“Shrinking ice caps forced National Geographic to make the biggest change in its atlas since the Soviet Union broke apart,” President of the United States was recently heard commenting at the White House. Arctic sea ice decline is now the highest that has ever been observed. If the melting continues at this rate than the day is not far when there will be no ice in the Arctic.
Rise in global temperatures, melting ice caps, increasing water levels…the flooding of landmasses is next…reminds me of the Great Flood from the story of Manu (or Noah or Deucalion). The island country of Kiribati has already purchased 6,000 acres on the neighbouring island to protect its food security as the sea encroaches on its arable land—and possibly, in the future, to relocate its residents.
Mankind has been extremely selfish, more so, in the last 150 to 200 years. We have cleared forests, killed animals, introduced chemicals and diseases unknown unheard of…all for a little profit. The impact on the planet is visible. There are holes in ozone, the air, water and land are polluted, many species of plants and animals are extinct, many more endangered. What is even more alarming is…that hardly anyone thinks that our behaviour is out of place. The monkeys now share space with us, because we cleared forests, the dominant reaction is ‘they are a menace, lets shoot them’. Not just monkeys, we are competing for space and resources with dogs, cows, elephants, lions, tigers, trees, you name it.
Do you think man can live in isolation? He cannot. If you play with nature, nature revolts and it is doing just that…We can reverse this.
A teenager, Jadav Payeng, seeing the aftermath of flood in Assam, started planting seeds single-handedly in 1979. Today, the seeds have germinated into a 1,360 acre jungle which houses many endangered animals including rhinos and tigers.
There is a village in Rajasthan’s Rajsmand district which plants 111 trees every time a girl is born and ensures the trees attain fruition as the girls grow up. Piplantri Village has planted over quarter million trees since they started the practice in 2006.
You can too. Otherwise, 2015 was the hottest year in recorded history, scientists say. And 15 of the 16 hottest years on record have happened since 2001…Wake up!
Chemicals which are being sprayed on crops are destroying our soil and jungles. Now the new threat is from GMOs which promise to destroy whatever is left.
