– Girish V Raut
Earth originated some 4800 million years ago in a fiery balloon fired from the sun. About 3850 million years ago, the first living thing, ie, the micro-organism, came into existence and for 3000-3500 million years these microbes ruled the earth. The way they adjusted with the changes and adverse effects of the earth’s temperature, we can’t even imagine. Considering the biological mass of the earth, about 80% of it is microorganisms. Till 100 years before, there were about 200 million visible species and 400 million of invisible species of living organisms on this earth.
Virus is a harmful microorganism, under favourable conditions and nutrition it grows up to 280000 billion in numbers in just one day. We talk about rising population, but the number of people on earth has increased up to 7500 million. Now please understand, if you think of the number and potential of microorganisms, we are far behind. Even if we think of ourselves as the best and the strongest! They can wipe us out in no time.
Man discovered the strength of atom and created atom bombs. But he has overlooked the fact that nature too has such weapons.
Thousands of people get infected with AIDS every day in the world. Sometimes, it was expected that an epidemic of this kind spread by air, water or mosquito may come into existence. Virus like corona which can spread through air and through contact, with such a speed is a thing to worry. Luckily, virus like this which can spread through water or mosquitoes has not yet come.
Cold and flu causing bacteria and viruses, in the neighbourhood are destroyed by small differences in climate, humidity and temperature, but it is difficult to imagine the organisms who can survive in very hostile environment like acute sulphuric acid, intense radiation, eating iron, sulphur, manganese etc in the depth of earth’s crust. There are microorganisms that survive, in the snow, ice cover or even in boiling water. Found so far, the longest living organism resuscitated by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania is from 600-meter-deep salt mine found in Mexico, which survived for 250 million years. The true biological world is beyond human understanding and vision. Earth is a water planet and also a micro-organism planet.
In fact, we are living on earth because these microorganisms allow us.
A handful of forest soil contain about ten billion microorganisms. These basic life forms play an important role in our digestive system. Their incessant work for billions of years, formed suitable condition for development of life, of proper proportions of oxygen, nitrogen and other gases in the atmosphere. These organisms decompose the remains of plants and animals in jungle and transform them in to nutrients and fertilizers. We ourselves were micro organisms and have evolved from that state. Whole life is developed by evolution. The spraying of poisonous chemicals in air water and soil is destroying the web of life.
Farming is a gift of biological control. But chemical fertilizers and insecticides have destroyed the very foundation of farming and done irreparable harm.
In the last century, in 1932 Alexander Fleming invented penicillin antibiotic. Humans were saved from disease causing microorganisms. “Show the smallpox and get a hundred rupees”, such ads were launched 50 years ago. We were boasting about our scientific achievement for expelling so many diseases from around the world. However, in the last four decades, the terrible new diseases have emerged. Those we thought have been removed completely are also coming back.
The new influx of AIDS, Ebola, Marburg, Lassa, Nipa, Leptospirosis, SARS, and now the ‘novel Corona’, have started attacking us. And then there is ‘anthrax’ which is supposed to be modified by American military.
The first AIDS patient was found in 1981. This virus, resembles human cells. Human cells are destroyed in an attempt to destroy this virus. The claim of Medical science of getting rid of such diseases is proving incorrect and futile. It is, in a way, treating the symptoms, without finding the root cause of the disease. Let us see then, why these new viruses are appearing and spreading rapidly.
1. Natural genetic changes: Such a change can happen slowly or suddenly (mutation) with evolution.
2. The virus that is dormant for a long time manifests or becomes active, because of changing circumstances. Currently, the ice which was intact for millions or billions of years is melting now due to global warming. The dormant organisms buried beneath ice are getting free and coming to life. The destruction of untouched ecosystems, bio diversity and rise in temperature, global warming.
3. A virus modified in the laboratory.
There are a number of reasons for the virus’s entry into humans. For example, unnatural intercourse with animals, the passage of blood, from the excrement of animals mixed with water, contact with blood or consuming diet of infected animals, birds, snakes, etc. But these things might have happened earlier in the history. Now It is necessary to understand the new dimension.
