There has been a strident expression of concern on global warming in recent months. Good, well-researched and articulated studies have sought to establish that the globe we live in is getting warmer. These studies also have highlighted various kinds of harm that will befall the human race if we do not act to reverse the warming process.
These are important messages that must be heeded, and acted upon. However, a global consensus on the need to act and on what that action should be is lacking. More seriously, there is no sign as yet of any convergence and willingness on the part of both the developed and the developing world to act to address this issue.
Yes, some carbon trading is taking place; yes, the President of the United States has admitted that there is global warming; yes, some methanol is being used to substitute fossil fuel (with as yet unclear ultimate benefit); but beyond these there is no serious action.
These symbolic actions are akin to rearranging the deck chairs of the Titanic when it was sinking. So maybe we should start wondering about what the future holds, assuming status quo.
Our earth belongs to the universe and is a microcosmic part of it. According to the theory of evolution, the earth as we know it has developed in pretty recent years compared to the history of the universe.
Of this tiny history, the evolution of the human race is compared to the passage of a second against the universal march of over 1,000 years. The reason why this is important is for us to consider the fact that much of what is happening might be part of this evolution process.
Clearly, to expect that the universe and then the earth and then all the living things evolved only to deliver the human race is both naïve and presumptuous! It is natural that the process of evolution will continue well and beyond the human race.
While not taking the credit away from the campaigners to cool the earth down, it might be worthwhile to assess the totality of the effort to reverse the forces that are causing global warming. It might also be well worth investigating if global warming is merely a symptom of some deeper and much bigger changes.
Undoubtedly, human contribution to this undesirable streak of warming is well-established in the recent reports and there is evidence that things have worsened at a faster pace recently than before. The deforestation, the harmful gases, the furious reclamation of land (or perhaps expansion of landmass) programmes, the population explosion and such like activities have clearly accelerated the malaise.
However, all of these could themselves be part of the evolution process. Our great-grandfathers did not need air conditioners, but our children cannot survive without them. The pace of life in vogue requires the auto-mobility to supplement the communication efficiency. The current lifestyles require more and bigger factories to work faster and produce more, not less and slower.
If anything, the effect of the modernisation of countries like India and China, where (in India and China) more than three-fourths of the human race will live in the next few "universal seconds", would only add to the burden of global warming.
And the citizens of these countries cannot be blamed for wishing to savour the same comforts of modern living that their brethren in the "already industrialised" countries enjoy.
Current efforts to cool things down are petty as compared to the forces that will make things worse. Unless these efforts are designed to get the earth back to the original status (and a good question to answer here could be: Which stage of evolution should we get the earth to?), they, even if they succeed, will only help to reduce the pace of decline.
That therefore begs the question: What next? Clearly, preparing to live in a warmer earth is as important, if not more important, as trying to cool it down. Again this is not to distract from the efforts to reverse global warming, but simultaneously, we must anticipate the next few stages of development if (more when than if) we lose the battle against the hazard.
We need scientists to tell us that. But from a layman's perspective, some of the longer-term trends that could be foreseen are more water than land will cover the earth's surface; with a thinner ozone layer we will be more exposed to ultraviolet radiation; more carbon in the air we breathe; higher temperature; and changed geographies.
Some unexpected positive fallouts could be access to mineral resources below the frozen lands and more food production! From an individual's perspective, some solutions that could be explored include migration to less dense, higher-altitude, cleaner cities; advances in medical sciences to combat the illness that accompany climate changes; new material to build habitats in more hostile environment; and clothing designed to make humans more comfortable in almost any range of surroundings to ensure we evolve to keep pace with the adversities we are experiencing.
Going forward, we need to depend on the new technologies including nano-technology, stem sciences, biometric advances, telecommunications, rocket sciences, space technology, deep water technology, and so on, which will be developed to create applications to help us cope with living in warmer and watery climes. Already we have humans with artificial implants up to the gill. Maybe in the next stages, we will get gill implants that will help us breathe underwater too!
From a community perspective, the scenario looks gloomy, with the potential for conflicts over clean air, water, morphed geographical territories, shifting underground reserves of mineral and use of advanced technologies to benefit some and not of all human kind. It is important to begin a concerted campaign to make humans understand the next stage of evolution and prepare to address the fallouts.
Looks like humans once again need to depend on sciences to help upgrade themselves to the next version to fit into the evolved globe. And the technological advancements look promising. The jokers in the pack are the political masters of the world.
Will they be able to organise themselves and rise above mere territorial superiority and serve the larger human kind, or once again will they let their technological arbitrages dictate that some do better than others? Leaders in India will be well advised to keep these considerations in mind when they negotiate our country's place under the warmer sun!
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