Despite all the technologies and gadgets available to human beings, they still depend almost wholly on services provided by nature. This is not commonly or adequately perceived or readily accepted because both formal education and urban life-styles do not encourage either active interaction with mother nature or respect for her ways.

In comparison with the work done by nature, even the most monumental efforts of human beings – reflected in their GDPs – are not only trivial, they are in fact downright disruptive and short-term: their “success” is invariably based on converting natural endowments or assets to cash. They rarely follow natural cycles. In fact, these methods are now actively cutting at the roots of these natural cycles, and therefore, threatening the sustainability of their own economies.

One of the principal grounds for the processing and careless destruction of nature is modern science ideology which promotes the idea that nature is expendable and replaceable. The basic thrust of modern day development is to substitute inexpensive and allegedly slower natural processes conducted at ambient temperatures with artificial processes developed by the scientific and business community as these can become the source and basis of patents and proprietary knowledge, exploitation and wealth.

This debate is most acutely reflected in the controversy connected with the introduction of genetically engineered seeds when contrasted with natural seeds.

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment of the United Nations published in 2005 came to the conclusion that two thirds of the services provided by nature to economies across the planet are now in decline. This means these ecosystems have reached a stage where the exploitation of nature is more rapid than her ability to regenerate, leading to a negative balance sheet. This means we are stealing the future from the next generation. This means that development of the kind we are propagating and supporting is not sustainable and is in fact foolish.

The biological state of our mountains, forests and rivers is intimately connected with the physiological status of the regions of which these are a part. The Western Ghat region, for example, is comprised of several ecosystems based on a topography that includes high hills and then moves rapidly down to the plains, the coast and the open sea. We thus have in this short location approximately eight biological systems at work: the mountains, the forests, the inland waters (including rivers and wetlands), the drylands, cultivated lands, urban concentrations, coastal areas, islands and open sea.

Almost all these biological systems (except agricultural lands) could operate infinitely without the existence of human beings. All are part of a natural cycle called the hydrological cycle, which is intimately connected with the monsoon (after Arabic, mausam, for wind or seasons generated by the movement of the wind).

The monsoon is a seasonal change in wind direction. In Asia, during the summer (or high-sun season) there is an onshore flow of air (air moving from ocean towards land). In the “winter” (or low-sun season), an offshore air flow (air moving from land toward water) is prevalent. The change in direction is due to the difference in the way water water and land heat.

The monsoon is not a product of human engineering. The arrival and departure of the monsoon depends on the movement of the earth on its axis across the equator. This movement ensures heating and cooling of the land mass, and generates the cool monsoon winds which bring in moisture from the oceans. For this reason you can never have a monsoon during summer.

It would appear to be a cast iron system, impervious to human intervention. We ought ought to be forever grateful that scientists cannot tamper with it.

In fact, in contrast to the natural monsoon (which involves transport of huge masses of water from the oceans to the land mass in the form of clouds), human engineering relating to the transport of water (except where it relies upon gravity) is expensive and more often than not, based on the availability of fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are high energy sources, but their use leads to the generation of huge volumes of greenhouse gases which are now playing havoc with the climate, euphemistically referred to as “climate change”.

However, the presence of these extra gases is having, in turn, its own influence on the cooling/warming system. There must be a temperature difference between the land mass and the ocean mass which will induce the cool moisture laden clouds from the sea to rush into the lower pressure areas which develop over the land mass due to the extreme, direct heat of the sun. If this temperature differential is reduced for any reason, the movement of the monsoon across the land mass from the ocean would be reduced. So even while we are not able to tamper with the movement of the earth along its axis, we are creating situations which may prevent the natural cycles from working as nature had designed them to do.

Already because of deforestation, the albedo effect – the effect of vegetation on local precipitation – has disappeared in many areas.

The nature of rainfall precipation itself is also changing: the volume of rainfall that falls is the same, but it now falls in shorter, more intensive, spells and bursts. Its impact is therefore destructive. Recharge is correspondingly reduced. To make matters worse, we are actually paving more and more areas allowing for more runoff.