Around the year 1970, a huge east-west highway, hundreds of feet wide, that divide African continent in to two parts, began to be built. As this highway started to penetrate the continent of Africa, the deforestation of millions of years of untouched forests began. With the extension of the highway, using sophisticated cutting materials, the forests were wiped out and mountains destroyed by the greed for the wood and building material as is now happening in case of Konkan region in Western Ghats and in the north east . In the ‘Kinshasa’ province of Central Africa, the highway reached the remote valley of the river Ebola. In the process, the untouchable composition of millions of years and interdependent creatures were abruptly disturbed. Other organisms, parasites, were destroyed as their hosts were destroyed. Until then, these viruses were unfamiliar to humans. They were harmless. But now they have entered human body. The spread of AIDS began on this highway. This highway is known as the “AIDS Highway”.
Read the book ‘Hot Zone’ by Richard Preston. It feels like we are reading a novel while reading this story that tells the truth. The physiological and physical condition of Ebola virus patients which killed 90% of the infected patients, the rupture of the body, the excretion of blood and fluids etc is very scary. The reasons for human penetration and transmission of the virus are not told to common people so as to continue with inhumane development projects.
DNA, RNA and protein are the makeup of viruses. Even subtle changes in this composition can be terribly damaging to humans and other animals. This change in viruses is caused by the accidental pressure created by humans. Toxic chemicals, gases, and radioactive fluids are constantly infiltrating in the creeks, rivers, oceans, land and atmosphere. Ecosystems having rich biological diversity for billions of years have rapidly collapsed in the last few decades. Thousands of square kilometres of forest area were cleared and burned every year. There were major changes in the natural design. Temperatures are rising. Humans began to live in a way that nature could not anticipate.
Industrialization and economics were glamourised in our education system. Concepts like Gross National Product (GDP), where more and more production is to be achieved for our development objectives. Economics is based on this, to keep growth and GDP rising. Things like Demand – supply, exchange rates, inflation, index fluctuations etc. captured our attention. The growth of GDP in reality is a destruction and not creation. But in this process in a very short period economics is moving around the currency, the medium of exchange. Economics based on ideas that revolve around money, ignored the processes of billions of years of evolution of ecosystems.
The reason given for production of unnecessary goods is, modern changing lifestyle. But even though lifestyle changes, many known and unknown rules and principles that determine the relationship between the human body and nature do not change. Biological processes are not considered in conservative economics. It was never considered in our education.
The exploitation of nature began with the advent of new technologies. There is a strong connection between diseases like Leptospirosis and destruction and pollution of creeks, rivers and ocean. To cope with the toxic chemicals, microorganisms have to adapt to these changes, in the process, their altered characteristics are detrimental to other organisms, particularly humans. Viruses need hosts, and only human bodies are available. Come and see in the heart of Mumbai, lies the most polluted water body of India, the Mahim creek, silently telling the shocking effects of our destructive development.
Hundred years ago, a devastating plague in Maharashtra was spread by infected rats which came via boats from the most urbanized city, ‘Hong Kong’ of that time.
Humans and their ancestor monkeys have been in the wild for millions of years. For thousands of years, people were in villages. Villages were independent entities away from each other, so life became possible. There was no risk of virus, its transmission and therefore simultaneous eradication. Now there is and it is because of floating population, urbanisation, tourism and globalisation.
Definition of happiness and things such as over-production, over-consumption, unrestrained stimulation of the senses in life, lifestyle of eating and drinking, addictions, illicit intercourse, all this led to AIDS, sacrificing many in the field of glamour such as famous singer Elvis Presley. In the race of infinite development and consumerism, the destruction of nature is overlooked. The realities are masked by sweet words like progress, liberalization, globalization, economic reform etc. It has its origin in economic ideas and development. Ideas that actually visible in homes, offices, industries and on the streets. Just as war is the idea first in mind and then fought in the battlefields, the electric cutter runs in the forest, the Porklane machine breaks the mountain, but its origin lies in our ideas of exploitative misguided development, progress, self-esteem, luxurious lifestyle, unnecessary physical comforts and exploitative mind set.
