P. A. Chacko SJ
Nature is our protector, our sustainer, our life-line, as it were. It sustains us with what we need. It protects us from harm, diseases and calamities.
As long as we respect the integrity of nature, as long as we do not abuse it by overusing its resources, it is our life companion, protector and sustainer.
Mahatma Gandhi said: “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.”
In other words, nature’s gifts of resources are provided in the lap of mother earth. They are there as provident gifts for our need. But, the trouble arises when human beings succumb to greed and selfishly use the resources to amass wealth, to luxuriate in pleasure, to build showy mansions, to worship opulence and glamour. As a result many who deserve the benefits of the resources of nature are deprived of them.
The greedy remain impervious to the fact that millions are enslaved to poverty, joblessness, illiteracy, dispossession of their precious resources such as land, displacement, migrant labour etc. Such factors have resulted from illegally shaving off forests, grabbing people’s land and resources with political clout and connivance, dumping factory effluence into rivers and oceans, emitting gaseous substances from factories, poisoning human beings and animals by fouling the biosphere, creating imbalance in man-nature harmony, etc.
It has been estimated that every day 27,000 trees are reduced to pulp to produce toilet paper.
We need to sit up and take serious note of the harm we do to nature. We need to think of the future of planet earth. And of the future of the coming generations of people too!
As educators, animators, preachers, administrators, we can play an important role to help people understand how to conserve nature and environment. Some examples are:
- Greening the earth by planting trees, protecting vegetation and preventing unauthorised forest felling
- Tapping alternate energy like solar and wind power
- Conscious use of water and preventing water wastage.
- Harvesting rainwater
- Recycling/reusing kitchen water for gardening
- Using reusable and biodegradable products
- Recycling kitchen waste into bio-manure or organic compost
- Preparing and using home-made bio insecticide
- Reducing dependence on gas emitting vehicles
- Growing vegetation in catchment areas
- Terracing cultivable land to prevent soil erosion
- Not polluting rivers, canals and ocean
There are many other practical things people can add to these suggestions.
Special note:
The corona fear has prevented people from spitting around because of the use of face mask. In India people’s habit of spitting around without caring for the neighbour or environment is disgusting. One only hopes that, after the corona period, mask or no mask, people will take care not to pollute their surroundings. Respect for people and respect for nature will help bring harmony.