The right direction to point our finger

It’s well past midnight but a thought has been turning around in my mind space in various forms, moving fast to maturity and relentlessly pushing to be born.

What is it? The spur is the constant pointing fingers that I notice.

The holier than thou attitude of vegetarians, religious fundamentalists and married women. The most recent catalyst to this thought was a judgement made of prostitutes and men who go to prostitutes. Wives hate such husbands and such women. But I want to ask-Is the world and people by nature perfect?  I did ask - Why is there a system of marriage? It is to protect women and children was the expected answer. So, there it is; we all subconsciously know the truth that no relationship is safe in itself, but our conscious mind chooses to live in denial.  

Let’s first think-why have people been educated and taught to behave in a civil way, and why are there laws and punishment? Religions did not exist when man was in the wild. The rules of relationships and marriage were different in the old times when population was much lower. If not for education and directives from religion given at a later stage of civilized living, given by our elders and ancestors, what could have been the result? The result would have been chaos- abuse of all sorts, polygamy, abandoned women, lonely lives willing to do anything to meet their needs, and what not. I don’t care to say it all. So let’s just thank society and religion that things are not any worse than what they are. That situations are not at its worst possible.  It’s all happening under the carpet, but definitely not to the extent it could have if there had not been education, laws and punishment.

But let’s also face the crude facts.

The fact about why it could have been worse. We just shouldn’t deny that animal instincts are given in all. We know that ideally there should have been more women than men in the world. Why does nature decide such a ratio if it favoured monogamy? Clearly man is designed to seed many soils. Living in a civilized world it becomes easy to be judgmental about the wrongs in society and be shocked that there are such men who want more than one woman and forget how people are actually designed by nature. Population was supposed to be controlled by diseases and deaths and attacks from animals, not by preventing man from practicing sex until he gets married or by convincing him to be in monogamous relationships. People are liberating themselves from the shackles of norms and it irks the conservatives. There are problems from that but it doesn’t help being judgmental.

Instead, let’s look at the brighter picture rather than focusing forever on the darker one. Look at those men who follow their education and overcome their natural instincts and care for their woman and children and let’s rather applaud them for doing what might not have been in their nature, than forever admonish those who go astray.

Let's imagine how worse could life have been? I saw a video of how six survivors of a plane crash spent 24 hours in a forest. I realized that no matter how much I might love the forests, looking at them from the safety of my home, I have to accept that the forest is a place of fear and especially so at night. You cannot really sleep at night in the jungle (if per chance you land up in the wild) because if you do, you might become the food of some animal. But social structure as devised by our ancestors allows us to sleep at night not fearing animals; and walk about freely without fear in the day time, not fearing our own kind. Shouldn’t we then thank more than we crib?

We have to accept that the world is in itself a place with challenges for all creatures and let’s not demand a perfect world as if it were our birth right, as if instincts don’t exist, as if ones needs were easy to overlook or suppress because fulfilling it might sometimes mean taking what is another's. Let’s rather thank that we are given a reasonably safe haven in an actually unsafe world. When we start with accepting the truth, we will more easily learn to be happier.

Now, having accepted that the world is unsafe and imperfect and that we are actually given a more than fair deal by the social system, should we refrain from the liberty to point fingers?

For that we have to comprehend what is right and what is wrong. There is actually no rights, but there are the wrongs and then there is the lesser evil. For example, killing an animal for food is an unavoidable evil; plucking a plant for the same purpose is also acceptable as without having food you cannot survive. Whatever you do for survival of yourself and of your species is fair but whatever you do for your greed is unfair. As much as you take for your need is fair to take, as per natures law, but if you are a glutton, it is not appreciated by nature. If it were, there would have been wild animals that suffer from obesity. Well fed ones are easily caught by their predators before they could be called obese.

The same rule of moderation applies to physical pleasures as well. Animals usually have a mating season, they don’t mate all the time.  Throughout the day, they are obsessed with the search for food to survive and so sex is not their primary thought. We, unfortunately, are well fed and with nothing much to do while sitting in front of our computers at work we may think of nothing but sex. Our effort for winning our bread is not as life and death a matter as it was to find food in the wild. So, that is the heart of the problem of excessive sex focus in today’s society. There isn’t enough hunger for food to push down that other instinct.

