Human and nature

By Rakhshinda Shakir All the gains that modern technology has brought to this world are for sure the greatest accomplishment ever made on earth. Modern technology has gifted us with almost everything. If technology has given us something really big than for sure it is taking from us even bigger in return by destroying our nature. This technology has taken us far away from the nature and also caused a huge destruction to the environment. Man is in constant war with nature. From the fallacy of problem of production has been solved to using capital as if it income, human being has completely separated himself from nature and that has caused a continuous battle of harming nature in different ways. One of the most critical blunders of our age is the belief that “the problem of production” has been solved causes environmental threat. Nobody would surely agree with me when I say everything that a man needs has not been produced because technology has given us the power to do whatever we want. We have so many choices in every field of life. Education has become leisure to us. We can switch to whatever subject we want to learn, we can change our hair color to pink, blue and purple today tomorrow and the next day respectively. When we go to shopping malls we come across variety of dresses, shoes, variety of food, beverages. We can easily travel from one corner of the world to another. There is always a choice! Coca or Pepsi? We have a choice and are free to choose what we feel like choosing because choice equals freedom. Because of all these available and obtainable technological gifts to us human being doesn’t bother to think that these productions are limited and can disappear too. Human being doesn’t bother to think that where these productions come from? Of course technology is not a magic to happen from nowhere, something for sure causes technology to happen. Where does this production come from? This is a question which everyone must ask from themselves. This is a gift which we are bestowed with nature. This is from all the natural resources that nature entails but the misleading notion of production being solved is miserably leading us to use those resources as if they are forever. Burning of fossil fuels has now become a favorite practice of mankind and this can lead to environmental hazard. As Schumacher states, in his article (small is beautiful),“for the consumption of fuel on the indicated scale- assuming no insurmountable difficulties of fuel supply would produce environmental hazards of an unprecedented kind.” Burning of fossil fuels can lead to environmental hazards. We got to protect and use carefully all the natural resource because they are limited and therefore the misleading notion about problem of production is a beautiful fallacy which is harming our environment. Using capital as income will one day cause all the natural resources to worn out? Natural resources are God’s gift to us and are not renewable thus we got to be extra mature towards their use. Sadly, today not too many people do realize how much natural resources they consume in their everyday life. We consume natural resource more than we need because luxury has become our necessity. For example oil is a non renewable natural resource which has many uses. Oil is not only used in fuels that enables us travel the world within days through airplane, or drive cars and cycles and rickshaws but also in synthetic clothing fibers, cosmetics, fertilizers and in the production of electricity. If we look around one house has 5 or 6 cars, it is a mandatory thing to have but is this something we cannot live without? We don’t realize the limited amount of oil we have and consume it as much as we can. In the last 50 years the use of natural resources has increased substantially. Population growth is demanding more use of natural resources and exerting more pressure on the earth’s environment. Current level of global consumption is to the very high extent that is why it is obvious that we will not be able to provide todays and future generation with natural resources. According to an article, (Misuse of natural resources), “For every four barrels of oil which are consumed, only one barrel of oil is being discovered. At this rate, it is expected that oil reserves will be exhausted in 80 years”. It implies that day is not far when we will be running out from oil. Environmental Pollution is another factor which can cause nature to imbalance. Population growth demands rapid use of technology, demand more farming in order to fulfill the needs of providing food for them and the list of demands become endless that terminate into polluting environment plus harming the natural resources. The wastes and toxic substance from the factories and the oil spills from the automobiles constitutes towards pollution. All the insecticides and pesticides used in the farms by the farmers are toxic too. Where do these wastes go? They either mix up with sea and ocean and cause death of marine life which is for sure a natural resource or gift us with acid rain which has its own consequence than. In short, the toxic substances have a great effect on our eco-system, on human being, on animals and birds, marine life and other environmental problems. For example acid rain constitutes environmental pollution that can lead human to different infection. Sulfur and nitrate emissions too toxic elements from the acid rain are too small to fall out of the atmosphere and they can get deep into our lungs and blood stream. Acid deposition is also very harmful for trees and forests because it eats away all the important nutrients from the soil that tree needs to survive. In this way forest as natural resource is destroyed that is consequence of human miss behavior towards nature. Pollution can occur in a number of ways and effect the environment differently. Pollution caused by human include acid rain, toxic wastes, oil spills are not only dangerous for human life but also responsible for the death of marine life. Human nature has harmed our natural environment in various ways. The fallacy of problem of production has been solved has done many harm to our nature in a way that man started using resources as if they are forever. Technology on the other hand is responsible for more negative things than good. It is causing use of natural resources more rapidly that soon or sooner our environment will be running out of what we have as a natural resource. Acid rain, spilling of oil and all other toxic compounds from factories are all the means to harm our environment.]]>