The topic of discussion landed on nature. A speaker mentioned had objection in the phrase "sensitivity to nature"; the "to nature" part to be specific. She argued that we are part of nature and hence cannot talk about it in the third person. The discussion went on to "being one with nature" and thus saving nature from destruction.
Nature talk always triggers the cynic in me. Actually, almost any topic triggers the cynic in me. The problem with nature talk is that I am not sure what nature means. Does it only consist of those chirping birds that drops their droppings on the cars parked below? Or should we include the animals that bark and growl at innocent passers-by? What about the trees and plants? What about us? What about the planet that bears us? What about the solar system, the milky way and the universe? Does nature encompass them all? What are we trying to save; that plant there, this animal here, this planet somewhere or that galaxy god-knows-where? Most times we are not even capable of saving our own selves. So how are we expected to save anything else?
Let us forget the saves and look at the real question. "Are we expected to save any of this at all?"
Let us forget the saves and look at the real question. "Are we expected to save any of this at all?"
We are a part of nature. This "we" includes us and our thoughts. Our greed, lust and disrespect are part of nature too. If we respect nature, we should respect the thoughts too. Maybe nature has a reason for our having such thoughts. But why would nature want us to have these thoughts? I asked this question to the past and got a two word response - "clean up". From time to time, nature loves to clean up its worlds. Nature loves simplicity and as a result its cleaning up process is also simple. First it destroys and then it recreates. As a result, from time to time, nature commands "burn down everything but leave those jaunty scavengers, cockroaches, and the ever smiling crocodiles and lizards alone". Next nature settles down on its work table and starts reconstruction. Our own planet has gone through five clean ups in the past. The last one took place sixty six million years ago, when the planet lost nearly 76% of all its species. A combination of volcanic eruptions and meteor strikes took the dominant species of those days from living beings to barely identifiable fossils and CGI graphics.
Nature is dynamic and loves to improve on its destruction and construction processes. At some point during the past billions of years, nature got the idea of automatizing the clean up process. The idea was to have minimal external influence in the creation and destruction process. The thought struck nature a few years after the Big Bang. By then nature was happy with the progress of the universe and boredom has started creeping in. This seems to have given birth to the idea of the regular destruction - construction clean up cycles. But soon nature got tired of the effort required to destroy. The construction part was fun but destruction required too many manipulations. "1. Divert this meteor from here to there. 2. Ensure it does not hit this planet. 3. Don't go too close to that gas cloud. 4. Watch out for the black hole. Careful! Careful! Oh no! Gone! Start all over again." It was a tiresome process and sometimes the destruction part of the project got delayed by millions of years. This resulted in the worlds in question getting messier and the destruction becoming nastier. So nature decided to automatize and internalize the process. Many years ago, nature had created life form accidentally and it had created the life forms in its own image and thought. So these forms too loved the process of destruction - construction. Nature focussed on the construction process and let the life forms take care of destruction.
Its first attempt at clean on Earth took place 444 million years ago and it was a grand success. 86% of the species disappeared forever. But at that time, it did not use the life forms for destruction. Nature was testing if life forms can bounce back after a destruction on this scale. It did and nearly 70 million years later, it was ready for the next test. It was a prototype for an independent life form based destruction. At that time most species lived in the oceans. Plants had recently emerged on land. Their roots released nutrients into the ocean. This triggered algal blooms which sucked oxygen out of the water and in the process, suffocated 76% of the species.
But nature could not depend on plants. They were not destructive enough. So it continued using natural events like volcanos for clean up. It was during this period that nature decided to progress to animal forms. Nature believed that it had reached its pinnacle of creation with dinosaurs. They were big, they were noisy and they ate everything around them. But the earth was too big and these creatures were too dependent on brute force to cause a large scale destruction. Nature had patiently spent millions of years to create these species but when it reached a dead end, it did not hesitate to send a meteor to the planet In a matter of few years, the dinosaurs were history. It was anyhow time for a clean up and so nature wiped 76% of the species in the process.
This last exercise had an important learning for nature. Brute force does not work. For regular automatized clean up, nature required smartness in its creations. It had to continue toiling patiently for a few million years before it came up with the ultimate vacuum cleaner - human beings.
