Ecological balance is essential for the human survival on the earth. Ecology encompasses every being in this world. Each of these beings may be inseparable part of visible organisms or invisible microbes remaining indispensable to sustain the ecological systems of recycling and soil enrichment. Our social and cultural spheres of life dwell on consumerism rather than ethos of ecological balance. It is high time to channelize our focus on bioremediation techniques in order to transform our lifestyle and professional practices through eco-friendly habits and activities.
Our global population might exceed 9 billion by 2050. There is a need to provide clean water, soil and air to the entire humanity. It is generally estimated that the world produces around 1.5 billion tonnes of rubbish every year. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 7 million people may die out of respiratory diseases arising out of the quality of air every year. It could be astounding to see nearly 62 million deaths occurring every year due to toxic and industrial pollution according to various estimates (Source: www.microbiologysociety.org).
Our human centric advancements in technology have immensely benefitted us but at the same time, we need to be aware of our immediate challenges of the climate change, disappearance of certain species of insects, excessive use of non-bio-degradable packaging materials besides increasing number of pollutants and toxic gases in our immediate environment. How do we create individual awareness in our society about it? It is not so easy to transform the vested interests profiteering through pollution making businesses or modify our lifestyle without systematic inculcation of ecological values through education and culture. The apocalypse of insects and butterflies may be the early signs of declining biomass across the continents. Pollution stifles our existence and downsizes our ecological balance now. Our focus ought to be on preserving these species besides doing some significant research on the nuances of evolutionary history of such biomass in our ecology, which could lead to the preservation of forests and wild life in addition to the sustenance of indigenous farming practices. “Recent studies from Germany and Puerto Rico suggest that insects may be in a state of catastrophic population collapse: the German data describe a 76% decline in biomass over 26 years, while the Puerto Rican study estimates a decline of between 75% and 98% over 35 years (Source: www.sciencedirect.com).”
The systemic changes in our packaging style are of great significance in order to avoid landfills of non-biodegradable plastic and microplastic waste besides silicon materials. A large amount aluminium foils along with various inorganic pesticides find an easy way to mix with the water streams and soil. There have been innumerable instances of herbicides, pesticides and silicon waste contaminating water all over the world. Life style changes ought to reflect on what we do to our ecology and more importantly to the natural habitats of animals. The presence of microplastics in our food is a stark warning of the nature to discard our lackadaisical approaches of the waste management and adopt new ways of bioremediation in order to absorb the pollutants through microbial organisms. Hence, the toxic pollutants could become non-toxic and recyclable substances.
The recent report of the United Nations on the climate change indicates: “Rising global temperatures have contributed to more frequent and severe extreme weather events around the world, including cold and heat waves, floods, droughts, wildfires and storms”. It is going to be inevitable to see excessive rainfall across the world and sometimes resulting in the flash floods as the drastic change in the weather patterns of the earth is going to affect all of us. The groundwater diversity and its hydrology might be completely transformed by the earthquakes and volcanic eruptions across the world. How can we safeguard the entire humanity from these natural disasters? It is time for the world leaders to think beyond the narrow walls of GDP and find solutions for the existential questions haunting the ecology.
There could be absolute policy changes in managing our ecology only when the Global leaders continue to work together without simply looking after highly polluting industries or immediate economic gains made out of unfair ecological imbalances. Most of the researchers in the Eco-hydrology indicate the environment impact factors determining the presence or absence of a species everywhere. The recently held G-20 meet of the global leaders has sent the finest signals of change across the world to curtail reckless paradigms of consumerism eroding the biota in our ecosystem.
It has been proven by several researchers that the anthropogenic electromagnetic radiation causes the disappearance of several insects along with the excessive use of herbicides and pesticides during this era of climate change. The threat of nonionizing electromagnetic field is widening every day as we are caught up with using all kinds of smart gadgets, wireless technologies, 5G internet services, myriad medical technologies such as MRI scan, FM/Radio broadcasting and TV services, radar and satellite technologies. We need to be cautious that the composition of vegetation on the earth may radically be drifted by the retarded responses of the plants bereft of nutrients, oxygen or sudden change in weather and soil caused by the nonionizing electromagnetic field. International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has published a “Red List of Threatened Species” in 2018 stating that 26,000 species of insects, fungi, plants and animals might become extinct affecting our planetary health. “The more recent May 2019 report by the Intergovernmental Science and Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Paris, France [11] projected that at least 1 million plant and animal species worldwide are at imminent threat of extinction if our current human actions and activities are not immediately reversed” (Source:www.degruyter.com). Our flora and fauna will certainly be affected with our man-made ecological disasters throughout the earth. Most of the migratory birds and insects along with several beneficial microorganisms may not be there for our future generation. It is high time to actualize our lifestyle changes at once.
The author is a corporate trainer, course developer and curriculum consultant.
