The Earth was formed about 4.6 billion years ago. Life evolved on Earth about 4.6 billion years ago. However, the Earth has been in crisis since humans registered their name and became its owner. They refused to accept that as humans, they are also a part of nature. Humans and nature are complementary to each other. Their companionship and cooperation alone can make the Earth green and beautiful.
But we are all forgetting this complementarity. The increasing greed for consumption, aided by humans, is the reason why the problem of water, forests, and land is emerging as the central problem among all problems today. The Earth does not belong to humans alone but to all the creatures that pervade this world. It is the cooperation and companionship of all of them that keeps the Earth alive.
Today, due to the clash of individual and social interests, conditions of imbalance are developing on Earth. The trends of modern lifestyles have strained our relationship with nature, leading to a decrease in stability. This problem has now become serious, and its solution lies in establishing a relationship with nature that maintains its respect, conservation, and balance. We need to live peacefully with nature, as if we are just an ordinary part of it.
Due to modernity, humans are moving away from nature, which is creating many problems. On the other hand, living in nature increases creativity. If we talk about India, according to a report by the UK-based 'Utility Bidder', the country has lost 668,400 hectares of forest in the last thirty years. Between 1990 and 2020, India emerged as the second-largest country in the world in terms of deforestation rate.
'Global Forest Watch' has also reported that 95 percent of deforestation from 2013 to 2023 occurred in natural forests. According to the 'Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services' (IPBES), three-quarters of1 the Earth's surface has already been significantly altered due to the greedy consumption of humankind, and two-thirds of the oceans have been degraded.
Himalayan glaciers are melting 10 times faster than before, which could deepen the water crisis in India. According to 'Wetlands International', about 30 percent of India's wetlands have disappeared in the last three decades. Wetlands are our most effective ecosystem. They play a crucial role in absorbing carbon dioxide, reducing temperature, and decreasing pollution.
During the twentieth century, the human population tripled, and the world's gross domestic product increased twentyfold. Such expansion has continuously increased pressure on the planet's ecology. Everywhere we look – the atmosphere, oceans, reservoirs, forests, soil – it is clear that the ecology is declining very rapidly.
The nineteenth-century German philosopher Schopenhauer once said, "A man can do what he wants, but he cannot will what he wants." If we look at it, an individual does not act according to their own inner desires, but rather the treadmill of production drives them, on which we are all established and which has become the main enemy of the environment.
This treadmill moves in a direction opposite to the basic ecological cycle of this planet. It seems that from an environmental perspective, we will have no option but to resist the treadmill of production. When it comes to reducing carbon dioxide emissions to slow down the rate of global warming, the capitalist class is divided.
A significant part of the ruling class in the United States begins to talk about considering more efficient technologies. As far as petroleum interests are concerned, their vested interest in promoting oil demand is clear. The Kyoto Protocol, with its binding cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, clearly went further than what American capital and its government wanted. When there was no ideological basis left to reject the climate agreement, they were forced to accept it.
US President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement, which was made for global cooperation on climate change. We must pursue alternatives that are driven not by the greed for profit but by the real needs of the people and the needs of socio-ecological sustainability.
March 2025 was the second warmest March globally, with an average surface air temperature of 14.06 degrees Celsius, which was 0.65 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average and 1.60 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level. March 2025 was the 20th month out of the last 21 months in which the global average surface air temperature was more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level.
A study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research states that due to carbon cycle processes worldwide, warming this millennium could be significantly higher than previous estimates. Achieving the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting global temperature rise to below two degrees Celsius is only possible under very low emission scenarios.
A study has revealed that with a four-degree Celsius increase in global temperature, the global gross domestic product (GDP) could decrease by about 40 percent by the end of the century. According to researchers, the increase in global temperature is damaging the economy in various ways. The impact of the world's rising temperature was such that agricultural production decreased by about 20 percent in 2022.
According to Professor Chetan Solanki of IIT Mumbai, as the temperature rises, we use more and more refrigerators, coolers, ACs, and fans to keep ourselves cool. This consumes energy. Most of this energy comes from burning fossil fuels, especially coal, which emits carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Therefore, our efforts to escape the heat are ironically increasing the heat.
The main reason behind the increase in temperature on Earth is the greenhouse gases emitted from human activities. These gases include carbon dioxide, methane, CFCs, and nitrous oxide. Their increase enhances the greenhouse effect, and the Earth gets warmer. According to Nature Climate Change, 17 million metric tons of carbon are being produced daily worldwide.
According to the Global Carbon Project, in 2017, the share of the top four carbon-emitting countries was China (27%), the United States (15%), the European Union (10%), and India (7%). These four countries account for 59 percent of carbon emissions, while the remaining countries account for only 41 percent.
Due to global warming and climate change, the major impacts in India include rising temperatures, changes in rainfall patterns, increased drought conditions, falling groundwater levels, melting glaciers, intense cyclones, rising sea levels, and incidents of landslides and floods in the states.
By cutting down forests, polluting rivers, devastating mountains by illegal mining, and indiscriminately exploiting water, we are not only destroying the existence of nature but also creating a dangerous environment for our lives and future generations. In such a situation, there is a need to make small efforts for environmental protection.
For example, reducing the use of fossil fuels, stopping deforestation, promoting afforestation, increasing the use of renewable energy in manufacturing, reducing carbon in the building and construction industry, increasing marine protected areas, limiting the use of automobiles, encouraging recycling, and conserving wetlands are major measures.
---
*Bargi Dam Displaced and Affected Association
Comments