Transformation of revival

It has almost been 3 months now, most of us are working from home due to CoVID-19 pandemic which has stupefied human society across the globe. The total economic loss expected is about $10 trillion worldwide which is equivalent to the GDP of Japan and Germany put together. Several million are getting unemployed and some of them are on the verge of getting themselves pushed below the line of poverty, which means they will be earning less than $1.9/day.

Amidst this situation, today is the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and parts of Asia are witnessing the annual solar eclipse. The enthusiasm of the people over one of the very rare natural events is astounding. Following traditional religious beliefs, people are practicing what they have been taught since generations during a solar eclipse. But even after being shaped up by hundreds of years of religious belief and ethics, the modern-day people are trying to unveil the religious knowledge and synchronize it with the scientific knowledge to understand that the event is nothing ‘abnormal’ or ‘spiritual’ but a very normal event of nature and which can be enjoyed and witnessed without any fear. I wish this enthusiasm and spirit to be ‘one with nature’ can be there throughout the 365 days of a year and not only on some special occasion.

Getting back to CoVID-19 pandemic situation, scientist around the globe has proved that our very reluctant attitude towards nature in our daily lives has given rise to this infectious disease in human society. In our daily lives, most of us (if not all) have been taking nature for granted since past few centuries; though we often say our lives have been shaped up by religious texts and philosophy from eminent sages/philosophers, none of them in their scriptures had neglected environment for the development of human society. Today nature or to say natural capital (a more economically comprehensive term to define the natural biophysical objects) have been deteriorating and diminishing tremendously in both quality and quantity since the past few centuries which coincidentally have also seen the rise and growth of industrialization.

It will be completely wrong to say we don’t value nature, we do value but our valuation is more into fancy objects rather than a very regular object which has given rise to a fancy object. Taking the example of the ‘diamond-water’ paradox by Adam smith, we value Diamond more which has less usage value in comparison to water, which is having a negligible value in the market but about its usage value, I don’t think I need to explain that. Similarly, we are fascinated by solar eclipse but we are not fascinated by the photosynthesis process or the decomposition process that has been going on continuously without any break for millions of years.

We need to develop. Development is important, it is evolving as a society. But we can’t ignore nature while defining development. People these days often refer WE ARE RELATED to nature, I say no WE ARE NOT! Instead, WE ARE EMBEDDED in nature. The very essence of saying, ‘we are related’ make us set ourselves apart from nature, rather than seeing oneself and understanding that we just form one-millionth part of nature.

Technically, humans form 0.9% of the total biomass of the earth but saying that with technological advancement and unprecedented development measures we are controlling the other 99% of the Earth’s biomass directly or indirectly. As per few scientific reports, we have created 700 ‘dead zones’ in the oceans, exploited 40% of the natural capital per capita, and several other such woeful numbers to support the notion ‘We are doomed’. We have created new artificial systems by congregating unrelated biophysical attributes in the name of development, which has created more of long-lasting trouble than minuscule short-term benefits. CoVID-19 is one of the major consequences of such an artificial system. We can’t count on the number of activities we are doing every day, which is destroying or deteriorating the natural environment.

The World is re-opening, after succumbing to the detrimental economical and social loss from the pandemic. Today we can sense and believe that recovery of nature has never been such an important aspect of human development. Our development strategy needs to more ecocentric rather being anthropocentric. Our growth should not only measure the value-added in the name of produced capital but also look towards conserving the natural capital, human capital, and social capital. Our basis for growth should be vested in the interest of human wellbeing. Everyone needs to perform up to their rank, from policymakers,corporates, academicians, and every other institution to make everyone recognize the value of nature. Some of these might include, economic reforms by siphoning the subsidies for more ecocentric industries and corporates; multi-dimensional and inter-disciplinary research by academics; NGOs – local institutions engaging to work with the people to acknowledge the value of nature. Hopefully, these approaches might be helpful for humanity to avoid the next pandemic.