Some 64 million years ago, a monster meteorite rammed the earth and brought about sweeping, cataclysmic climatic changes that in turn sounded the death knell for the awesome dinosaur and the rich biodiversity that prevailed in the prehistoric era.
Now, man spends considerable time keeping an eye on the sky. Today hi-tech gadgetry helps in tracking the movement of the weather gods. Similar energy goes into observing life on earth — on air, drinking water, climate and biodiversity, and weighing their effect on “all people on all continents”.
Consequently, we have constant reports on global warming and the wide-ranging consequences it holds for man and his environment. Like the dinosaur and the golden toad of Costa Rica and the last dodo bird of Mauritius that died in 1681, the earth is rapidly loosing much of its precious flora and fauna.
The UN Convention on Biological Diversity views the present rate of extinction as unprecedented: every hour three species disappear, every day 150 species are lost, every year between 18,000 and 55,000 species vanish.
Yet another instance of how these developments affect man comes from the US countryside. European honeybee colonies have collapsed. With that, pollination of fruits, vegetables, and seed crops has been adversely affected — sending farm researchers in a tizzy and food prices through the roof. They say other agents of pollination — birds, butterflies, and such are poor substitutes for the humble honeybee.
The most recent, highly visible, victims of weather changes are polar bears. As global warming rapidly melts Arctic sea’s ice, the white giants find themselves without home or food. Some 70 per cent of the world’s polar bear population will vanish in less than 50 years if the present rate of hot air emissions and warming continues.
In Indonesia, the orangutan is facing an uncertain future. Their numbers in the wild are rapidly dwindling — down to some 7,500. The world is also seeing threats to a wide range of creatures such as whales, dolphins, and Iberian lynxes and plants including wild varieties of peanuts/legumes, potatoes/vegetables and fruit.
In India, not too long ago nature lovers observed waterfowl standing motionless in swampy areas waiting for prey. Harriers skimming over green pastures and bush-larks trilling softly. Chinkara, blackbucks, and nilgai grazing in the meadows. Elsewhere, keeping a vigilant eye on their hoofed and other prey were the cheetah, the Indian fox and the wolf.
Today the picture is devoid of live action. There have been other losses: once-abundant feral creatures of the forest, grassland and wetland such as rhinoceros, hangul, tiger, Asiatic lion, barasingha, wild buffalo, sangai, Nilgiri tahr and the gharial. They have largely disappeared from their traditional habitats. The baboon and the hippopotamus went extinct from the subcontinent a long time ago.
Scientists and environmentalists say this is due to man’s profligate ways. It is his role in climate changes, and callous behaviour to environment and fellow creatures that has wrought the present impasse. The pursuit of “development” — building roads, dams, irrigation canals, townships, burning fossil fuel, industrialisation and such has been embarked without factoring in little thought or consideration for biodiversity and long term consequences. The price for this neglect? Three animal or plant species is obliterated every hour.
Climate chaos is already pushing stressed ecosystems in new and unpredictable directions. If we are going to weather the punches Mother Nature throws our way, there’s a lot more to be done than facilitate prompt emergency relief when disaster strikes or put coracles to commute to work on flooded city streets. We need to reconsider how to deal with the emerging natural world.
As forests and pasturelands are being lost continuously, pastoral livestock have nowhere to go for sustenance. The disappearance of grasslands and scrub forests has triggered stress that have led to epidemic outbreaks. As an upshot wild ungulates such as the gaur and chital, have vanished.
This situation, if anything, threatens to get worse. Drive down the Bangalore-Mysore highway. Once gloriously verdant hills are now completely denuded and the naked grey rocks are being further decimated. Iron-ore prospecting has wiped out age-old forests and wildlife. Everywhere there is felling of trees and clearance of natural vegetation for “development”. With that feral creatures fall or reel under the assault of bulldozers, excavators and unrelenting pressure from human activity.
The absence of far-sighted action — global, national and local — is resulting in disaster for species that evolved over millions of years by the actions of a single species, man.
As UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon puts it, “We must be guided by the reality that inaction now will prove the costliest action of all in the long term”.