The wrong then is not being busy enough and overindulgence in pleasures beyond what could be called need. But in which direction does this awareness let us point our finger? When you are well fed and idling away your time for too long, instead of using that time looking at others and pointing at them, please point fingers at yourself, get some productive work to do, and remember that in each one of us the whole world resides.

Chemtrails- What could they be for?

I had no plans to write about something which might just be a conspiracy ‘theory’.  But I have my reasons now for writing this. Its months since my friend Fher first told me about Chemtrails.  Fher a Filipino is not from the long list of countries which are supposedly getting 'sprayed with toxic chemicals'.  But then recently I got a comment with the greeting 'Aloha' which is Hawaiian greetings; on my post on self sketch. This topic of Chemtrails was again brought to my note by this blogger. Hawaii is a place which is supposedly under chemtrail spray. Now I had to sit up, get out of my skepticism and scan out the news to understand what might be going on. I looked through all the info on this from the net. 

The term Chemtrails specifically refers to aerial trails allegedly caused by the high altitude release (into the stratosphere by planes) of chemical substances not found in ordinary contrails(condensation trails left by planes), resulting in the appearance of characteristic sky tracks. This activity of aerial chemical spraying is suggested to have started in mid 1990 and it intensified by 1999.

Proponents of the chemtrail conspiracy theory say that chemtrails can be distinguished from contrails by many features like their long duration, persisting for as much as a half day (contrails of planes dissipate in less than one minute). They extend from horizon to horizon and the trials then spread out like clouds (unlike contrails). They even form grids whereas commercial aircrafts do not cross each other's flight paths in Xs and grid-patterns at the same altitude.

Normal contrails come from the engines and wingtips of high-flying aircraft. They do not stream from the tails of airplanes equipped with wing-mounted engines. Chemtrails, on the other hand, have been observed through high-power telescopes and binoculars to be streaming from tanker tailbooms pointing downward at a 60-degree angle. (The planes are observed to be painted white without any logos or identifications.) Contrails do not make people sick, whereas hundreds of eye-witnesses have become ill within hours of watching chemtrails woven over their heads. Many have tasted and smelled something metallic or corrosive in the air. Lab analysis of the 'fall' have revealed in some cases biological agents and in other cases high amount of aluminium and barium. 
 
Supporters of this conspiracy theory speculate that the purpose of the chemical release may be for solar radiation management (geo engineering) , population control, weather control, or biological warfare/chemical warfare. According to them these trails are causing respiratory illnesses and other health problems. It is changing the pH of the soils and is also destroying the indigenous plants, rendering them weak.

These chemtrails are  supposed to contain heavy metals like aluminum and barium (or pathogens) which are sprayed into the stratosphere all over many of the NATO countries including most of America, UK, Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand , Australia (I am sure all of us have relatives in some or all of these places) to supposedly reverse the effects of Global warming.  

Who could do this? According to the theorists it is the government. Why would any government want to foul its own lungs and land. That’s nothing short of foolishness!

The problems with these chemtrials according to those who have brought forth the issue, is that it is raising the content of many heavy metals that is making the waters and soil toxic. Aluminium is indeed toxic and its ill effects are not a matter of possibility. It is real! Alzhieimers is caused due to accumulation of Al in brain cells. (Alzheimer cases are said to be rising)  Al is also flammable and can cause forest fires.  In affected areas the soil tests are claimed to be high for aluminium and barium, the values being thousands of times higher than safe limits. 

What can we conclude? Assuming that all this is truly happening, the chemtrails could be to block solar radiation and these could be trials of a control measure for global warming. It could also be trials for biological warfare where pathogens are claimed to be used.” But if it is so, the governments are grossly over reacting to the global warming scare. It is like creating a monster to combat a dog. We are creating a worse scenario. According to the precautionary principle which is one of 26 principles for guiding national and international action which was adopted in the 1972, Stockholm conference- "uncertainty (lets say of climate change damages) should not be the reason for inaction". BUT it does not mean taking any action at such a large scale and for such a long duration spanning decades without taking account of the cost benefit. The cost of control should not be worse than the benefit! No citizen of any country should tolerate such irresponsible use of power

Another possibility considered is to make it difficult for any indigenous crops to survive so that people will buy seeds that can grow in high Al soils. This is also absurd as how many people will have such purchasing power? However much the supply of such genetically engineered seeds, it wont be sufficient for the whole earth and for all types of plants and especially at buy-able prices!!

