Next few days I will publish my old posts from blogspot, where I used to maintain the blog in 2006. Here is one of them. This is close to my heart and I feel this still applies in 2009 and going forward.
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Power of Nature
It has been seen recently that nature's fury has been striking at various places. Places like Gujarat (earthquake and recent floods), Mumbai (37 inches of rain in a day), Orissa (floods), Tsunami (South Asia), Famine (parts of Africa), floods in Czech republic, heat waves in various parts of the world and now the hurricane and destruction of New Orleans, Biloxi and parts of alabama in the USA.
I am not a scientist by any means and don't wish to get into a scientific debate on what is causing this. However, one simple thing I learned long back is that when you hurt or mess with nature, it will strike back with all its fury and wrought destruction, no matter how powerful you think you are.
Due to human interference in nature - felling trees to build roads, clearing our forests to build complexes or some resorts, reclaiming land from ocean/sea, not to mention severe over-population in parts of the world, emitting chemicals, gases etc in the air. None of this can help nature.
During the tsunami, there was a place in Tamil Nadu, which was less affected than others by the tsunami. Why? Because it had natural protection from the series of coconut trees which lined the coast. If these trees had been cut for some awesome view or because it was a hindrance, this village would have suffered a disaster, like many others along the Tamil Nadu coast.
I have always believed that if you need to chop of trees for road build up or to bring up houses, double that amount should be sown nearby. This not only helps retain the eco-system of that area but also helps with the beauty, provides sucour to the plenty of birds and small insects who consider these trees home and makes the area look beautiful.
Another issue is of polluting the oceans, lakes, rivers etc with chemicals, food, plastic bags etc. Why can't people realize that this is the same water which is going to be used by us for drinking and by the animals that need it? In India, we take a very casual attitude towards the whole situation. We instead try to blame the government or show our helplessness of the situation and say things like "Nothing is going to change" etc. Due to this, fishes and other animals that depend on the water in lakes and rivers suffer. Additionally, this causes the people who depend on them (e.g fishermen) to suffer even more.
People really need to look at their priorities as it pertains to the environment and nature. It has become a trigger happy world. We want certain foods all times of the year. We want crops to grow faster and bigger and hence, we modify the genes of the seeds. We want big buildings, wider roads, cars with bigger engines which can go fast, but don't realize that we need to achieve all of these things by not disturbing the nature. Nature has a place in this universe and especially on this planet. We have to remember that we share space with nature and it is a very delicate balance. If, we as a people, disturb this balance, nature will react with all its might and we have seen that we are quite helpless in that scenario.
***********************************************************************************
Power of Nature
It has been seen recently that nature's fury has been striking at various places. Places like Gujarat (earthquake and recent floods), Mumbai (37 inches of rain in a day), Orissa (floods), Tsunami (South Asia), Famine (parts of Africa), floods in Czech republic, heat waves in various parts of the world and now the hurricane and destruction of New Orleans, Biloxi and parts of alabama in the USA.
I am not a scientist by any means and don't wish to get into a scientific debate on what is causing this. However, one simple thing I learned long back is that when you hurt or mess with nature, it will strike back with all its fury and wrought destruction, no matter how powerful you think you are.
Due to human interference in nature - felling trees to build roads, clearing our forests to build complexes or some resorts, reclaiming land from ocean/sea, not to mention severe over-population in parts of the world, emitting chemicals, gases etc in the air. None of this can help nature.
During the tsunami, there was a place in Tamil Nadu, which was less affected than others by the tsunami. Why? Because it had natural protection from the series of coconut trees which lined the coast. If these trees had been cut for some awesome view or because it was a hindrance, this village would have suffered a disaster, like many others along the Tamil Nadu coast.
I have always believed that if you need to chop of trees for road build up or to bring up houses, double that amount should be sown nearby. This not only helps retain the eco-system of that area but also helps with the beauty, provides sucour to the plenty of birds and small insects who consider these trees home and makes the area look beautiful.
Another issue is of polluting the oceans, lakes, rivers etc with chemicals, food, plastic bags etc. Why can't people realize that this is the same water which is going to be used by us for drinking and by the animals that need it? In India, we take a very casual attitude towards the whole situation. We instead try to blame the government or show our helplessness of the situation and say things like "Nothing is going to change" etc. Due to this, fishes and other animals that depend on the water in lakes and rivers suffer. Additionally, this causes the people who depend on them (e.g fishermen) to suffer even more.
People really need to look at their priorities as it pertains to the environment and nature. It has become a trigger happy world. We want certain foods all times of the year. We want crops to grow faster and bigger and hence, we modify the genes of the seeds. We want big buildings, wider roads, cars with bigger engines which can go fast, but don't realize that we need to achieve all of these things by not disturbing the nature. Nature has a place in this universe and especially on this planet. We have to remember that we share space with nature and it is a very delicate balance. If, we as a people, disturb this balance, nature will react with all its might and we have seen that we are quite helpless in that scenario.
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