Our human environment has become the most crucial question that concerns the survival of the human species and our planet. It is not surprising that some of the hottest battles of our time are being fought around ecological issues, especially in the context of the aggressive developmental policies pursued by neo-liberal and often pro-imperialistic regimes across the globe. Global warming, ozone layer damage, fatal radiations, soil erosion, forest fires, industrial pollution, the drying up and depletion of rivers, floods and avalanches, irrational changes in weather patterns, the exhaustion of non-renewable resources due to the use of unsustainable developmental strategies (rationalized by what Ivan Illich termed industrial ideology), social entropy and genetic manipulation that cut across national boundaries-these are driving issues that trigger immediate and intense reactions. Not only is the future of the human species at stake, but animals and plants are also facing extinction due to environmental damage. It is already late for the human race to seriously introspect about its ways of life, development and acquisition that are denying posterity the very chance to exist and grow. The recent pandemic has given a new focus and orientation to the ongoing discussions and has also inspired writers to engage with the issue in novel and creative ways.
Humanity's power to degrade the environment has become unprecedentedly dangerous. In fact, we have already changed the environment irreversibly, and suicidally so. What we call nature is no longer nature in its pristine glory. Human intervention has transformed it into something sub- rather than semi-human: a combination of climate, topography, the original environment and the effects of the long history of human intervention. If it was agriculture that had transformed the landscape once, it is now urbanization that has affected the broader areas of our environment. Managing the environment is becoming a practical rather than a theoretical problem. It is not enough that we create theme parks or conserve a select few areas. 'Museumizing nature and landscape will not be enough. Several animals and birds are on the verge of extinction; the list is growing, and human beings can easily be next in the at-risk list. What we require today is not isolated action, but concerted action at the global level. Techno- fascism that leads to eco-fascism-both have their roots in human greed and aggression-is one of the inevitable fall-outs of blind and unsustainable patterns of development. The original sin perhaps, lies with the advocates of 'scientism'
Who wrote about 'conquering' nature. Thinkers like Francis Bacon and Rene Descartes were among the pioneers in creating an anti- nature philosophy and a reductive scientism through works like Bacon's Novum Organum and Descartes' Discourse on Method. Bacon used the language of violence, war and rape in addressing nature. In their anthropocentric arrogance, Bacon and Descartes, perhaps, did not realize that human beings can only collaborate with nature. We can discover nature's secrets and put them to human use; but if we try to 'conquer' her, she must wreak her revenge in the form of climate change, pollution, earthquakes, epidemics and floods that we are witnessing now. Adam Smith applied this greed to economics in his Wealth of Nations, where he argued that the selfish competition between individuals for the accumulation of wealth will ultimately lead to common good. Capitalism, with its 'open market' theory, built further on this instinct for individual possession and accumulation as against even distribution and collective management of wealth. The idea of 'conquest' was also linked to the actual conquest of lands that led to colonial exploitation and the slavery of peoples and nations.
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