The next point is, the air any individual or government spoils; is the very air he or they are going to breathe, so why would any government do it unless they knew of some danger to all life that had to prevented at all cost. Here comes the topic of radiation from some brown dwarf that threatens life on earth and to prevent its far worse consequence of annihilation of life, we stop the radiation by barium and bear its side effects . But then what about those who claim of pathogen sprays? Are they just stray cases? Is it mostly barium and aluminium that is being sprayed. Since this spraying started in 1990's, then the brown dwarf radiation threat has been known for 2 decades now. But in the 90s it was very difficult to trace a brown dwarf. It is only more recently that many have been located, so a scare of brown dwarf from as far back as the 90s is not possible.  There are also no signs of drastic changes to the earth system in terms of increased radiation content. Are the governments being fooled then to spray on themselves such chemicals with false stories?

Then comes the topic of mind control! There was a lot of chemistry Jargon in the net  related to how barium and aluminium can be used to "download mindcontrol" onto those under this chemical atmosphere. The purpose of mind control is to make the people a slave to orders! There are also rumours that the Jews; who might be mind controlled, are everywhere in all governments and high positions and multinational companies and news agencies and they are in turn using mindcontrol to rule the world. 

But on the other hand, if those chemicals could really effectively control minds there wouldn't have been such a furore over the spraying. Nobody would have bothered to object to chemical sprays as they would have been ordered not to protest to the spraying!

Since as yet it has not been possible to know what is the truth, whether all such information on web about chemtrials can be dismissed as fabricated. Still going by precautionary principle,  it is only possible to be aware as both individuals and as governments. All governments should be alert to avoid any persuasions to experiment on its people under any pretext. It should be remembered that it is better to give in to the clockwork of the universe that created us and which so has a right to decide our end;  than to destroy our earth by our own hands out of undue paranoia.

 Chemtrail conspiracy theory true or not, we can still keep in mind that- "To avoid an  'open well',  that 'may' be in front lets not run backwards blindly over a precipice!"

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The Real Playground

I had to pressure my girl a bit to explore the river and not just look at it and then walk away to the swimming pool. I was rewarded later for this persuation by her words, "Mom I never knew the river is so much fun". I realized that today's kids from the concrete jungles do need a little persuation to realise the fun in exploring nature. We have got so used to the buildings, the computers, the TV, the pool, that it has become our whole world; from where we watch nature from afar, not participating in its flow, not experiencing, exploring or understanding what it means to be part of it. We jump into the regularity of the pool but do not care to cautiously explore the mystery and variety of the river. It is because we in our safe world don't know the fun in mystery.

I have been lucky to have explored nature in my ancestral homes in Kerala. In the hilly terrains we had lot of fun jumping into mountain pools watching the waterspiders skitting about, fishing with meshed cloth towels, climbing up slippery rocks to have a look at that mysterious cave which foxes were said to inhabit.

I always used to think there are only artificial gardens(which don't excite me) and nothing natural to explore in big cities like Bangalore..until my husband introduced us to riverside resorts.

The river was a shallow stream near the resort we were staying in. It rushed at some spots and some places it was quite still. I walked in and explored the river bed and found that it was rocky and not even knee deep. I mentally marked a circle in which it would be safe for the kids. I knew this was important as I almost drowned once when I quite naively swam into a river which I did not know about, which we had just come by during a road trip. It was without water in a region where the sandy bed was visible, giving the wrong impression that it was reasonably shallow. I swam along the shore not far from the sloping bank but when I kept my feet down a second time, towards the visible exposed river bed, I panicked not finding the river bed under my feet. It was a sand mined river!! I managed to swim to the exposed river bed (just a few strokes away) but it did leave me jittery about waters for a while though eventually it was a worthwhile learning experience. Never swim into waters you have no idea about especially if it has a sandy bed, you just cant know what man must have done to it!

