Anupam- The Dreamer

We don’t think over this issue of resourcefulness every now and then, because we don’t usually think about the bygone era of humanity. But, if you think a little deeply, you will find that we are at the cusp of best times now as compared to almost all the generations that have come before us. I will prove it to you, just hang on.

Today, we have the most advanced means of transport. Here, I am not talking about any particular nation as such, but in terms of global development. As humans, we have developed roadways, railways, airways through different state-of-the-art technologies. The means of communication via mobile telephony, internet, Artificial Intelligence are among the best that humanity has ever seen throughout its existence on this planet. The means of entertainment like sports, movies, drama, art, music etc. have developed in multifarious facets of life. The means of energy like crude oil, coal, nuclear, renewable energy like wind, solar, biomass etc. make the best of the energy mix that was available to generations before us. The availability of resources in terms of water, food, clothes, other items of daily use is by far the largest in terms of choices that are on offer in the market. The life has become easy by the availability of electricity, use of technology and gadgets around us. Therefore, to sum up, the humanity has best technology and resources at disposal in the present times, than it had ever before.

Earlier, there were several constraints in terms of resource availability– even the basic things that we take for granted like water, electricity, food, energy, travel etc. were not easily available or accessible in vast amounts as they are today. If we take a step back to delve into the lives of the humans that came before us, we will indeed feel very lucky to have been born into times where we don’t have to think about such basic things at all. Again, this is not to ignore the vast inequalities that still exist in our society still, but again I am not talking about the per capita access to these resources rather my focus is on the bird’s eye view of what the humanity has achieved as a whole now vis-à-vis the bygone era.

This feeling of abundant resourcefulness is overwhelming at times. When we think deeply and intensively about it, we will realize how fortunate we are, as life seems so easy now-a-days. But, the important question that we must ask here is this- Will this trajectory of development continue to go upwards for perpetuity? Is there virtually no limit to development, as day-by-day we are progressing into a new realm of development that humanity has never seen before? The answers to these questions are both- YES and NO depending upon the course of action that we take from now on.

Unfortunately, we are also at the cusp of an inflection point in the history of human development, where it seems like we have achieved the maxima or the maximum point. It seems that any more depletion or mindless extortion of resources beyond this point, will eventually lead us back into the past. Because whether we like it or not, while the technological development may have no limits, but the resource availability has got finite limits! Unfortunately, at the level of depletion of resources now, we will soon reach a point when we will harness almost all the resources that the Earth has to offer us! We will soon run out of clean drinking water, the availability of fertile soil, the mineral resources, the rare earths, crude oil, coal, etc etc. Although many areas of the world are still facing stress in these resources’ availability, but the crunch is not being witnessed at a massive scale till now. But, that is going to happen very soon, given our greed to harness those resources as if they were to last forever!

Therefore, it is incumbent on the present generations to think over this issue and take timely action, so that the inflection point is shifted way into the future and we don’t enter into a phase of downward-sloping development. Maybe, the cycle of nature has its own crests and troughs, which may not in much in control of us humans. But, still I believe that through collective efforts and sustainable development, we can continue to harness the benefits of the resources available at our disposal, to achieve much greater heights (crests) in terms of development. In case, we are not able to do that, we may be the last of generations, who have tasted the pinnacle of development and the future generations will have to bear the brunt of the misadventures of those who came before them.

Till next time….