Sustainable GDP for Sustainable Nature

We are at the cross juncture of a time when things may disrupt and can go out of hands. Since post-industrial time consumerism had taken a new shape which gradually ballooned and took giant shape in the lives of all of us. Today every one of us possesses different kinds of gadgets and electronics, furniture, accessories in our offices and home. There is a new world out there. Humans have shaped their own world with the help of their intelligence, earth resources, and interactions. These changes have brought new dimensions in human lives and improved several existing ones. Structure of society has changed. New boundaries have formed, newer kind of geopolitics have evolved, old cultures died and new ones are formed. Basically, we moved from a primitive to a largely modern society. Some of the game changers are the various industries & telecommunication’s exponential growth in recent times. Supposedly we are entering into a 4^th industrial revolution which would see the advent of artificial intelligence, Internet of things, drones & robots to complement our lives. Technologies like gene-editing in the health sector will be playing a major role in the coming future. Space technology is filled with a new zeal with the launches of several satellites every now and then. These satellites will integrate with the aviation sector; will help us in navigation, communication and in the better mapping of the earth for resource management and security purposes. We are already living in a data age where speed and time coupled with accuracy and precision matters a lot.

All this is happening because earth & nature have been supporting us all together. We have exploited it carelessly so much so that it has started to backfire and becoming unsustainable. We are taking more curative steps than preventive. Starting with the marine pollution where the plastic has disrupted the life of marine organisms. This is finding their way into their stomachs. Don’t think that it won’t harm humans. Nearly half of the world depends on fish for their food. These plastics will ultimately enter be chewed by us. Well, one of the greatest plastic patches is the one in the Pacific Ocean with the surface area of three France. This is breathtaking. Space is our new target as we are filling it up with the debris of non-functional parts of various artificial satellites we sent up in the last 60 years. We already know about the water crisis, air pollution and the melting of the ice caps. Many island countries are going to be omitted by the end of this century because of the increased sea-level. Our own big coastal line has been seeing much disruption with several strong cyclones hitting the region taking lives and causing economic losses. Unfettered use of groundwater is emptying the aquifers. We don’t have unlimited resources. We are already consuming nearly twice of the Earth resources than earth could actually renew it for us. This is unsustainable.

Race to high GDP growth will drain us out of life if the matter is not taken seriously. As Gandhi said, there is enough for everyone’s need but not for everyone’s greed. Moreover, it is more communal than the individual. We need to act together and make terms with each other for optimum utilization of these resources. Nature is indeed our beloved mother, we need to care for her as she does it for all of us. Hello sibling!