Almost all the water sources of the Indian sub-continent can be sourced to the monsoon and even industrial output is dependent on the availability of water. Yet even while water shortages loom horribly in the near future, we continue to conduct our affairs as if the supplies of water and their secretion by nature are infinite. We cannot explain otherwise how we permit modern industrial development or even agricultural development to actually decimate hitherto abundant water sources. The removal of forests, the damming of rivers, the destruction of springs, the filling up of wetlands and ponds all indicate an extremely careless and cavalier attitude to the issues of water and water quality. Add to this, the enormous pollution of available water supplies by sewage, industrial effluents, hazardous wastes. The cumulative effect of these is to ensure that water is systematically killed – that is, rendered dead, sterile, bereft of life. This means it can no longer host living creatures.

Natural water cycles ensure continuous replenishment of oxygen in water. That is why nature has designed water to flow. Modern technology does the opposite: it halts flows in the form of dams or reservoirs. We do not just encourage the creation of stagnant water bodies and reservoirs, as I said we actively pollute them with excess nitrogen and chemicals leading to high BOD and COD. High values of such effluents ensure that life is diminished in these environmentals. The quality of water is graphically analysed by a Japanese scientist Masaru Emoto through his pictures of water crystals. Drinking lifeless water can only ensure ill-health.

Let us now go to the other major elements of our ecosystem, especially the forests. For people taken up to residing in concrete boxes called “flats”, forests are nowadays the last places they may want to visit. Because of this distancing, society has become unconcerned with the destruction of forests which is still underway despite a host of laws and regulations. The fact is people do not respect plants or trees anymore. Vegetation is another one of nature’s endowments that can be expended, if someone promises to create jobs by removing it entirely. We hold untramelled control over the destiny of trees or forests. We have no regrets cutting down trees that have seen ten or even twenty generations of human beings because our formal education has convinced us that trees are to be seen as timber or fuel or furniture.

The fact of the matter is trees and forests have no use for us and can grow and function of their own accord, again following the cycle of natural progression. One of the important attributes of forest systems is the populations of wildlife. The Indian constitution protects wildlife and wildlife habitats. It also protects forests. However, exceptions are often made either to demolish forests or wildlife on the grounds that “compensatory afforestation” can be done to replace forests lost to economic development.

In reality, this rarely happens because compensatory afforestation – another inglorious scientific tool – is against the principles of nature and natural regeneration. Eventually, compensatory afforestation ends in plantations of Australian acacia or teak. While these are indeed trees, they do not become forests. More significantly, they cannot harbour wildlife. They become pathetic substitutes.
One of the most serious challenges to the survival of nature is the extractive industry of mining. Technically speaking, mining is not a continuously necessary industry because all metals are subject to the law of conservation of mass and can be repeatedly recycled and reused. If one therefore has a good recycling industry, we need not take the metal out of the ground since this is ecologically and environmentally destructive. Modern mining destroys forests, top soil, fields, springs, water bodies, wildlife habitats, underground aquifers and cannot even promise to restore the ecology to its original status. Both Goa and Karnataka have shaken up the country because of the scandals associated with the mining industry.

Today we are convinced that mining and the health of the Western Ghats cannot go together. Any person or agency or company which holds to the contrary is simply living in a fool’s paradise or intellectually dishonest. This society must decide where mining should be permitted and where it needs to be absolutely prohibited. Mining must be prohibited all along the Western Ghats. A buffer zone of 10 km from the boundaries of wildlife sanctuaries and reserved forests and other ecologically sensitive areas in the Ghats is mandatory.

Which brings me to my final issue: the marine area and the decimation of fish populations and the reduction in marine biodiversity.

After much struggle, we now finally have a ban on monsoon fishing to enable the fish to regenerate. But the very nature of industrial fishing is problematic. Industrial fishing because of its selective focus on certain species for export, removes large volumes of undesired fish from the chain, so that the cycle collapses. The Brun Report has forecast the total collapse of world fisheries by the year 2045. Already due to the warming of the oceans, we have lost 40% of the phytoplankton, which we all know is food and also a prime agent for the circulation of atmospheric nitrogen.

To conclude: If we wish to intervene in these battles on the side of nature, one important lesson we must learn is the nature and art of regeneration. Nature has good regenerative powers. However these must be provided with opportunities to unfold. A wound will not heal unless it is left undisturbed. Similarly with natural systems. They can recuperate only if left to themselves for a while. This is exactly what modern civilization based on continuous assault will not allow us to do. Hence it is important to resist the further spread of this monstrous cancer till the time the entire population on of human beings on earth agrees that the idea of development is completely demented and insane.

(Paper written for a national seminar on “India Today: Challenges for the Future,’ at St Aloysius College, Mangalore, October 5-6, 2010)