We walked on the rocks, avoiding the moss ridden ones. Explored the rush of the waters over the rocks, put our hand in and watched the water glide past and then I seated my kids in the still regions of the water where they could watch the water spiders and fishes. I went to a cradle shaped rock that I had noticed in the water where the water was at its fastest and holding two rocks I dipped myself in lodging myself into the cradle with water rushing over me.... and as I came up, I had smelled, tasted and been one with the river. This was what I loved, experiencing the oneness with nature.

The next morning we walked barefoot on the poolside grass, something we had not done in a long while, but oh it was chilly and then I thought of my slippers and why I wore it! I looked at the birds unmindful of the chill, making nests that couldn't keep the chill out. No wonder man made slippers and houses. But I had planned to be bare foot and so later in the day we played bare feet in a natural patch, the games of my childhood and then I stamped on a bramble. Eeek, where are my slippers!


We lay down and watched the birds. I wondered how all day birds and animals have no other purpose but to find their food and take intermittent naps! Lying there I could course the entire journey of man from the forest to houses, gathering to agriculture, leaves to clothes, walking barefoot to vehicles. It was all a natural movement.

Yet in our journey to better adapt to nature we had more and more spare time in our hands to not just create a safe region for us, but go ahead and push nature into a bystander, corrupt its natural features and flow. I was reminded of a quote I had used in my environmental science course book.

"If in a city we had six vacant lots available to the youngsters of a neighborhood for playing ball, it might be "development" to build houses on the first, and the second, and the third, and the fourth, and even the fifth, but when we build houses on the last one, we forget what houses are for.”- Aldo Leopold
Development was a natural progression but let it not become the reason to forget where we came from. Let us not forget to allow an equal space for our origins, leaving it in its pristine glory, mystery and also regularity. And finally lets not forget to play into the magical spell of our real playground.

Lakes and Trees

I love the sight of lakes, the natural contours of its shoreline surrounded by lush green trees and hills. I enjoyed the view of such a lake from an apartment in Puna. It was refreshing just to look out the window. Now in Bangalore I pass by a lake each day as I travel to and fro my work place. I must be so happy? Its just next to the road I travel really , but alas I cant see it!! I can glimpse portions of it if I am travelling by bus! The reason is that it is fenced, protected and there is a charge to visit it. Good thing, (considering the encroachment and deliberate filling of lakes that has been the fate of many of Bangalore's lakes), except that I can’t enjoy even the sight of it. Maybe, if fencing was unavoidable, a wired fence instead of cemented one or…well, stupid as it may seem but toughened glass fence would have been good so that people passing by could enjoy a pleasant sight to which they have every right. Am I being irrational? Maybe I should just visit the lake to enjoy it rather than cribbing that I can’t see it from the road. Well even inside, what with the construction next to it I really cant see it as a natural lake. With man having cornered lakes with constructions around it to make which allow us to sit by its side on chairs over a platform ... I really need imagination to see it as a natural lake and not a man made reservoir!(actually this lake was reduced to a puddle around seven years back due to encroachment and we have to thank fellowmen for salvaging it and protecting it, though I still believe that it should have been made to look more natural) Cant all these businesses go on but still retain the natural features around the lake to allow us to relish its full natural glory. Cant spare precious space for that I guess?

The other day I had to wait in front of a school for 20 minutues. There was a flyover work going on right in front. It was noon and I didn’t have an umbrella. I looked to the right and left for nature’s umbrellas, the trees but there were none. I was standing on the cement paving outside the school. I imagined trees being cut to pave the area in front of the school. Was it necessary to pave here? Who am I to decide it was not. Maybe it was necessary, but still ‘they’ could have paved round the trees leaving some trees for people who sometimes have to wait there in the sun? It used to be done like that in many other parts of bangalore as can be witnessed, trees standing inside concrete pavings...

An autowala who once drove me back from work, told me that when he was a kid, the area was lush with trees and the temperature never usually exceeded 20 degree. It was only after IT and the highway coming up that the temperature has been taking the upside as the trees were compromised. Well I enjoy the comforts of the highway and the accessibility but I enjoy trees and shade and 'even temperatures' too. Cant they coexist?

