मंगलवार, 18 मार्च 2008

Do you care?

Ah, I know even before starting, this can be controversial and will lead to separation of opinions, but I have no intention of starting a debate here. I was impressed with views of Michael Crichton on global warming. His fiction "state of fear" clearly suggests no effects of global warming on life. Moreover, he refuses the concept as "unknowns are unknowns". I won't go into details of this. If you really want to go through a number of graphics and manipulated data, help yourself with "state of fear" from a book shop. Remember, it is a fiction, which gives an impression of scientific authority.

This leads me to one more question about extinction of rare animals, to be specific extinction of "Tiger". What if I say I don't care. What if I say that I don't care if I'll never ever see great Indian Tiger in my life again. Should I care? Do I care? What if I say that in another 20 years there will be no tigers. Do I care? Of the 8 species, there are only 5 left. Why should not I care? But am I the right person to care about them? With approximately 2000 tigers remaining, we are about to loose this magnificent species. We say, once upon a time, there was one Dinosaur era. What is the problem in saying in future that once upon a time, there used to be a great animal named tiger. These wild life organizations like WWF ( http://www.worldwildlife.org ) are doing their job, hats off to them. There are laws made by governments, hats off to them. But it's only about delaying the inevitable. Delay it as much as we can. But do I care if it happens today or tomorrow?

Yes, this question created some confusion, I'm not sure about. That was a cruel joke to not care about anything. Are we human, if we don't care about our surroundings, if we don't care about our forests? Being a nature lover, and specially a jungle lover, I should have said, I do care for it. But again in reality, I don't. Did I try to save some of the trees? Answer is no, so do I have any moral right to say, "Jungle bachao, Duniya bachao" (save forests, save world). No.
But in fact, it matters. Though actions are louder than talks, but awareness has a strong history of making miracles happen.

Now, what about the evolution? if we are loosing something, we are gaining as well. There are new species arriving almost everyday. Who can stop this evolution. Are we? We ourselves, the human beings, will be human beings after 10000 years? Who knows, tell me why should we have helix, antihelix, lobule and crest of helix, the outer parts of ear? Are they worth? No, we don't need them. They are just hanging there for no reason. Reason will prevail. These outer ears will disappear. That time dimension is definitely waiting somewhere for us. So, is loosing some spices not part of evolution? Is loosing trees also not part of evolution?

These developed countries are making too much noise about global warming, species, water and blah blah. But if they lost something for good, how does it matter? If, now, they are seeking some kind of redemption, why should developing countries help them. They also have to try for better infrastructure, better facilities. For that, obviously, they will have to loose something, some of their forests. May be with proper planning, we can reduce adverse affects, but the future is always about rising, whatever it takes. Human races will develop automatically, they will know to adjust with changing environments. With brains getting powerful, rest of the body will have to take the declining curve with open hands. There is hardly any choice in that.

I do love this greenery. I do love a sight of tigers. I do love earth. I would love to help in having more and more trees, but I don't care if we loose something for better. Do you?


- Neeraj Mathpal
March 18, 2008

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