Let's think while Coronavirus pandemic gets over!

Today’s normal news; countries are closing borders, schools have shut down, offices are shutting down, grocery is being purchased in bulk, and trains and flights may run less frequently. We are heading towards an almost complete shutdown of the academics, business, work, social life, and everything else that requires a physical connection. All these thanks to the Coronavirus outbreak!

In our rush of day to day events, trying to limit expenses within monthly budgets, adjusting to seasonal changes, and meeting annual targets, we keep reacting to the situation in hand. The situations, in this modern world changing so fast that, more often than now, we end up being reactive to situations.

In this shutdown condition, we will have no choice than to slow down, no choice than to spend time with family, no choice than to read and above all, no time than to think. Think in a manner that our actions are not just a reaction to a situation but a response to it.

First things first, let us figure out how does the current situation look like so that we can think over it and respond. And, let us look at it beyond coronavirus, which I believe will be a small event in the timeline of years and decades. In my view, the current situation looks like following: we have grown economically, scientifically and technologically but apparently less happy than earlier times; the nature that nurtures life is in bad shape, air, water, rivers, soil, forests all in bad shape; weather pattern has become erratic, snowfall in hot deserts of Dubai and heatwaves in cold Europe has been witnessed.

Our actions have been large enough to impact the environment we live in. It has resulted in climate change. The world has become hotter by 1 degree C on an average, small number but large enough to cause near-catastrophic changes. It looks like we have ourselves become dangerous to the planet, its ecosystem, and the existence of our own life. Millions of animals and people get affected due to events caused by climate change.  It is expected that by 2030, a quarter-million people will die every year due to climate change. The scale by which people get affected is way too large than any pandemic of current times, and therefore more significant thought is required on the current situation.

So let us think. Why and how the world has come to this situation? What has been the driving force behind our actions?

As per general wisdom, the driving force has been the desire for greater wealth creation and accumulation, greater comfort, faster travel, our desire to get things done with push-button, instant communication, and 24x7 entertainment. All these driving forces sound great and should be an acceptable driving force anytime, in the future as well. Isn’t it? Looks fine. But there is a glitch here, and need clear, more profound and philosophical thinking.

How much growth should we attain? How much more wealth should we create? How fast should we move? Or the question is whether there is an upper limit to whatever we want to achieve? If the upper limit is not there or we fail to set the upper limit, then, to me, it looks like we are running like a headless chicken. Just running and running and running.

Mahatma Gandhi famously wrote about a century ago that “there is enough on Earth for everybody's need, but not enough for everybody's greed.” The statement implies that there should be a limit. The planet Earth, which supports the life of humans as well as million other species, has only finite resources. The planet has only finite amount of potable water, air, surface area, soil, minerals, and forest. Therefore anything that depends on the resources from the planet Earth has to be in finite quantity.

The number of lives the planet can support has to be finite, the consumption of resources per person on the planet has to be finite, the amount of water that each one of us consumes has to be finite, and so on. The sense of finite has to be part of every minute of our life. But, right now, the world seems to be at a loss. We consume as much water as we can, without any limit, given our affordability. We can possess as much material as we can, without any restriction, if we can afford to possess. We can throw as many pollutants in the environment as we can, without limit, if we can afford to do so. The sense of any limit on our action is neither thought, nor planned, nor taught, nor imposed.

Does it make sense to think of limits in our actions? Does it make sense to put a limit on our consumption? Does it make sense to put a limit on production? Is there any issue in production or equity regarding the poor? Is there any issue of shortage or excess?

Let us think calmly, deeply, and carefully whether greater thinking on above points is required or does it make sense at all to even think about the above.

So, let us think while Coronavirus pandemic gets over!