I had thought that it is population that is eating up the possibilities of coexistence of man and nature but I am thinking differently now. We make space and time for whatever we really value in life by compromising on things we don’t value as much. It is our misplaced priorities that are behind the mismanagement.
We value material comforts more than we value aesthetic comforts. If we had prioritized aesthetic comforts we would have thought twice and avoided the placing of structures that are currently in the vicinity of the lake and built them with the objective not to lose the pristine look of the lake. If we had valued the comfort of a tree we would have avoided our need of claiming land by paving it. Is the damage irreversible? Well, we give more priority to money, if it hadn't been so then breaking down some structures and rearranging everything so that the lake looks natural and breaking up some of the paving so a tree can some day be accessed after every few meters.. wouldnt have been a far fetched thought. On the positive side though, I must say that on my way to work there is one other lake which I can view from a flyover and it has been spared its pristine look...thankfully.

A lake to look at and a tree to stand under, if not for these little things, what really is life for?

We the Monkeys....

I found an article in the paper dated Nov 17, 2010, The Times of India, very amusing indeed! It said that -Officials of the forest are considering Family Planning(Vasectomy) for messy monkeys who stray into the Malnad villages of Uttara Kannada, in order to contain their menace, destruction of arecanut, coconut, paddy and sugarcane crops.... Environmentalist Shylaja Gornamane, citing reasons for the serious problem, said monkeys are forced out of forests by people collecting minor forest produce like fruits.

Isn’t it so obvious who the real menace here really are! It is the overpopulated human race which doesn't even spare the fruits in the forest that is the food for the monkeys! . And then we want to "Family Plan" for the monkeys!

Here's some interesting statistics related to population. 'It took about 2 million years for the world population to become 1 billion (1830), 100 years for 2 billion (1930), 30 years for 3 billion (1960), 15 years for 4 billion (1986) and 11 years for 5 billion (1997). The world population stands at 6.3 billion (2000)and is estimated to be around four times of it around 22.5 billion in 2100. In context of India, Post -independent India in 35 years (1947-81)literally added a second India, i.e doubled it's population. When the population doubles, resources do not double and the critical condition in India is that it’s resources can no longer sustain this exploding population. In 2000 India’s population touched 1 billion mark whereas in 1901 it was around 238 million. Although India occupies only 2.4% of the world's land area, it supports over 15% of the world's population. The population growth rate of the world is around 1.1% and that of India is around 1.8%. To achieve population stabilization, the growth rate should be ideally brought below 0.5% which has been achieved by most developed countries.

What is the problem in our country that we cannot contain our population growth? There are actually some very funny reasons!!!

Catholic priests are advising parishioners to have three or more kids as the catholic population in India seems to be reducing. What a way to increase people in a particular faith. Just reproduce more!
One of the Hindu fundamentalist group Bajrangdal dal, during the religion linked riots in Orissa in sept 2008, was reportedly against conversions to Christianity mainly because it would reduce Hindus to a minority and how can that be allowed when according to Hindutva philosophy, India is a land of Hindus!
Muslims reportedly prefer having five or more kids primarily because they want to increase the muslim population!
This attitude of trying to preserve a good measure of one's own religious population is the peculiar bane of the Indian Society. Really now, is our individual religion the only thing worthy of preserving? The land on which we stand, the water that we drink, the air that we breathe, ...don't we owe something to it? How can we claim to love a God we do not see when we cannot love the environment that we can see is suffering from the plunder and exhaustion of resources, and excessive pollution solely because of over population and mindless development of the Human Race.

Now what can the common Indian do to check population growth. Of course reproduction is the right of every Individual, and of course we need not follow any stringent norms like China did. But lets just not let our choice be determined by our religious leanings…Education of women and higher age of marriage has proved to be successful in keeping a low population growth rate in Kerala so far, and it has been an example for the rest of India to follow. But education is often no match to personal religious persuasions. We have to decide our priority here. Lets not let false religious sentiments deviate us from our one true responsibility to humanity and to humanity's only provider…the amazing creation of god called Earth. We owe it to our God to preserve it's most beautiful creation, the Earth, no not the umpteen religions which man created just so he won't die of boredom with nothing to argue about.....

