Nature: Earth’s biggest treasure
The ‘breathtaking view’, the ‘awe-inspiring waterfall’, the ‘most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen’…….How many similes and metaphors do we find related to nature?
Almost everyone agrees that the Earth is beautiful. The hills, waterfalls, rivers and flowers are placed perfectly, and complement each other, like how a key fits into a lock. The Earth is a canvas, and the paintings on it, aka natural wonders and phenomena, are flawless.
How many times do we unconsciously forget to appreciate Nature’s gifts? When we trample on flowers, or throw a plastic bottle out of a car, or leave the tap running for a minute and think it’s no big deal? It is a huge deal in fact, and I’ll tell you why. Don’t worry this won’t be one of the usual ‘How to save the planet’, or ‘How to save electricity’ type of articles. :) It’s going to be a lot more interesting.
Many students will be familiar with William Wordsworth’s poem, Daffodils, which highlights Nature’s healing power and compares it to utopia. Wordsworth says that when you’re around nature, you forget all your woes and the sight of natural beauty soothes your heart. Another one of his poems: ‘The World is Too Much With Us’, shows how we often forget the outdoors and focus on material things more, like marks, or that new video game your friend got you. Here’s an excerpt:
The world is too much with us; late and soon
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
Nature is unquestionably the greatest gift mankind will ever get. Where else will we find such a caregiver that bears with all our whims and fancies asking for nothing in return? But as Gandhiji rightly said, The world has enough for everyone’s needs but not everyone’s greed.
Greed is like a monster, with a mouth of fire. Like fire devours everything in its path, greed drives people to do insane things. It’s true that the population has doubled and tripled at an alarming rate, and we need to feed many hungry mouths. But no one gave us the right to drive native species and animals away from their habitats to satisfy not only our needs but also our greed.
When earthquakes or tornadoes occur, people say nature is ruthless, as it wipes away villages and leaves scores of people homeless in an instant.
But what about the irreparable damage humans do to the Earth every day? Imagine the unspoken agony of every tree, felled down to build yet another flyover that reduces five minutes of traffic congestion. Imagine the distress of an animal, forced to flee it’s home as workers arrive, armed with axes to fell it down. How would we feel if our houses, our havens, were destroyed before our eyes? Estimates say, as you’re reading this sentence, a forest area the size of 78 Olympic swimming pools would have been cut down.
The main reason why we usually can’t feel for animals/plants as much as we can for humans is that we consider ourselves superior to them. Sure, we’re at the top of the evolutionary ladder, but shouldn’t we, as the smartest beings, be responsible enough to care for the ‘inferior’ beings? We all know the quote, ‘With great power comes great responsibility’. We’re definitely powerful and smart, but are we backing it up with responsibility? That’s questionable.
The poor creatures can’t even talk to express themselves. If I had a superpower, I would wish for the ability to understand all animals and birds. Too bad we can’t be Dr. Dolittle! So the communication gap causes fear and misunderstanding on both sides.
Many programs are being organized all over the world to save the environment and tackle climate change. Climate change is one of the most discussed topics in the world today. And, believe it or not, we can all play a part in it! People believe it doesn’t matter if you leave the tap on for just a minute, or waste just one paper piece. But here, every micro and mini step matters in the fight to save our planet.
I’m sure we’ve all studied symbiosis in biology. Where two organisms live in association with each other, and help the other out. Nature and Man should form a similar relationship, because neither can exist without the other. We depend on nature for our basic needs, and human activities like ploughing ensures good usage of soil and land.
And everyone can play a part in this! In my previous article I explained how each one of us can do amazing things. We can stop people from hurting animals or plants, plant saplings in our balconies, and save water and paper. Together, we can bring about a difference, and that’s exactly what we should do.
Nature’s our greatest treasure and saving it is not very hard. It just requires dedication and team effort. So what do you say? Are you ready to help the environment and be one of the ‘saviors’ of our planet?