Evolution and Survival against all odds

One thing that concerns me a lot is the impact of humans on the planet, and in turn how humans have to evolve and react to themselves.

At one level, I feel anguish and disillusionment on what has become and see no hope of what we can do. The human species is on the verge of a major catastrophe which could lead to all sorts of loss of life, habitat and anarchy. We are seeing the effects of global warming with hotter summers year after year. We are seeing conflicts arising all across the globe between nations and castes.

When such a large amount of people live in a small area, there are bound to be issues. The problem of depleting water tables is present the world over, but much exacerbated in this circle. A lot of great rivers have disappeared or are on the verge of being completely unsuitable for any purpose due to indiscriminate pollution, usage and damming.

Fruits and vegetables that we have today have a mere fraction of the nourishment that they had earlier. What this means is

• we are having food that doesn’t give us the nutrition we need
• we are breathing polluted air which is getting worse by the day
• our water, whether for potable uses or otherwise, has more chemicals than ever

Our cities are becoming inhabitable; and to add to it we as people are drifting more apart instead of coming together. This is a doom scenario.

The only thing that gives me a bit of hope is that this is not the first time. There were great cultures in Indus and Saraswati valleys, in Egypt, in Peru and many other places some millennia earlier. They all perished, but the human race moved forward. We have a tendency to survive, and figure out new ways to thrive. Necessity is the mother of invention. We may over rely on chemicals or drugs to live, our immune systems may go missing; but we will structure our environment to suit what our bodies can take.

The Earth has been here far far earlier than any of us, and it will remain for far longer after we are gone. Though I don’t think we will be gone just yet.