The Ultimate Killer Control- called Ingratitude

I was reading a well written, passionate book related to environment (Our Environment by Laeeq Futehally) and certain thoughts were triggered on reading.. how in a forest all the plants and animals are present in relation to the dominant species! For example in a typical rain forest an almost solid roof is formed by the tops of large trees. The dense mass of leaf material makes a permanent ceiling for the entire forest (since the trees are not deciduous). This prevents direct sunlight from reaching the ground, which means that there is little undergrowth.

It is obvious that because of the dominant tree canopy through out the year, only shade loving plants flourish except in pockets where a tree has fallen and sunlight enters in till the space is filled up again. It is also obvious that according to the dominant flora of a habitat are the fauna that survive in these habitats (animals etc dependent on the plants prevalent in a habitat).So the climax condition in any habitat is very much in accordance with the dominant species.

Nature has always been rearranging itself over its course of evolution according to the dominant species of each time frame. I wouldn’t say therefore that the destruction that has happened of nature is not natural!This may seem an odd statement, but consider this; It is nature’s course to create the environment as per the dominant species, which currently for the largest habitat Earth is Man..

Man has been altering the habitat Earth as per his whims and fancies. Which is in fact quite natural considering that nature created man an intelligent species which had the capability to overcome it’s natural enemies. Though all species occupy their own niche in a habitat in equilibrium, not encroaching on another's territory or food, still it would be wrong to say that it is on account of an all embracing charecteristic of the wild species. There is behind this undeniably the law of the survival of the fittest,which is quite a 'me first'or in other words a selfish charecteristic.In fact two species cannot occupy the same niche (role) for a long time because it results in competition which in turn results in the survival of the fittest and elimination of the other. Selfishness is also therefore a natural trait and each species' populaton is checked by each other's selfishness(more often than not).

Moreover a species that is introduced in an environment where it has no natural enemies, spreads uncontrollably, eating away resources that were for all the inhabitants of the habitat. Like the water hyacinth which is a native of South America brought to India as a garden plant. Having no natural enemies in India, it multiplies at a tremendous rate, and soon covers all of the water surfaces. It is a greedy plant that drinks up all the water of the lake on which it grows quite like man exhausting all the resources that it survives on.. The only difference about Man from the hyacinth, is that Man is a species that has overcome its enemies and therefore has grown in population to such a proportion that it has sapped the life out of its own environment. The plants and animals that can survive are only the one’s that man the dominant species allows to survive, quite like how only shade loving trees can flourish in forest with a thick canopy(although the dominant trees have their own natural controls intact unlike man who has brought under control all it's enemies).

Natural again definitely considering Man's Intelligence, but our intelligence also shows us that unless we check our population and recede our encroaching uncaring steps, we will exhaust the very resources we survive on. For example if the rate at which we consume bamboo for paper is slower than the rate at which we replenish it by planting, then soon we would have to do without paper. Our intelligence is putting efforts to prevent further harm to environment, but the effort is feable compared to the relentless and enormous damage to environment that we do collectively everyday.

Now the ultimate control has to be therefore with nature alone that created all this mess by creating Man. Our dominance of nature has not been against the natural growth and climax in natural habitats, and so it is only natural that there has to be a check not far off in future that is predestined for a species like ours. Aren’t we the dominant species altering our habitat making it unsuitable for our own survival which is what does happen naturally in succession (called reaction) in habitats which eliminates that errant species? Nature has never been helpless;it always has a check for everything, however slow in coming. The exhausting resources will itself check the population growth. Nature may be too loving to do anything overt, it only just recedes to non existence due to lack of love of its inhabitants.

The Natural Killer Control of the Intelligent, powerful, dominating, thoughtless and selfish species therefore,... is it's own ungratefulness! The end of such a greedy species such as water hyacinth and man is in the exhaustion and so destruction…of both; the habitat (nature) and consequently the ungrateful species. This end also looks natural in the whole scheme of things. Everything that has a beginning has a natural end.

Ungratefulness is the ultimate killer, or lets say the ultimate control. It saps the life blood out of the parent, the provider and finally with its death dies the dependent too.. The provider dies a slow death unloved, unappreciated, uncared and abused. Even if we cannot learn to be grateful, still, if we the self loving species have to save ourselves, we have to stop abusing and spitting on our one and only provider, the mother Earth..But then at this uncontrolled pace of human progress we do seem to have gone beyond the point of a ‘comeback’...For there is no killer like the killer called ingratitude. It has a life, movement and all devouring pace of its own that is not checked even by self love.

