PERISHABLE

We as humans have always felt secure in knowing that we are in control. When this illusion is broken by nature, we are left helpless and in a state of chaos and panic. Today when the world is amidst a global pandemic caused by a tiny microbe, this is exactly what has happened. We could only have been in command of the situation had we been prepared. Had we invested in a better health care system at the right time, the impact and sudden outbreak could have been managed much better.

However, this may be just the least of our problems in a few years. Climate change is a huge issue that has only started to show its ill effects. It has caused ice caps to melt, wildfires, and floods and yet we continue to brush it away until it's too late. While we acknowledge the alarming rate with which carbon emissions increase each year, and we complain about how politicians do nothing about the issue, it is we who continue to create these emissions.

One of the most worrying consequences of global warming may be a global water crisis. Out of the 3% of fresh water on earth, we have access to about only 1% of it, and still, we continue wasting it relentlessly. Global warming will lead to changes in precipitation patterns across the world leading to floods in some parts and drought in others. It will lead to less snowfall and shorter rainfall periods leading to water scarcity in times of need. All this may culminate in water wars between countries. Since water is a life source, lack of it may be the end of us, unless of course, a nuclear war kills us first.

Treaties and pacts, like the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action between the USA and Iran and the intermediate-range nuclear forces treaty between the USA and Russia, that curbed the development of nuclear weapons have been abandoned allowing countries to broaden their arsenal of nuclear weaponry without bounds. It really is disappointing how we will never learn from our past. In the second world war when Hiroshima and Nagasaki were demolished by nuclear bombs, we were all shook, devastated, horror stuck, even ashamed, and yet here we are, on the verge of committing the same blunder again.

Hunger is yet another problem we face today. While 35% of Americans are suffering from obesity, there are millions in countries like Africa and India who die of hunger every day. In India even though granaries are overflowing with food, people starve to death each day simply due to the incompetence of our public distribution system. While you and I today may be sitting with a cup of coffee and a sandwich by our side while we read this, there are still 10 million Indians and 690 million people worldwide who will sleep hungry tonight. Although this problem had been steadily declining from the late 1980s till around 2014, it is getting worse again due to global warming and there is an imminent threat of crop failure due to changing climatic conditions.

Even if some of these problems may not affect you or me at the moment, soon enough, they will and when that time comes, we will not be equipped. While humans may perish, nature will be as resilient as ever. Maybe in a few thousand years, new beings will emerge, residing over layers of plastic waste, the only reminder that we were ever here.