This Blog archives the random writings of Azlan Adnan as well as eclectic stuff by other writers that he likes and thinks deserve a wider audience. Azlan's Book Reviews are not available here, but are archived at his Fan Club. Only recent posts are shown on this page. If you want to see older posts, please click on the monthly archives. Please read the Legal Notice. Please do not access this blog if you do not agree to the terms and conditions or do not understand any of it.
I’m delighted to have been
invited to contribute to APOSL. My column is called Harithabhoomi,
which is Sanskrit for Green Earth. In this column, I plan not just to inform
you on matters green, but also to challenge your way of thinking. For it is
only by discarding our current thinking and accepting new paradigms that
progress in science is made.
Every major advance in science
was first met with disbelief and the innovative thinker ridiculed and
persecuted, even. But the truth has a way of prevailing and wins out in the
end. For thousands of years, it was accepted without question that the sun,
stars and planets orbited around the Earth. When Tycho Brahe and Johannes
Kepler introduced the idea that the Earth and planets revolved around the Sun,
their novel idea was met with much resistance. More recently, similar reception
was afforded to an Australian physician by the name of Barry Marshall when he
declared that the bacterium Helicobacter
pylori is the cause of most peptic ulcers, reversing
decades of medical doctrine holding that ulcers were caused by stress, spicy
foods, and too much acid.
It is only by pushing the
envelope, questioning everything that we take for granted, that a space is created
for new ideas to flourish and for progress to be made. So some of the ideas I
present in my column may disturb you but I hope it would be a creative
disturbance ~ some food for thought for you to ponder upon and wonder about.
And maybe even improve upon.
The fact is, for most of the
200,000 years that the human species has roamed this planet, we were quite
benign. In the last 50 years, however, we have more than doubled in population,
from 3 billion to more than 7 billion. Such a dramatic increase in numbers in
such a tiny fraction (0.025%) of our existence has put tremendous and
unprecedented demands on resources and the environment.
We are living in exceptional
times. We are in a unique position in the history of human existence, for it is
within our lifetime that it will be decided whether we will destroy this
planet, irrevocably and forever, or not. If we want to keep the planet fit for
human habitation, we have to make changes. Big changes. Scientists tell us that
we have 10 years to change the way we live, avert the depletion of natural
resources and the catastrophic change of the Earth's climate. The “business as
usual” type of thinking that got us into this mess, is not the type of thinking
that will help us get out of this quagmire. Radical new thinking is required to
ensure our collective future, the survival of the human species and, indeed, survival
of the planet itself.
And remember, the planet does
not need humans. In fact, the planet would be much better off if humans became
extinct. Life on Earth without humans is very feasible. But humans need the planet.
This planet is our home, our only home. If we want to survive as a species, we
need a home ~ this planet ~ to live in. The stakes are high for us and our
children. Everyone should take part in the effort, and I implore you to take a
message of mobilization out to every human being to ensure our collective
future. Welcome to Harithabhoomi.