Human beings were slow to start and remained peripheral players for a long time. They killed a few animals for food and cloths. Hardly the scale nature expected. Nature had given up and was on the lookout for a comet to be redirected towards the planet, when the tide changed. Humans showed their innate capability to destroy by contributing towards the extinction of a few species, like the mammoth. They helped wipe out these species using meagre tools made out of rocks, wood and bones.
Nature took heed of this development and decided to enhance the human's ability to destroy. The next clean up had to be done in a few thousand years and humans had to be nudged along in the right direction. By this time, humans had started the practice of worshiping natural elements. They believed this would keep them safe. Nature realized that the humans had to move away from this habit of worshiping natural elements. The next stage of human brain development started by making humans look at themselves. Natural elements were given human forms and thus the first barrier between humans and the natural elements were raised. Soon, natural elements were removed completely and only human forms remained. Thus the era of organized religions began.
Nature ensured humans spread out to different parts of the planet. These regions had different climates, which in-turn ensured differences in their physical appearances and ways of living. The places were too far apart for early humans to travel. Thus for many generations, humans around the globe had little interactions with each other and most humans stayed in their familiar territories. This isolation was a master stroke as it ensured that each region had its own religion. Many years later, when humans mind had developed enough to move around the planet with ease, these regional flavours of religions came into contact with each other and started clashing to achieve dominance. This created splits and divisions among humans. They moved away from each other and yet continued to interact with each other.
Around this time, nature introduced sophistication into human brain. This resulted in changes to the human society. Their houses changes, attires changed, food changed, mode of transport changed, weapons changed and interactions with each other changed. These changes moved humans away from their surroundings and each other; from their old gods - the natural elements. To complicate matters, the world had got so crowded that everyone stepped on everybody else's foot to satisfy their ever increasing needs. They fought tooth and nail for every resource available. At the turn of the 20th century, nature changed gears and a tremendous progress in technology took place. Nature licked its lips; the end and the ensuing new beginning seemed around the corner.
Of course, no story is complete without a villain. The 21st century has thrown in the villains in the form of the conscientious people trying to save the planet. They are trying to put sense into humans. They are trying to lead humans away from the path of destruction. Has Nature noticed this menace? Is it planning something? Do the words the placard say "The end is here. All hail the end"?
Nature took heed of this development and decided to enhance the human's ability to destroy. The next clean up had to be done in a few thousand years and humans had to be nudged along in the right direction. By this time, humans had started the practice of worshiping natural elements. They believed this would keep them safe. Nature realized that the humans had to move away from this habit of worshiping natural elements. The next stage of human brain development started by making humans look at themselves. Natural elements were given human forms and thus the first barrier between humans and the natural elements were raised. Soon, natural elements were removed completely and only human forms remained. Thus the era of organized religions began.
Nature ensured humans spread out to different parts of the planet. These regions had different climates, which in-turn ensured differences in their physical appearances and ways of living. The places were too far apart for early humans to travel. Thus for many generations, humans around the globe had little interactions with each other and most humans stayed in their familiar territories. This isolation was a master stroke as it ensured that each region had its own religion. Many years later, when humans mind had developed enough to move around the planet with ease, these regional flavours of religions came into contact with each other and started clashing to achieve dominance. This created splits and divisions among humans. They moved away from each other and yet continued to interact with each other.
Around this time, nature introduced sophistication into human brain. This resulted in changes to the human society. Their houses changes, attires changed, food changed, mode of transport changed, weapons changed and interactions with each other changed. These changes moved humans away from their surroundings and each other; from their old gods - the natural elements. To complicate matters, the world had got so crowded that everyone stepped on everybody else's foot to satisfy their ever increasing needs. They fought tooth and nail for every resource available. At the turn of the 20th century, nature changed gears and a tremendous progress in technology took place. Nature licked its lips; the end and the ensuing new beginning seemed around the corner.
Of course, no story is complete without a villain. The 21st century has thrown in the villains in the form of the conscientious people trying to save the planet. They are trying to put sense into humans. They are trying to lead humans away from the path of destruction. Has Nature noticed this menace? Is it planning something? Do the words the placard say "The end is here. All hail the end"?
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