Taking Calculated Risks

"Fear of Danger is ten thousand times more terrifying than Danger itself" Daniel Defoe

Sometimes we need to take risks in life rather than living in fear...of the toxins in everything that we intake or use. A life lost a bit early due to certain risks taken is better than a life lost to fear....

But it is important to take 'calculated' risks. There is no denying that the environment we live in today is very polluted. The air we breathe, the food we eat, the cosmetics we use etc are all taking away years from our lives...

But we forget that at the same time the immense progress made in medicine, discovery of cures and prevention for formerly fatal diseases(like TB)...all this has added years to our life...

In the year 1900, the average life expectancy of the world was 30yrs, and by 1985 it was 62yrs. Now 2010 estimate stands at 67 years.

What I am intending to say is we have an extra 30 or so years gifted by developments in science.... then is it really important to be paranoid about the toxins that we take in? We may increase say two years to our life by the care we take to keep away the toxins...like...not buying grapes and apples fearing they are coated with pesticides, scared of the white cauliflower (must be dipped in Malathion) scared of even medicines and supplements knowing that they too contain preservatives that could be very harmful, could possibly accumulate in tissues, not using any cosmetics at all, worried about the chlorine in the swimming pool, the UV at noon....But look at it this way...Don't we reduce comparatively, say four years from our life by the paranoia and stress concerned with all the caution and care! Aren't we thus compromising on the joys of life and added years in life that can come only from being a bit care free? Not a good deal..is it? Isn't it then better to adopt the midway...that is even use 'caution' in moderation?

So lets be careful .... but lets also not overdo it. Lets take reasonable care but lets also be reasonably carefree.......

The climate characteristic!

Having lived in a number of climatic conditions...like parts of punjab, bengal, rajasthan, ..and having seen the peculiarities of the people of each region, I have been drawing conclusions which have finally taken a definite form in my mind with my recent visit to another of the regions in maharashra. I am putting the view down finally in words.

In Kottayam, I have often felt that it's particular kind of heat can get to the head. Recently I have been wondering whether heat, head, and high rate of suicides in kerala have any link? Can a type of heat make one feel more suicidal than just the push of circumstances.

The peculiarly unrelenting dry heat of some regions (heat even in evenings) also can effect adversely the intelligence of the people of those regions and so I doubt it can make people dumb (especially the poorer sections which stay outdoors more often or lack a good house.

Whereas some other regions like in Jodhpur, I have felt that the cooler evening air gifts a calming peace on the people of the region, making them quite easy going.

One obvious thing is that people of different regions share similar physical charecteristics, language and even some similarities in terms of their natures. Having stayed in many regions I have experienced that I have been different too in each region. Some of it I accord to my age at each place...but I couldn't strike out the possibility of climatic characters effecting me.

People of some region show vigour and zest for life whereas another region may show a lazy and careless attitude, while others of some regions are very serious and proper about life. In some regions people show lack of depth. They show love and friendliness but it is merely like a surface reflex, whereas their innermost feelings are not fathomable by their surface expressions and behaviour.

One of the biggest blessings in life is staying in different places. It is like opening a new and different window of the mind at each place and becoming open minded, understanding and accepting.

People who have moved around in their formative years are the people who show more rounded personalities. People who have all their life stayed in one place are less accommodating.

Then think of climate change and how it can effect the general civilization! Climate holds more secret powers than we have cared to notice. History, the present and the future have been shaped and is shaped by some known ways and some even unimagined ways by the powerful forces of climate...I am sure.

Dead End?...

I usually avoid thinking about the environment, because whenever I have thought of it, my thinking process reaches a dead end.
Yeah I did my Masters in Environment Science and I guess I am expected to read and think about the environment and be up to date with the statistics..What for?

There has been 12.8% increase in GHG emissions by developed nations in 2007 compared to 1990 levels as per the reports. There is increase of emissions dispite all so called measures! But there has been no dearth in concern and conventions and the blame game. The only thing that is not there is reduction in the emissions.

