I took a Genomics class in spring that consisted of lectures by an enthusiastic professor and a presentation by each of the 20 odd students who took the course. One of the presentations was based on Asian carp infestation of freshwater lakes across the United States. After the presenter finished speaking, we brainstormed on ways to tackle this issue. This particular problem began when catfish farmers in the U.S.A. imported Asian carp decades ago to eat up algae in their ponds. Little did they know of the fish’s alarming capacity to breed and infest new water bodies. Today, this nuisance has assumed such alarming proportions that the White House needs to sit and debate on possible solutions. A mild-mannered classmate commented that such problems arise only when we try to meddle with nature’s ways of working, to which a few people replied that human interference wasn’t a bad thing in itself. It had to be monitored rationally and any challenges should be dealt scientifically.
As I checked out nationalgeographic.com this evening, I could not help but reflect on that discussion. If the previous issue was about encroachment, this one is just the opposite. The pictures screamed of an ecosystem being uprooted. Pelicans with oil dripping off their wings, hermit crabs struggling their way through the slick, dead fish floating amidst swathes of oil, a laughing gull not laughing any more surely – these are only a handful of millions of species being put to sleep as we breathe. Repositories of endangered and extinct species will have to be rewritten all over. The birds also ingest some of the oil in attempting to get it off their feathers and wings, which could prove fatal. Rehab personnel would rather have them die than suffer a painful recuperation. So much so for our quest to drill out every bit of earth’s resources before anyone else can get their hands on them.
I am eager to see how human intervention can provide a satisfactory solution to this challenge. Forget removing the oil, the hole that is spitting out oil has still not been closed. For all our technical acumen, scientific capabilities, Nobel prizes, etc we have spent 50 days with no clue as to how we shall separate oil from water.
2 comments:
We are megalomaniacal by nature. We see ourselves as larger than we are. As we disturb nature more and more, the consequences are scaling up. At some point, the scale will be far beyond what we can influence... like thinking we can put off a forest fire by blowing it out.
Well said brother, I certainly agree with this over-indulgence that we have become so complacent about. Yes, we do take this planet and its resources for granted. One must watch the movie "Home" that gives a brutally true account of our poor resource management. Partly, this stems from shortsighted economic policies. Take for instance, the globalised free-market economy. It lets you run your company from a state of the art office in a developed western nation, produce your goods in a developing country about 5000 miles away in Asia maybe, ship your products to dealers and agents somewhere in the Middle East, and then finally flood the supermarkets next door. I mean pretty much anything we buy today is mass produced and has probably circumvented the globe at least once. What a waste of time and resources I feel. I'm sure my critics would give me a score of reasons why this is so but I believe we need to advance from thinking profits to thinking resources.
This is just an economical perspective I was thinking about, the scientific and environmental aspects need many more comments I guess.
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