The American business magnate John. D Rockefeller once said “I always tried to turn every disaster into an opportunity”. While the objective of Rockefeller, widely considered the wealthiest American of all time, was decidedly to inspire his fellow Americans into achieving their dreams, the years of unbridled ambition degenerating into rapacity have reduced the once motivational line to a war whoop for the greedy to embark once again on their avaricious exploitative march.
Two decisions taken in the recent past by men in power stand out as they exemplify our spiraling descent into a calamitous future. Donald J. Trump in his infinite wisdom has decided that the arrested development of the economy could only be reversed by taking on the environment so that the economy could presumably kickstart from its moribund state. And so Trump has decided to do away with the Endangered Species Act thus weakening the Laws for protection of species as it empowers federal agencies to make a decision on protecting a particular endangered animal, based on (what else) financial considerations. The U.S. Government believes the “updates will ease the burden of regulations and increase transparency into decisions on whether a species warrants protections.” This bill is a watershed of sorts and will put what was hitherto sacrilegious into the domain of ad hoc decision-making by presumably soliciting opinions from the profit mongers on how best to secure the environment. This will in the process allow a free hand to profitable oil, mining and gas companies to push for the elimination of a particular species if they feel that it hampers their operations.
On the other hand technology entrepreneur, investor, and engineer, Elon Musk heading companies like SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity, which ostensibly revolve around his vision to change the world, has embarked on a different venture altogether – he has decided to colonize Mars to save humanity. And since the rarefied atmosphere does not support life, Musk has arrived at a solution. He has put forth a proposal to nuke Mars to alter atmospheric conditions to such an extent that living becomes easier for humans there. Nuking Mars to set up human colonies there is definitely a lesser issue given the fact that one does not have to deal with very cumbersome legal hassles (the ethical/moral question here of course can be safely dispensed with). The mere concept smacks of the egotistic and the arbitrary; Mr. Musk is so keen on settling the human species, who have done a swell job of rendering their planet uninhabitable, that he would have no qualms on setting up their next nest in unexplored territory by supposedly eliminating all ‘unsuitables’ with the help of nukes. And all this while the conditions of his home planet go from bad to worse. Which leads us to the moot point – would planet earth might have been better served if this buccaneering spirit had been employed to fund the numerous cleaning initiatives of the home planet. While there is no problem with the initiative itself, as with most of those Musk has conceptualized and promoted, it is worth asking if he has delivered. According to reports Musk’s failures are masked by even bigger announcements as his inability to walk the talk is conveniently forgotten. Given this history his proposal to nuke Mars might just be the next of a series of grand announcements which never get past the drawing board. This of course might not be a bad thing in itself as the failure of the nuke proposal is probably what most right-thinking individuals would be hoping for, but the trend of thought of this future-thinking entrepreneur is what is of concern.
Optimistically speaking we are probably at the cusp of the plastic and the post plastic era, that is assuming we have a future ahead at all. The damage done till date could probably be irreversible if we do not approach the crisis on a war footing. That said, decisive policy measures at the macro level have to be backed up by significant personal initiatives at the micro level. The initiative by Vanya Organic on the banks of the river Narmada wherein they are trying to restore nature and soil to its original state (https://vanyaorganic.com/about-us/), probably best exemplifies the different approaches possible to ensure a sustainable future. Vanya is a venture by a group of committed individuals and their labor of love has converted an arid stretch of land into one of the most fertile stretches of the country. The current situation demands this sort of individual commitment as the stick of legislation, however necessary, is a bridge that we have long since crossed as we await the enemy at our shrinking gates.
Article By : Shantanu Sharma
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