What can I do about it apart from reading and keeping track of the conventions and the figures? Can I stop going out on pleasure trips because I have to use a vehicle to reach there..Should I be thinking about how my vehicle helps to escape to natural environments or do I worry about how it is responsible for polluting the environment.
Should I avoid going to supermarkets because they have not found an alternative to plastic covers. I have racked my brain often and have not been able to think of a better alternative than plastics. It just doesn't seem possible...Should the supermarkets give us our purchase in synthetic cloth bags and charge a little extra from the customers? Anyway what unnatural product doesn't cause pollution at some stage;during manufacture, use or disposal? And what natural product does not get depleted or lead to a depletion in some way when extensively used or produced? Say how much of land has to used for the cultivation of crops, the non edible oil of which can be used as a bio-fuel, to produce a fair enough supplement to fossil fuels?(Fargione et al. (2008) estimated that the conversion of rainforests, peatlands, savannahs or grasslands to produce ethanol and biodiesel in Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia or the United States of America releases at least 17 times as much carbon dioxide as those biofuels save annually by replacing fossil fuels.) So is it really a feasible alternative? Inexhaustible resources? Solar Power? Doesn't cost put us off when we look to harness the inexhaustible resources on a large scale?
...Don't we always end up at a dead end?

But I am an optimist or maybe I want to be an optimist..and so I hope it is my limited intellectual capacities that make me unable to see that there is actually a way out and that it is not a dead end.

The human mind has solved a lot of problems over the centuries. But solutions sometimes brings other problems as side effects.. Yeah, I really DONT blame man for pollution!
Man found solutions to how to travel fast and faster, how to fly in the sky, How to operate without causing pain, How to prolong lives, create immunity, how to clothe ourselves better, how to create more supplies of food, how to keep away mosquitoes so that we can sleep well. . Can we do without these developments? If we can't , we also can't grumble about the side effects can we?

Man has noticed very well the enormity of the problems that some of his solutions have created and so is working on a solution(hopefully... side effect free)

I trust in man's unique intellectual gifts and have been waiting and am waiting for a smart brain to come up with the right answers...

And till that happens...I don't really want to know the statistics.....

PS: I am beginning think (hope I wont be sounding depressing) that the universe is not just intended to have been created and sustained for eternity. Maybe the cycle has to end with destruction and a new cycle has to begin (as all scriptures have always been saying). Well, why am I suddenly thinking so? Because just ponder..is man not a part of nature? Is his intelligence not nature's gift and if that intelligence is causing imbalance in nature leading to the possibilities of destruction ...then isn't actually nature doing this to itself?!
Of course we cant end on that note..Maybe we can just say that it is up to Man to work out a longer 'sustainance' possibility

Running from pollution

I had thought there was no real pollution issues near around my peaceful home in kerala where I love to retreat to for sometime every year..., until I realized that paraquat(non selective, contact herbicide) was occasionally sprayed to control the weeds in our clean compound. I had assumed till then that the little that pushed up from beneath the gravel strewn over the mud were mostly hand weeded. Well, often hand weeded but not possible always, its true... I looked at the well in our compound.....Paraquat....., does have a bad enough half life(time taken for half of the chemical to decompose) which is at least more than a year.Hmm.. but has less mobility in soil so lesser chances of ground water pollution. There are only occasional rains in this season to push it down too much towards ground water and so degradation in the sun can be faster too. Not too bad then.
And..there is no place to run from pollution I guess...

Among all pesticides, I understand 'insecticide' exposure quite well enough, but I moved away from anything connected to Agri after graduation... but not really away from pollution as I soon realized. Env studies opened my eyes wider than I cared for. Can I now be happy that the vegs are free of worms, can I be pleased seeing a 'white' clean looking cauliflower? what sort of milk did I give my children. What of the packet milk my children are provided with... I used to look at the milk glass and wonder.. not some concoction of urea I hope. What sort of History does the water coming in the taps have? What combination of air have I been breathing in, each time, as I moved around over years in my country.
There is only one thing to do..Do the little, with the awareness, that I personally can do and stop worrying. because there is just not the option of running away from pollution and the possible effects. No point in worrying about what one has no control over.
Live peacefully without worry as long as we manage to live.. thats all there is to it