Why we are STILL not understanding?

Increased consumption is equivalent of ‘digging our own graves’ 

While announcing the Union Budget on 1st February 2020, the Finance Minister of India, Nirmala Sitharaman, recently proclaimed, “Union Budget has laid the foundation of increasing consumption while ensuring that the government's investment is deployed to build infrastructure leading to a $5 trillion economy by 2024-25.” This phrase ‘increasing consumption’ is at the root of ‘economic growth’ on the one hand and ‘degradation and over-exploitation of natural resources’ on the other hand. 

‘Increasing consumption’ is synonymous with an improved standard of living. ‘Increased consumption’ facilitates a comfortable lifestyle and better medical facilities but it also leads to obesity and cardiac diseases. While ‘increased consumption’ of cars and other vehicles helps us covering greater distances in a shorter time, but it also leads to pollution and accidents. This pollution has increased the proximity to serious ailments such as cancer. ‘Increased consumption’ has the same bearing as ‘digging our own graves,’ but still, there is a human tendency that wants to promote more consumption. Why are we still not understanding that by increasing consumption, we are digging our own graves?

Mahatma Gandhi would have cried, looking at the world today. He would have even died another death by looking at the apathy that the fellow citizens are showing to his words. He, during his entire life, has emphasized that “there is enough on Earth for everybody's need, but not enough for everybody's greed”. These words, I believe, are as fundamental as the Einstein theory of E=mc2 relating mass to energy. Looking at the present conditions, I have written down Gandhi’s words in a different manner, which I call the “Fundamental law of sustainability,” which reads as “in an ecosystem of finite resources there can only be finite consumption.” Why are we still not understanding?

On the planet Earth, everything is finite. There is only finite land, water, forest, fossil fuels, and the environment. The way we consume resources and the way we are increasing our consumption; however, we assume that everything is infinite. We live under the presumption that resources are available to us without any limits. Due to over-utilization and over-exploitation beyond the capacity of the planet Earth, every element of nature has degraded beyond doubt. We do not even need science to know this. We know by experience that rivers are polluted, forest cover has reduced, air quality has degraded, soil fertility has eroded and worse than all, even the climate has changed. Everything is happening right in front of our own eyes. Why are we still not understanding?

Do you remember reading a newspaper in recent times that did not have any news item on the natural calamities, wherein the climate change has resulted in the severe life and ecosystem damage? Be it Australian bushfires claiming lives or extreme floods taking lives in Africa, or the snowfall happening in the desert regions. These are all because the human activities have distributed the delicate ecosystem that is sustaining the life on the Earth. We are definitely aware of our actions, but our greed has colored our vision to see that we are leaving no Earth for our future generations. 

Due to the absolute violation of this Fundamental Law, the world is in a big mess today. Lets us look at the event that took place in the last year. More than 15 million acres of forest land has been burnt both in Amazon and Australia, the temperature of Paris city went above 45-degree centigrade, Venice city in Italy got submerged due to seawater, air quality in Delhi dropped to critical level, arctic ice cap shrunk to 4.5 million square km from some 8.5 million square km. There is a traffic jam in every major city across the world. There is inflation, unemployment, and some form of poverty in every country. Something is not going right. Why are we still not understanding?

Why we are still not understanding that we need to reduce our consumption, not increase it. More consumption results in a higher circulation of money, but it leads to many more problems. More consumption not only results in more pollution but also puts a strain on the natural resources and environment of the planet. For example, an increase in automobile production can temporarily give a boost to the economy, but it would result in an increase in fossil fuel burning, an increase in traffic jams, an increase in health issues, a decrease in the air quality of cities, an increase in climate change, etc. The economic boost is short term, but all other ill effects are long term. Why are we still not understanding?

We need to go back to the basics and adopt a simple lifestyle. We need to follow the Gandhian Philosophy. We need to follow the Swaraj model to bring energy self-sufficiency. Localized generation and consumption is the key to resolve the current contradiction of growth and sustainability. 

Picture courtesy: https://www.trtworld.com/