Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s cabin was published in 1852. It was the first of its kind to arouse the sympathy of the people of the northern states of USA against the age-old nuisance of slave trade. Within years the book impregnated the sentiments and sensibility of every civilized population not only across Atlantic, but also into countries afar including India. Almost during similar time and setting of the then USA some conscientious people noted that unscrupulous grazing by western ranchers removed the grass cover from extensive areas, so much so, that the desert from west threatened encroachment on the eastern states. The matter was brought to the notice of the Congress. In the wake of this observation came the cognition of the effects of Industrial Revolution. It was found to be emerging as environmental problems of polluted air, dirty water, and the resulting public health problems, coupled with growing populations and “taming” of the last wilderness. At that time, people were shifting to urban centres catalyzing air pollution et al jeopardizing preservation of open, natural areas for fresh air. In 1872, Congress created Yellowstone, the first national park, saying that the park’s resources shall remain “unimpaired for future generations.” That was probably the first important step to conserve Nature and her environment.
Since then there had been sporadic movements about different aspects of environment, but none too seriously to trickle into the behavioural pattern of common man. Non Government Organizations did not yet consolidate their activities for monitoring and punishment, but several clubs nucleated to disseminate their findings. The common coinage of environmental pollution was yet to come, but it was found that as a drop of ink is blotted and spreads for some distance across the blotting paper, so also the effects of environmental hazards. Exponential rate at which it spreads catches populations unawares as they do not find time enough to organize themselves to cope with the threat.
Two World Wars, the second in particular, saw the indiscriminate damage to paddy fields, forest lands, wet lands coupled with extensive development of intensive technologies. The latter provided methods for quick reclamation of the damaged land, increase in food production and most of all in the fields of medicine and surgery. With rise in expectancy for life and decline in mortality the 1950 terrestrial human population of 2,555,982,611 soared to 6,081,002,937 in 2000, and is projected to continue rise further at exponenential rate. Pesticides and artificial fertilizes were used to check or prevent epidemics in paddy and vegetables the growth of which was promoted by hybridization. The fall in the nutritive values was not apparent immediately.
At this juncture Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring appeared in 1962. Beginning in the format of a novel it introduced the most dynamic season of the year the spring as a silent one. The first chapter named ‘A fable for Tomorrow’ describes the extreme possibility of a spring that should have been boiling with activities of organic world, narrating a strange blight befell ‘that crept over the area and everything began to change’. In subsequent chapters she elaborated her thesis with attractive but meaningful chapter headings the dangers of these achievements. A host of books came in succession, such as, Garrett Hardin’s The Tragedy of the Commons (1968), Paul Ehrlich’s The Population Bomb (1968), Donella H. Meadows’ The Limits to Growth (1972), and Edward Goldsmith’s Blueprint for Survival (1972) suggested that the planetary ecosystem was reaching the limits of what it could sustain. This so-called apocalyptic, or survivalist, literature encouraged reluctant calls from some environmentalists for increasing the powers of centralized governments over human activities deemed environmentally harmful, a viewpoint expressed most vividly in Robert Heilbroner’s An Inquiry into the Human Prospect (1974), which argued that human survival ultimately required the sacrifice of human freedom. Counterarguments, such as those presented in Julian Simon and Herman Kahn’s The Resourceful Earth (1984), emphasized humanity’s ability to find or to invent substitutes for resources that were scarce and in danger of being exhausted.
The dissemination of facts and figures drew heavy reading, and some of the local clubs that once started publicity for the oncoming environmental crisis got access to the International cognition for checking and/or moderating impending catastrophe. Even then, there are people beyond the ambit of educational curriculum who want to know the shape of the problem. A large fraction of them cannot decide whether environmental study is science or a figment of Philosophy. For, they know from their childhood that scientific method is the method of acquiring knowledge dependent on measurement, prediction, and verification which distinguishes the field of science from other fields of knowledge. Yes, it is still today, but none should forget that Philosophy is the mother of all sciences.
History shows that man was never indifferent to environment. There might have been difference in the degree of their alertness. In Brihadaranyak Upanishad do we get the sloka: Madhubata ritayate Naduksharnti sindhabah madhwirna sntwoushadhih … followed by mantras. This is the environment ripe for the learning of Brhmavidya, the Supreme Knowledge. Though it is believed that environmental consciousness had its beginning with the discovery of the controlled use of fire that it was a sort of consciousness for the environment could not be revealed before the second half of the last century. But the revelation started dawning six thousand years before Christ when Israel had its fall due to unscrupulous forest clearing. During 2700 B.C. came Gilgamesh epic, another important milestone in environment awareness. Moreno Dario during 2500 B.C. had applied the knowledge of environment to devise cesspits and make the Great Baths waterproof. These have been critically analyzed by the Greek stalwarts, such as Pythagoras, later Herodotus, and the social customs took shape. Synchronization of the Nature’s reactions in the mind of some men gave rise to some sort of realization. It may not be taken as granted that all the environmentalists have this realization. Rather environmental activism betrays their action in most cases, and that activism is sometimes directed to attain some political gains.
The present book is intended to prepare for such a resonance. That is why it is entitled First Child of Nature. Without that realization environmental protection remains an academic exercise, never more. It is our duty to honour our environment. Only then the environment will remain healthy, keep us healthy, and look after the needs of our progenies.
The present book is for them, with a brief discourse in most of the fields of environmental studies, for which elementary knowledge of Chemistry, Physics and Biology and very occasionally tit bits of statistics is enough to go through it. Care has been taken to incorporate Indian examples at relevant steps.
