to never seen
before levels in countries near the north-pole like Japan, Scandinavia. Agriculture
and cattle rearing both for food is a first major casualty in all the countries
across the planet. Human migration is on the rise and would soon reach
unimaginable proportions, gravely impacting those who are moving and those who
they move into. When humans migrate, would animals not migrate as well. All
these assaults against nature cannot have a happy consequence. Some scientists
seem to suggest that we have already embarked on the one-way road to
self-annihilation and that there is no U-turn possible anymore.
Without sounding too pessimistic,
let us understand and accept that everything else in nature barring humans represents
a delicate balance. Everything or everyone else gets prepared to face rather
than mold nature. We humans have turned out to be the cruel exception. In our
endeavor to take control of our lives, we have merely ended up pulling down the
curtain on life as it exists on this planet. To be honest, life on this planet
has gone through several such upheavals before. The fact that there is a huge
quantity of fossil fuel means that these existed as life forms at one time
before they were destroyed. The causes of such destructions are not known
except maybe the assumption that the meteor which blanketed the dinosaurs. Destruction and resultant migrations due to
climate changes has been witnessed at the Saraswati and Indus River civilisation where
extensive geographies were impacted. Thus we can conclude that life will
continue on this planet even without humans. Question is whether humans want to
continue inhabiting this planet.
