The unbridled devastation of nature

It is all too common now. Each time a region is battered by lashing rains and floods, it seems to symbolize the uncontrolled sobs of Mother Earth. Each time the sun flares down with brutal heat and starts a mass-funeral of tall, stately trees (forest fires, we call it), it seems to stand for the funereal flames of Mother Earth’s pyre. And each time, an aircraft trembles violently in the skies, thanks to the Clear Air Turbulences, CAT (becoming increasingly frequent with climate change), it seems to epitomize the trembling of Mother Earthat the nightmarish thoughts offuture depredationsyet to be unleashed on her by the savages that inhabit the earth.

The plunder started long back, spearheaded by countries that were at the forefront of cutting-edge technologies. The plunder only accelerated with time with all others chipping in. Not so long ago,on that dayin July 1945, when the majestic, dense plume of smoke fanned out in the skies, at 35000 feet above the ground in New Mexico, the creators of the blinding dazzle that followed,felt mighty proud! What a milestone achieved! And then, the ash from the spectaclereportedly came raining down for days together on standing crops, on pristine water bodies, on neighbourhood dwellings, on surprised humans and ignorant cattle1. A new age had arrived – the nuclear age!A phenomenal triumph for humankind!!

Two other inventions have convulsed the earth likewise.

The first was theadvent of plastics and polymers. Although invented around, 19072, the gradual intrusion of this material into all aspects ofhuman lifegrew into an irreversible human dependence on this magic material by around the 1950s. From kitchenware to computers to carry-bags, from automobiles to aeroplanes, from toys to robots, it was and it is, plastics everywhere. The inventors and researchers of thismiracle would have hardly imagined a world grappling with its mammoth aftermath of the colossal plastic waste generated. By 2040, the quantum of plastic waste has been pegged at 1.3 billion tonnes3, considering its presence both on land and in the oceans, waiting to be disposed, recycled or just endured. Much of this waste will never disappear. Disintegrated and pulverized with time they will enter living systems, only to cause damage and sickness. The convenience, versatility and affordability of this material will, however,continue to invigorateits commercialallure and outshine all perilous fallouts of its indiscriminate use. The devastation of nature will continue!

The second earth-shaking invention was that of mobile phones. Appearing on the horizon in large numberslike locusts around the 1980s, this instrument has tipped plastics and polymers in its invasive control of human lives. There are no ready substitutes. Convenience is extreme. Real-time communications worldwide are at the click of a button. Settling for anything less would be painfully regressive. Insistence on ownership of the instrument cuts across a person’s status, age, religion and culture. The result: An estimated5.3 billion mobile telephone instruments consigned to trash cans in the year 2022 as per the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) forum,adding to the enormity of the e-waste problem. But this data talks about the end-of-life stage of these instruments alone. At the other end, their production calls for a regular supply of precious metals that are mined using extremely fuel-intensive techniques. And intrinsic to the mining process are theirreversible damage to ecosystems, rampant denudation of forests and forced displacement of communities. This seamier side of this industry is lost in the glitter of its glitzy offerings. It is easy to duck the environmental radar when super-profits smile at the doors. The devastation of nature goes on!

As if the aforesaid ravages of nature were not enough! A new monster is raising its head on the horizon. This one is high on sophistry and higher on its destructive abilities. This is the deceptive promise of clean air with EVs! The Coalition of Concerned Manufacturers & Businesses of Canada (CCMBC) tells us that 250 tons of soil have to be mined, that includes 12 tons of rock for lithium, 5 tons of cobalt minerals, 3 tons of mineral for nickel and 12 tons of copper ore to finally get a “zero emissions” car! The mainstay of mining and earthmoving activity, the large-wheel loaders, guzzle enormous quantities of diesel (around 1000 litres in 12 hours) even if we gloss over the energy needs of all other equipment in the supply chain. There are an estimated 760 million cars in the world today. If this fleet and more is to be progressively replaced by EVs in the long run, what is the extent of decimation of forest cover are we staring at, as we split open large swathes of landto meet the mineral requirements of these wondrously clean electric vehicles? Clean, where the EVs ply. Muck, filth and lasting devastation elsewhere,in the mines and pits that disgorge themselves to make the EVs happen!And the plunder goes on!

Thus, the ransacking of nature endures through various discoveries and inventions, initially in a controlled manner, for the benefit of the rich few and then zooming up in an unfetteredspiralof mass production as the item comes within the grip of all. One such sector that has explicitly followed this trajectoryis the transport sector. All of ustoday, experience the joy of travelling far and near. The frequency and extent of mass movement soars upwards as our cities grow in size, as countries globalize and commercialize! Economies look up, individual wealth grows and industrial activity appeases new appetites.

Morecars ply on the roads, more ships criss-cross oceans and waterways, more airplanes take to the skies – the visible face of prosperity! Andthereupon,amidst the disastrous byproductsof plastic waste, e-waste, greenhouse gases and colossal graveyards of rusted metal-scrap,lies mother nature--smothered, shattered and shocked!!

While the West may historically be held accountable for initially pioneering environmental degradation, other nations have not lagged behind to contribute their bit. In India, shoddy enforcement and manipulation of environmental protection laws takes a heavy toll. As per a notification of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (August 22, 2013), newly constructed roads longer than 100 kilometres need to have a prior environmental clearance.

A major road project of 900 kilometres in length that traverses the environmentally sensitive region of the Himalayas has been reportedly broken down into a large number of packages leaving all individual packageswith a road-length of less than 100 kilometres and so skip the requirement of a prior environmental clearance4. The Aravali range of hills that stands as a sentinel protecting the fertile plains of North India from the arid Thar desert of the West, is being rapidly flattened through unauthorized stone mining5and rampant construction of illegal structures6, portending Delhi’s gradual conversion into a desert dust-bowl.

This is notwithstanding several notices served on the defaulting entities by the regulatory authorities. As cities grow more and more dense with new livelihood seekerspouring in (73000 of them per kilometre in Mumbai,as an example7), the neighbourhood landfills that accommodateall the waste they generate, inch obstinately higher releasing toxic leachate,aggravating chances of soil and ground water pollution8. There are no full-stops!

Of late, of course, in India, we see the National Green Tribunal, since its inception in 2010, and other statutory bodies waking upto wage adeterminedfight, firing from thearsenal of allthe legal ammunition they have,strugglingto containthe gargantuan hydra of environmental pillage that raises a thousand ugly heads as we decapitate the ones at hand, in ourrelentless battle to save Mother Earth!

There is no such thing as absolute certainty of victory in a battle like this. We only hope the perilous path of environmental destruction that we have taken, gets lost in the sands of oblivion. That theclaptrap and humbug stop and realization dawns. The sooner, the better! It is time we chose nature over mindless commerce!

(The author is Senior Consultant, The Indian Institute of Management, Visakhapatnam)