by Radhakrishnan

Created on: May 17, 2008

Doomsday is coming. Not the kind of doomsday predicted by cults or the one when terrorists conquer the world, but one full of hunger and clamor for sustenance; a slow, starvation-driven and ugly decay of humanity. It is a frightening prospect which we must make every effort to avoid. Our wanton use and ever increasing greed for natural resources and the unrestrained selfishness encouraged by capitalist ideology is putting the environment, other living species of this planet and ultimately our own survival at tremendous risk. Will our intelligence, foresight and resourcefulness desert us in facing this looming catastrophe?

There is much we can do to prevent such an outcome and return life on earth to the comfort and plenty it once enjoyed. But it calls for sacrifices and a degree of selflessness that appears to be beyond most people. After all why should we worry about the distant future as long as we are able to live out our life in comfort? Such an attitude is the precursor of suffering and tragedy on a scale we have not seen before and arriving far sooner than we expect. We are far more reliant on nature than most people ever realize. Nature will react to our depredations in ways we, even with our formidable scientific and technological ability, are unable to foresee. The time to act is now - as yesterday unfortunately, is past.

Oil has become the first commodity for which we now face a global shortage. Our reaction has been to turn to biofuel as other technological alternatives are still out of reach of commercial viability. But to use edible grains like corn to run cars and planes is foolish in the extreme if not criminal. We should stop it at once. People are dying of hunger in Africa and many other places threatened by environmental degradation and natural disasters brought on by climate change. Even countries like Australia are beginning to feel the effects of prolonged drought. Scientists tell us that things can only get worse. Biofuel should only be produced from waste products and pestilent plant species like the water-hyacinth that chokes our lakes and waterways.

Research to develop fast growing, productive varieties of rice and wheat and into plant species that can survive in arid conditions and still provide edible outputs needs to be funded aggressively. We should also reduce as far as possible, cultivation of crops like cotton which are water greedy and find less demanding alternatives. The poor in south India live on Cassava and dried fish which

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