tive human psyche. It’s obnoxiously seated in all our endeavours from ancient stories to modern research and development rooms. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the Earth…” goes the Genesis story in Bible. Humans have been conditioned to believe that creating something new is a meaningful purpose of life and is the only way to advance their ambitions. Yet we forget to put a cap on the use.
The limits of science have never been more glaringly apparent when trying to solve this conundrum. Reliance upon green
“Human life will be negatively affected because of the loss of the many ecosystem benefits and services provided by biological diversity,” says Loria. “For example, water pollution may affect provisioning services, such as food and water, by causing a reduction in food diversity and/or in its quality and safety. Widespread degradation of ecosystems threatens the conditions of life on Earth, in particular the long-term survival of our own species.”
Our impact on the planet is much is deeper than carbon footprints or global warming. It points to a future where the effects of anthropogenic matter will take over – if it hasn’t already – the identity of the Earth and its life. In the face of this, humans themselves might lose out in the evolutionary race.
Eliminating materials like concrete or plastic or replacing them with alternatives is not going to address the fundamental problem with human attitudes and our unparalleled appetite for more. This is exactly where materialism can seamlessly transform into a known unknown risk factor in global catastrophe. The myriad of ways in which it can turn this planet into a mundane world is something our civilisation has never experienced before.
In the absence of a fully secure evolutionary shield, we could depend on our intelligence to survive. Nevertheless, as Abraham Loeb, professor of science at Harvard University and an astronomer who is searching for dead cosmic civilisations puts it, “the mark of intelligence is the ability to promote a better future”.
