Survival of the fittest – But can the planet fit in all who survive????

21^st December 2012 has gone by without any or rather no major events.  And just Yesterday (March 23) we celebrated another earthhour. But I have got this personal feeling that 2013 or 2030 or some year or some day, the end is certain. We are hurtling towards certain DOOM. And pretty obviously, by end i do not mean –  the world or for that matter human beings would simply cease to exist. BUT the sustenance of life on this planet would become very very difficult.

Most of what I have written above or what I am going to write will seem pretty obvious but what is not obvious is – THAT very thing or element or the holy grail which we would fall back on for the solution for the current problems is the problem in itself. What is this secret element I am talking of? It is Science or Technology or Development or simply put – the HUMAN BRAIN.

I am not saying evolution or human evolution was a bad thing to happen. Now, let’s take it step by step.

 

 

 

1)      DEER AND TIGER  Conundrum– DEER in EXCESS

Let’s for a moment take human beings away from the equation. There is a huge forest which currently is home to 100 deer and 10 tigers. The deer start multiplying and in a century’s time there are not 100 but 10000 deer which threaten the existence of the forest and start being a threat to the environment.

But wait, this can not happen for 2 reasons, the deer can not eat up the whole forest’s tree leaves of course due to their bodily limitation and their numbers will be kept in check by the ever increasing number of tigers too. Their numbers would also be kept in check owing to natural deaths.

2)      TIGER IN EXCESS

What if the tigers start multiplying and become a huge force to reckon with (as if they are not the apex predator already) and become a threat to environmental balance. Again, this is not possible because the number of deer would be limited and hence because of resource limitations, the female tiger can successfully raise only a limited number of cubs

3)      INTELLIGENT ANIMAL

Now, let’s complicate things by adding a new animal –an ape which is pretty intelligent, which can use its fingers, can talk, communicate with each other, draw paintings on the walls of caves.

So far so good. The new animal is just a part of the ecosystem – it may hunt both the carnivore and the herbivore for food but that’s about it. The same animal might be bumped off by a tiger.

4)      NEW DISCOVERIES – NEED FOR COMFORT-EARLY SIGNS OF UNNECESSARY CONSUMERISM

The above situation does not stay the same for long – the new animal is smart enough to make tools and weapons for self protection – probably the same weapons it used to hunt down its food. But the new animal also has the option of using these weapons to kill animals not just for food or protection, but for decorative purposes. The reason could be greed or lust for power.

The ape next door  killed a tiger yesterday to decorate the floor of his cave. Lets kill two tigers to decorate ours.

5)      NEED FOR COMFORT- NEED FOR FUEL

Also, now that it has started thinking, it finds that the food is tastier, more palatable when cooked – cooked on fire. Where does the fire come from – wood/trees/dry grass. Here we see early signs of production of green house gases. But no one is complaining. By the way, what does  green house effect mean to this new species anyway?

6)      NEED FOR COMFORT – MOVE AWAY FROM FORESTS – MAKE TOWNS/CITIES- DOMESTICATE ANIMALS

Again, now forests are being cut down to accommodate farming, more clear spaces, ancient towns/ cities.

The animal has started rearing farm animals for farming and for feeding itself. More animals , more methane. More green house. Also more cattle means more cattle feed which means more deforestation .

7)      DEVELOPMENT IN MEDICAL SCIENCE- LESSER DEATHS

The new animal has also started getting some control on the life-death cycle by cheating death and prolonging life – to me, this means expanding your population by cheating nature and hence causing an imbalance in the environment.

8)      INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Now, this must be the final nail in the coffin – Industrial revolution led to more mining, the concept of engineering, more production, more consumption, automobiles, aero planes, computers, laptops, tablets, what not.

So here we are now with the following problems:-

1)      Ever decreasing resources – Oil, fresh water, energy, food electricity and an ever increasing number of many mouths to feed, to keep happy.

2)      Heights of consumerism – We can make do with lets say X number of clothes but we would be having like 5X clothes. Same with gadgets. Excuse given is – Quality of life. At the cost of what Environment and quality of life of fellow EARTHLINGS(including humans).

3)      Too much competition – competition has been the name of the game since time unknown. All the other animals and prehistoric animals used to compete for territory and food. But here we are competing at a completely different level – We are the only animals who are consciously COMPETING – i.e. we are competing just to outdo each other instead of trying to live within our means.

4)      And last but not the least, the climate, the environment, which was all tuned to help us realize the maximum out of the earth is now working against us  – sea levels will rise, climatic conditions would change, untimely monsoons etc would definitely spell doom.

Is there a solution to this problem? Lets discuss that later….STAY TUNED