If we look back in time, people lived in villages and small towns and managed all their issues within their commune. They produced what they needed and consumed within. They went out only when they could not produce. This was true for all aspects of life and living. Today human beings are creating problems everyday around themselves and struggling to find solutions.

Whether it is climate change or warming of the earth’s surface, all our actions today ,is leading us to a bleak tomorrow ,for our future generations. We have to move from a world living on greed, to a world satisfied with their needs. I am not sure if we have solutions, for all the problems we are creating ,for ourselves and our future generations. However, the silver lining is that ,Nature has solutions for all man made problems.

Let us look at how we can learn from nature and at least prevent the further de-generation of the human kind. A simple example could be the natural disasters. I am told that the animals sense the onset of a tsunami or an earthquake and caution other animals and birds to move away from the likely site of disaster. Tribal communities who are closer to nature observe and listen to the calls of these animals and reduce the impact of disaster on them.

I am at an ayurveda retreat at present in Kerala, India. As per Ayurveda experts, there are many precautions human beings can take ,to lead a healthy life. This could include ,the type of food consumed, the exercise we do and even our daily routine of getting up and going to sleep. These have been prescribed hundreds of years ago and we are still groping in the dark and knowingly ignoring them.

Another interesting video I was watching was about the bullet trains in Japan. I was told they had a perennial problem of high decibel noise from the bullet trains when they exited tunnels and this impacted the nearby communities. They struggled to find a solution till an engineer saw a kingfisher bird diving into the river without a splash. This prompted the engineer to design the frontal side of the train like the beak of a kingfisher. this not only reduced the sound emitted but also reduced power consumption by the trains.

Nature has myriad ways of teaching us everyday. We have moved away from nature .humans have started believing that our ingenuity and technology can solve all man made problems. We are realising that this is not true and the sooner we get closer to nature, the better it is for mankind.

Let us look at the waste we create everyday around us. Earlier it was mostly organic and got naturally recycled back to earth. Nowadays with plastic and all other chemicals used in packaging etc, there is no way waste will get recycled easily. Although, we are going organic rapidly, our ability to reduce consumption will lead us to a better tomorrow. Here again animals teach us that they never consume more than what they need. Have you ever seen a dog over eating ? It will refuse food when its stomach is full. It is humans who keep consuming irrespective of need and because of greed.

It may be time to reconnect with nature and learn everyday.

S Ramesh Shankar

18th February 2023