Dr Rafi Ramzan Dar
Fossil records from the rockstell us that earth has come into existence around 4.6 billion years ago. In its geological past,the blue planet has witnessed many “Eons”, “Eras”, “Periods” and “Epochs” in which it has given birth not only to enormous landformsbut also infinite lifeforms as well. Right from the genesis of its oldest rocks up to the development of “Pangaea” and its disintegration into “Lauratia” and “Gondwanaland” followed by subsequent evolution of “Rockies”, “Andes”, “Alps” and mighty “Himalayas”, it has not only modified in its physical landscape but also developedsuitable environment for the evolution of dinosaurs, earliest mammals, fish, birds, amphibians and reptiles alike with time and space. At present, the earth is home to around 8.7 million species of plants and animals.
To one’s surprise, homo sapienstook birth at last of all the species in Holocene epoch around 10 to 12 thousand years ago which can be understood in a far better manner by equating their birth with the last minute of the last day of the last month of the year on a geological time scale.
Despite being a recent and minutest mammal in comparison to many of the past mammalian species, it has occupied the topmost slot among all, only because of its superior ecological and intellectual niche. However, from the day one of his origin, he has left no stone unturned in exploring his environment, both immediate as well as at bay. In this endeavor, he hasinvented fire, wheel and writing as well as maderemarkable breakthroughs in the form of agricultural, industrial and telecommunication revolutionswhich have not only benefited him but other species as well.
However, on this journey of material progress and progression, he somehow forgot to take his environment onboard, thinking that being infinite expansion of wide and vast dimensions, it would adjust accordingly. However,every system, whether open or closed, has a fixed saturation limit beyond which it ceases to maintain homeostasis and produces detrimental feedback.
It was already too late when mankind learnt this lesson and started to think about the wellbeing of human environment for the first time in June 1972 at Stockholm (Sweden) and stressed on global environmental awareness and actionfor saving our environment. After more than a decade, the Brundtland Commission of 1983published a report in 1987 entitled “Our Common Future” wherein it introduced a new buzzword namely”Sustainable Development” which influenced subsequent international agreements on environment and development, including the ‘Earth Summit’ of June 1992 at Rio de Janeiro. Lately in 2015, when the mankindwas seen dwindling from attaining anything productivein this course,sustainable development goals, 17 in number, were adopted to serve as a ‘blueprint for action’ to address not only global challenges but also improve human lives, protect human environmentas well as promote peace and prosperity for all by 2030.How much did we achieve since thenis a question mark on all of us.
We are expected to think and work for the sustenance of ourselves, our coming generations and that of the world as a whole. Instead, we are tangled in degrading our environment by every meansnotably by vehicular, industrial and noise pollution, solid waste generation, deforestation, soil erosion and ocean acidification.
Data shows that in 2023, 94 million motor vehicles were produced and 75.3 million sold allover the globe. A typical passenger vehicle emits about 4.6 metric tons of CO? per year which amounts to a discharge of 346.38 million metric tons of carbon dioxideinto the atmospheric blanket.On a global level, every year, we emitaround50 billion tons of greenhouse gases from industries, burning of fossil fuels and other activitiesinto our surroundings. Besides, we generate more than two billion metric tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) every year. The United Nations ‘Food and Agriculture Organization’ (FAO) estimates that human beings cut down around 10 million hectares of forests per yearwhich on an average adds up 15 to 30 billion tons of sediment load annually into our water bodiesand deplores them of their beauty and grandeur. Not only this, we are also responsible for the extinction of innumerable aquatic species of flora and faunaresulting out of thousands of metric tons of oil spills and contamination of water bodies.
To cut it short, we don’t behave humanely but wildly in throttling the lives of millions of other floral and faunal species who are not alien but constitute an inalienable part of our existence. Here, I remember Henric Ibsen, the father of realism, when he says, “The worse that a man can do to himself is to do injustice to others”. This is indeed an irony of catastrophic magnitude.
The environment, on its turn, has started to reciprocate. In the opening days of 2024 summer only, we are witnessing the Sahara Deserttype temperatures (above 45 degreesCelsius)in almost 37 cities of India including Najafgarh (Delhi), Aligarh (UP),Phalodi (Rajasthan), Narnaul (Haryana), Faridkot (Punjab) and Jammu (J&K) etc. which will likely record further increase in coming days of the season. As per the global heat budget, the entire geo-system is expected to maintain its equilibrium by cooling effects from evaporation and stomatal evapotranspiration. However, it is depicting a topsy-turvy situation. On the one hand, rapidly increasing proportions of greenhouse gases and water vapors in our atmosphere is entrapping more and more heat and on the other we are ruthlessly axing down the trees. Under such circumstances, where would that cooling effect come from? This modifies and destabilizes the environmental thermodynamics. As a result of which intensive heat waves and urban heat islands are bound to generate and become ‘talk of the town’ everywhere to take a heavy toll on life in general and on human beings in particular.
Not only this, the high-speed hot gusty winds blowing over the vast sandy stretches of dry lands especially in May-June carry sand and dust particles withinand spread them far and wide like a thick blanketto form loess plains. With time, these sandy plains become barren and turn into deserts. The regressive environmental feedback is alsoevident from uneven dry and wet spells. In our part of world, there was some delay in winter snowfall this year. El-Nino events have intensified and become more irregular which has affected global see-sawpattern of ocean circulations and associated climatic phenomena. At present,around 40 per cent of the world’s land area is degraded, impacting around 3.2 billion people globally due to desertification.
On World Environment Day, the year at hand has come up with a theme of “Land restoration, desertification and drought resilience”. While celebrating this day all round the globe, we should not only emphasize on enhancing resilience to droughtsbut also raise awareness about the importance of healthy environment for all and stress on changing man-environment relationship so that all the means that lead to the degradation of our environment in any formshall be ameliorated and capped forever.
The time is running so fast. Let’sget back to work now by keeping our linguistic and cultural barriers, different economicprofilesand stratification laddersaside for the viable solution of our common but complex global environmental issues and think for the greater good of all before it is too late. Together we can protect our environment and secure a sustainable future!
(The author teaches Geography at GDC Boys Khanabal, Anantnag)
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