We live in an environment where natural elements, be it soil, water, air, or even space where sound travels, are no longer pure and pristine but polluted – not by animals, birds, or insects but by humans. Nature created humans and in return, this is what humans are doing to nature. Most people do not think or care about where their waste ends up; however, just having a look at a landfill gives us an idea of the amount of pollution created by human consumption and the enormous wastage thereof. The alerts about climate change fail to wake up the sleeping masses about the extent of the damage created by pollution. However, with nature striking back in the form of the impact of human pollutants on our physical and mental health, the problem has now entered our backyard and can no longer be ignored. While administrators work on changing policies for waste management, the root of the problem needs to be investigated to find a lasting solution.
The government-imposed lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic might have had a negative impact on the social life of the people and economy of the state but they had a positive impact on the environment. Within just a few days or even hours, the smog in the sky cleared away, water in the streams became clear again, and the chirping of the birds was heard for the first time in many areas that used to be populated and polluted. Human pollution has been rising exponentially since the first Industrial Revolution but the seeds of it were sown with the very arrival of Homo Sapiens on the scene. What makes humans different from animals is the ability to imagine a scenario that does not exist in the present moment. This is the source of all human discoveries and innovations. The ability to imagine is an advantage but it can also become a disadvantage. If the building blocks of imagination get limited to past negative experiences, the human imagines a dark future, which amplifies biological fear into anxiety and biological desire into greed. Animals hunt only for survival and even their hoarding or catching behavior is driven by their survival instinct; on the other hand, humans accumulate, store, and hoard even when their survival is already well-secured. Humans desire more than what is needed and that is where the shoe pinches. There is a limit to need but not to greed. Since nature’s resources are limited, the unlimited human greed creates our disharmony with nature and with each other.
Far from the ancient ideal of ‘simple living, high thinking,’ the modern movement of consumerism thrives on exploiting human greed. Through marketing, it sells a false story to the masses that buying goods is equal to buying happiness. The behind-the-scenes story of the production of those goods and their disposal is never shown to the public, who are mass hypnotized by the gimmicks of advertising. Many of the goods sold in malls are made by cheap labor in third-world countries and when they are disposed of, they end up in some landfill far away from the sight of the buyers. While the ‘out of sight, out of mind’ mentality might be convenient, the rise in health issues is nature’s way of communicating a message to us. For the unfoldment of human potential, the first step is to return to nature. Spending time with our roots will awaken in us the ability to discern between need and greed. Next time you buy anything in the shopping mall or click an online order, ask yourself if you really need it.