Can you feel the heat?

Note: The following post may not exactly be my usual narrative that is made to sound interesting deliberately. This is about something that enjoys top priority in my ‘I would like to do my bit’ list. I hope with all my heart that you do more more than just say: THATS A GOOD POST sriram!

The giant ball of fire streaked across the sky watched by hundreds of pairs of eyes. Though this was something that they had never experienced before, the panic button was not pressed immediately. Sometime later, with an ear splitting crunch, the fireball crashed and sent shockwaves that reverberated throughout the land. This time, the owners of the eyes knew that something was horribly wrong and it was then that they started running. They were too late! Had they pressed the panic button when the fireball was 50,000 miles away, they could still have run but they had nowhere to hide. The meteor crashed and within a few days, life on earth was a thing of the past.

By some miracle that will perhaps forever remain one of Nature's best kept secrets, life started fighting back. Very slowly but very steadily indeed, life started to populate the earth again. Higher and higher forms of life appeared, firstly in the oceans and then in the land and earth started to flourish again. Then, Mr. God made a blunder.

We started in earnest. We lived and died along with the rest of God’s creations. We hunted for food and were afraid of thunder and lightning just as He expected us to be. It was at this particular moment that Mr. God decided to take a break. He popped on his hat and said “I will be right back”. With a ‘giant leap’ (No pun intended ) mankind began to spread and evolve. Man started making tools and then graduated to making weapons. Much later, he learnt the concept of mass production and the Industrial revolution was born. The realization that burning coal could replace the need for hard labour forever and irreversibly altered human and environmental history. Then he started having greedy ambitions over the ‘possessions’ of other men (Which ostensibly is not Man’s ;) and we started fighting. What started out as localized fights spread quickly and was translated into 2 great wars. The wars were fought and won but the earth lost.

Now, we turn back and look at our footsteps… there is nothing much to be proud of. We were given a planet that was pristine and perfect in all senses and we have managed to convert it to a dump that is not fit to even spit on. We have consumed as much resources as we possibly can and still crave for more. We have burnt huge quantities of fuel and have managed to alter the environment at a global level. Our population has risen to levels that can put a plague or an epidemic to shame. In spite of all this, we continue to harbour the hope or should I say the misconception that our effects on the earth are hardly significant. We seem to think that whatever be our actions, it will get lost in the crowd. Whatever we do, tomorrow the Sun will continue to rise and bathe the earth with its glorious light. It might, but we might not be here to see it.

Well, things are changing and changing very quickly. We can no longer be free from the consequences of our combined actions. We are going to pay and pay heavily for what the guys before us did. This tiny piece of rock in the vast space that was once struck by a meteor is under threat again. But this time, it’s something from within that is killing it. A virus!

A misanthropist I may seem to be, but I am reminded of a basic rule in science (or should I say the basic rule that applies to anything except love and costly chinaware): If you can break it, you can fix it . I am sure the whole world (I mean the whole world except for a guy sitting in a place called Washington and who is bent on policing the world) realizes that something CAN be done and something HAS to be done. I plead with you to visit the website http://www.climatecrisis.net/ and learn how to reduce your carbon foot print. Remember, there is just this one home for us. If it’s gone, we are gone.

Separately I would also like to request you to watch the movie: The Inconvenient Truth. It really shakes you up and will push you into doing your bit for the earth. After watching the movie, if you are still a bit confused as to whether the time is right for us to start spanking our own bottoms. Well, wait a few more years thinking about it and there will be no bottom for us to spank!

I just remembered a funny quote by my all time favorite cartoon character.
"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."-Calvin (Reference : Bill Waterson’s Calvin and Hobbes)