None of those who were in the fore to encourage the present to write such a book is no more. In the present phase the encouragement came from Mr. Debajyoti Dutta. The credit of successful launching of the book goes to several of the competent people of Sishu Sahitya Samsad who expertise in composing and processing of manuscripts and plates and figures embodied in the book. But all its credit goes to Mr. Debajyoti Dutta who standing at the helm manoeuvred everything laudably. I acknowledge them all.
Since then there had been sporadic movements about different aspects of environment, but none too seriously to trickle into the behavioural pattern of common man. Non Government Organizations did not yet consolidate their activities for monitoring and punishment, but several clubs nucleated to disseminate their findings. The common coinage of environmental pollution was yet to come, but it was found that as a drop of ink is blotted and spreads for some distance across the blotting paper, so also the effects of environmental hazards. Exponential rate at which it spreads catches populations unawares as they do not find time enough to organize themselves to cope with the threat.
Two World Wars, the second in particular, saw the indiscriminate damage to paddy fields, forest lands, wet lands coupled with extensive development of intensive technologies. The latter provided methods for quick reclamation of the damaged land, increase in food production and most of all in the fields of medicine and surgery. With rise in expectancy for life and decline in mortality the 1950 terrestrial human population of 2,555,982,611 soared to 6,081,002,937 in 2000, and is projected to continue rise further at exponenential rate. Pesticides and artificial fertilizes were used to check or prevent epidemics in paddy and vegetables the growth of which was promoted by hybridization. The fall in the nutritive values was not apparent immediately.
At this juncture Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring appeared in 1962. Beginning in the format of a novel it introduced the most dynamic season of the year the spring as a silent one. The first chapter named ‘A fable for Tomorrow’ describes the extreme possibility of a spring that should have been boiling with activities of organic world, narrating a strange blight befell ‘that crept over the area and everything began to change’. In subsequent chapters she elaborated her thesis with attractive but meaningful chapter headings the dangers of these achievements. A host of books came in succession, such as, Garrett Hardin’s The Tragedy of the Commons (1968), Paul Ehrlich’s The Population Bomb (1968), Donella H. Meadows’ The Limits to Growth (1972), and Edward Goldsmith’s Blueprint for Survival (1972) suggested that the planetary ecosystem was reaching the limits of what it could sustain. This so-called apocalyptic, or survivalist, literature encouraged reluctant calls from some environmentalists for increasing the powers of centralized governments over human activities deemed environmentally harmful, a viewpoint expressed most vividly in Robert Heilbroner’s An Inquiry into the Human Prospect (1974), which argued that human survival ultimately required the sacrifice of human freedom. Counterarguments, such as those presented in Julian Simon and Herman Kahn’s The Resourceful Earth (1984), emphasized humanity’s ability to find or to invent substitutes for resources that were scarce and in danger of being exhausted.
The dissemination of facts and figures drew heavy reading, and some of the local clubs that once started publicity for the oncoming environmental crisis got access to the International cognition for checking and/or moderating impending catastrophe. Even then, there are people beyond the ambit of educational curriculum who want to know the shape of the problem. A large fraction of them cannot decide whether environmental study is science or a figment of Philosophy. For, they know from their childhood that scientific method is the method of acquiring knowledge dependent on measurement, prediction, and verification which distinguishes the field of science from other fields of knowledge. Yes, it is still today, but none should forget that Philosophy is the mother of all sciences.
History shows that man was never indifferent to environment. There might have been difference in the degree of their alertness. In Brihadaranyak Upanishad do we get the sloka: Madhubata ritayate Naduksharnti sindhabah madhwirna sntwoushadhih … followed by mantras. This is the environment ripe for the learning of Brhmavidya, the Supreme Knowledge. Though it is believed that environmental consciousness had its beginning with the discovery of the controlled use of fire that it was a sort of consciousness for the environment could not be revealed before the second half of the last century. But the revelation started dawning six thousand years before Christ when Israel had its fall due to unscrupulous forest clearing. During 2700 B.C. came Gilgamesh epic, another important milestone in environment awareness. Moreno Dario during 2500 B.C. had applied the knowledge of environment to devise cesspits and make the Great Baths waterproof. These have been critically analyzed by the Greek stalwarts, such as Pythagoras, later Herodotus, and the social customs took shape. Synchronization of the Nature’s reactions in the mind of some men gave rise to some sort of realization. It may not be taken as granted that all the environmentalists have this realization. Rather environmental activism betrays their action in most cases, and that activism is sometimes directed to attain some political gains.
The present book is intended to prepare for such a resonance. That is why it is entitled First Child of Nature. Without that realization environmental protection remains an academic exercise, never more. It is our duty to honour our environment. Only then the environment will remain healthy, keep us healthy, and look after the needs of our progenies.
The present book is for them, with a brief discourse in most of the fields of environmental studies, for which elementary knowledge of Chemistry, Physics and Biology and very occasionally tit bits of statistics is enough to go through it. Care has been taken to incorporate Indian examples at relevant steps.
None of those who were in the fore to encourage the present to write such a book is no more. In the present phase the encouragement came from Mr. Debajyoti Dutta. The credit of successful launching of the book goes to several of the competent people of Sishu Sahitya Samsad who expertise in composing and processing of manuscripts and plates and figures embodied in the book. But all its credit goes to Mr. Debajyoti Dutta who standing at the helm manoeuvred everything laudably. I acknowledge them all.