Until now, the deadly virus, like AIDS, was spreading through blood or semen. But when the combination of both, high potential and air – water propagation becomes possible, then humanity will be in extreme danger. That phase has now begun.
We did not exist before, but microorganisms were there. Green living microorganisms, chlorophyll created the conditions suitable for us and so we survived. It was a biological evolution. But for our material greed we have become ungrateful and turned against their existence. In the name of development, the green matter of trees, forests, river water and of ocean is destroyed. Oxygen is reducing and carbon dioxide is increasing. Billions of years of Earth’s life giving capacity is damaged, biodiversity is at loss. The lifecycle is rapidly reversing. Yet the earth is sustaining us. So the food is there, the virus is in control. But with each passing year, we are on the brink of extinction.
The idea of going in the past in a time machine seems interesting concept for the novel and movies. But in reality, it is not. We have entered the dangerous phase. Modernity is taking us too far backward in the past, when extreme temperatures and hostile conditions existed, which did not let life exist, but viruses did. Few days back, it was reported in media with great appreciation that last year, 23 lakh new cars were produced in Maharashtra. *Car is responsible for about 75% of the carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere which in turn is responsible for 90% of the global warming. We are fast moving towards that past where conditions were only suitable for microorganisms, viruses and bacteria.*while manufacturing a single car 150,000 liters of water is consumed.
In the US, when George Bush was president in the year 1989, lawmakers in both the houses unanimously approved the “Biological Weapons Terrorism Act – 1989”. Professor Francis Boyle of International Law is the creator of this law. According to Boyle, “the corona virus, is an aggressive weapon in biological warfare. It is a virus created by genetic alteration in the laboratory, enhancing the efficiency of warfare. The World Health Organization of the United Nations knows this”.
WHO has declared this as grave global epidemic, a pandemic. Many nations and cities have declared emergency. This virus has escaped from Wuhan’s level 4 bio lab. There are few such laboratories in the world. This lab was given special status by the World Health Organization. They are fully aware of the present situation. China initially tried to hide it, but then used aggressive strategies to control it. According to a news report, China sent spies, researcher couple of Chinese origin stole the stains of virus from a laboratory in ‘Winnipeg’, Canada, and carried it to Wuhan. Which escaped from the lab and to cover up this troublesome truth, It is now said to have spread through the flesh.
It is misleading to blame China’s unrestricted food culture. Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton from United States has rejected the propaganda that, carnivorous diet being a cause. The ‘Lancet Scientific Institute’ has also shown that, ‘early patients have no association with carnivorous diet’.
There is a need to urgently rethink who we call ‘scientists’, because the word ‘scientist’ is linked to the esteemed traditions of Bruno, Copernicus, and Galileo. This high esteem earned by sacrifice is being misused by technology. Which is dangerous. Dr. No, is a fictional villain scientist character. But today the system of education is making up many such type of scientists. Those who cannot grasp the totality and integrity of life because of our compartmentalised education.
The foundation of science is based on such compartmental studies and standardisation and in the end, exploitation of nature. This caused havoc on this living planet. The search for truth, liberation from exploitation and falsehood was the science. But with the advent of first automatic machine, automation and technology is wearing mask of science. Real science was ignored. Not recognising this difference, the economy is controlling the happenings around the world. The so-called scientists who perform such experiments need to be stopped urgently.
War itself has proven to be wrong. It cannot be independent in relation to viruses as it will affect whole mankind and life. The wisdom of those who use the virus in war is astonishing. Did they not know that this could turn up against human race and them too? How can such research continue? Of course, in the area of agriculture, who thinks of cancer and associated diseases while manufacturing chemical fertilisers and pesticides? This is a universal insensitivity. It is fine to use automation by automated machines and robots on an inanimate planet, but not by humans on a living planet.
The modern world has failed to address these issues. Because they do not want to admit that the ‘modern world’ in itself wrong. China is implementing a programme to lift 10 million people annually from below the poverty line. How? By boosting industrial development, creating more jobs, shifting all the rural population in cement homes. Actually by destroying the pristine untouched natural systems which they consider undeveloped areas. Now, Chinese officials say, “Corona virus will not be able to halt this poverty alleviation programme”. This same country sixty years ago, made a fool of itself killing sparrows and other birds to increase agricultural production. Thereupon the biological chain collapsed, the famine struck and 20-40 million people died of hunger in 4 years.
In china they paint the barren mountains green and bring about pollination by employing labour who climb the trees and bring the flowers close. The bees, butterflies and other insects responsible for pollination are already wiped out by progress and development.
The so-called modern world has made a mistake about the concept of ‘poverty’. Deception, scarcity and helplessness should be called poverty. But the planners of material economic development have cleverly misused education and brainwashed masses in to believing that, a simple natural lifestyle without use of automation and electricity, cement is poverty and the life where food, pure water and pure air was abundant is termed as poverty. Therefore, the educated man considers these polluting and destructive material pleasures as prosperity. This is contrary to the natural system of the earth. In this sense, all animals become poor. This is ridiculous. Poverty alleviation programs have become programs for the eradication of humankind and life itself.
Since the temperature is too hot, it is advised to drink water, avoid direct sunlight etc. Such solutions are temporary in nature. What we need instead is a solution to lower the pace of global warming. Similarly, washing hands, keeping a distance, wearing a special mask are remedies for not getting infected. It is not a cure for viruses. The real solution is not discussed. The only solution is to stop the material development in the name of progress and convenience and to stop the life-threatening lifestyle and the development which goes against life on earth.
Just as pollution-free car is a myth, sustainable physical development is a myth. Physical development made by automation and electricity cannot be sustainable. The artificial world of today is impossible for the real world of nature to be eternal. Corona-like viruses can wipe out humans from the earth. There is no exaggeration. Now separation is done by keeping it in quarantine but the real proactive solution is the return of the small farms of the agricultural age, to the ten thousand-year-old period of evergreen farming. If you do not do it quickly, only those living naked and wild in the Amazon or in the African Congo Valley will only be able to survive in isolated part of earth. Even those will survive about thirty years till warming annihilates them.
The war which we have taken up against the nature, it is certain that the arrogant and fool mankind was going to be defeated and that has happened. Now to save life we need to take refuge in nature. But the arrogance and stupidity of modern man is such that he is not willing to understand and accept this.
It is the time to save life. Abandon all Industrialisation and urbanisation based on automatic machines, vehicles since 1756, Factories, industries, stop all nuclear projects. Discard power generation, concrete constructions and chemical farming. Get rid of our dependency on industrial products, Give priority to handmade natural products. This is the only way to protect us from the wrath of the global warming which has become irreversible.
Our only need is air (oxygen), water and food. The extended need is cloth and shelter. These were fulfilled without disturbing earth in farming era. So return to farming age as early as possible. Accept your defeat and surrender to nature. Leave the concept of management of everything, of the rivers the forests. Instead, allow the nature to manage us, as it had done for millions of years.
Even today there are millions of people living a decent life without automatic machine, electricity, cement etc in villages. The best example is of Amish culture. They have rejected Industrialisation. Amish live a life of pre- industrial era. They are about a million in number, spread in Europe and America. They neither need power or electricity by burning fossils or by drowning jungles, nor they need any power centre called state to govern and rule them. They strongly believe that love, nonviolence, truth, brotherhood and faith are sufficient.
It is possible for all to live a life with the nature, free from energy, automatic machine, and currency. It is need of the hour, need for survival. Mahatma Gandhi dreamed of a society without state. It is the time to go for it.
Let us take refuge in our mother earth. Let her protect us. As always she is benevolent and will forgive our mistakes and wrongdoings. She is the giver of life. These oceans, rivers, green forests, air, pure water, food and nourishment are all given by her and not by any industry or any bank. Let us accept this truth and express our gratitude by changing our way of life.
The message of corona virus is clear. What is locked down is lifestyle related to the Industry, urbanisation and economy. The life is free. It is continuing with the food, by the grace of earth. Emancipation from ghastly desires like car is first step towards life and freedom. Get rid of your mind and surrender to earth.
*Author is convener of the Save Life, Save Earth Movement
English translation by Geeta Sahu
