Global challenges
We live in times of numerous challenges, at a global and an individual level. However, if one looks closely, conflicts at an individual level — the inner struggles — manifest as global issues. At an individual level, the future looks disheartening. Chronic noncommunicable diseases (NCDs)(like heart disease, cancer, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, etc.) and mental health issues (like stress, depression, anxiety, etc.) have soared since the Industrial revolution, and more so, in the last few decades which witnessed an unprecedented scientific and technological progress. During this time, humanity has taken its survival needs to an alarming proportion, so much that, United Nations predicts, by 2050, we could need an equivalent of another three planets to sustain current lifestyles. If we step back a little and look at things, we realize science and technology evolved to make our lives more comfortable and efficient.
The life most of us live now should not be taken for granted, this level of comfort and convenience never existed for most of human history, where people had to undergo enormous challenges just to meet basic survival needs of food, water and shelter.
Our current lifestyles which are unsustainable have not only led to enormous public health burden but also have a huge impact on the environment. Human footprint has become so big that our activities, especially since the Industrial revolution, have disturbed ecological balance, driving millions of species to extinction, causing irreparable damage to nature, and putting our very lives in danger. There were five mass extinction episodes in the last 450 million years, each destroying 70–95% of all plants, animals, and microbes that existed, but after each episode, life recovered and multiplied. Natural factors (volcanic eruptions, collision with an asteroid, etc.) caused these extinctions.
However, Anthropocene, the ongoing sixth mass extinction, is human-driven, sped up since the Industrial revolution, and started around 11,000 years ago when humans developed agriculture. Agriculture has solved world’s food issues, but it, along with advancements in modern medicine, also led to an unprecedented population explosion (11,000 y ago, human population was 1 million, now it is 7.7 billion, UN projects 9.8 billion by 2050). These rising population numbers have also brought with it a ton of issues, one of the most important being an unprecedented species extinction.
According to an influential study published by Ceballos and the team this year in the journal PNAS, more than 400 vertebrate species and millions of populations went extinct in the last 100 years. What would have taken 10000 years to happen naturally, happened in 100 years because of human activity and consumption patterns. Scientists predict, by 2050, extinction rates would be 117 times higher than normal.
This implies, the number of species that would have gone extinct in 11,700 years, naturally, would now be extinct in 150 years. The scale of mass extinction that’s happening is mind-boggling. Another landmark UN report (the most comprehensive one till date, compiled by 145 experts from 50 countries) on Biodiversity shows that a quarter of all species face extinction.
This level of biodiversity loss will inevitably affect human lives and well-being because we need to understand that our lives are not independent of a larger existence. If the Earth and her inhabitants are well, we will be well. On a fundamental level, our well-being depends on the food that we eat, the water that we drink, and the air that we breathe. All this life-making material comes from the planet, and their quality depends on every other life. So, the current global crisis is just a manifestation of what has been brewing up for several decades of human ignorance and inaction.
The Covid-19 pandemic is just the tip of the iceberg
A far greater disaster of ecological crises looms. Although its impact is already being felt, predictions of the UN for the coming few decades are dire. Ecological scientists have been beseeching governments and individuals worldwide to take urgent steps, but their persistent pleas have only fallen on deaf ears!
One such exhortation (quoted directly from the PNAS paper) -
“In view of the current extinction crisis and the lack of widespread actions to halt it, it is very important that scientists should metaphorically take to the streets. We have, for example, started a new global initiative we called “Stop Extinction,” to address and publicize the extent of the extinction crisis and its impacts on the loss of biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human well-being, aspects still rather ignored by most people. There is time, but the window of opportunity is almost closed. We must save what we can, or lose the opportunity to do so forever. There is no doubt, for example, that there will be more pandemics if we continue destroying habitats and trading wildlife for human consumption as food and traditional medicines. It is something that humanity cannot permit, as it may be a tipping point for the collapse of civilization. What is at stake is the fate of humanity and most living species. Future generations deserve better from us”
As is always the case, it is poorer nations and individuals, and all other species on the planet, who will bear the brunt of this crisis. If the richer, the more educated and the politicians understand the source of all these problems, world would be a different place altogether.
The root cause of all issues
Everything humanity has ever done has been in pursuit of a good life and well-being. Despite the enormous comforts science and technology brought, human well-being has not happened. Unfortunately, with more progress came more problems. Humanity, for long, has been under the wrong impression that well-being can happen by external means.
Our very economies, societies, education systems and cultures are structured around this fallacious notion of well-being: look outside for well-being. This attitude has destroyed the planet
We need to etch this in our minds: everything that is a part of our lives comes from this planet. And it has limited resources.
Modern neuroscience explains how human experience happens from within and how each experience has a chemical signature to it (experiences of happiness, joy, anger, sadness and other emotions have a distinct chemical basis, characterized by different neurotransmitters and hormones). It is the five sense organs (of sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch) which perceive the world around and generates an experience within, which is unique and subjective. Our entire experience of life is self-generated.
Brain creates an internal representation of the external world
For example, we don’t see the world outside of ourselves but the way we construct it in our brains. There is no color in the world, it is a construction of our brains. In a color-blind person, color doesn’t disappear in the world, but one loses an ability to perceive it (I will explain more on perceptions and experiences in future articles). It is similar to every other experience. Most human beings depend on the outside to generate pleasant experiences within. External trigger can be anything like people, things, money, entertainment, etc. There is nothing wrong with this approach, but, pleasant experiences, when derived from outside, are fleeting, always dependent on something else, and when that is taken away, pain and suffering happen. Similarly, any unpleasant experience one goes through, although it happens from within, the blame always goes outside. Not realizing the source of one’s experience, one never takes responsibility for what’s happening in one’s life and engages in this perpetual tale of you-are-responsible-for-what’s-happening-within-me.
It is this pursuit of pleasant experiences and avoidance of unpleasant experiences that motivated human beings throughout history to pursue things on the outside to attain well-being. This pursuit led to compulsive (and exclusive) human thought, emotion, and action. All the issues we face result from this. The conflict within has manifested itself as a global conflict.
So, what is the solution?
A fundamental shift in human consciousness is needed to solve world’s issues.
Conscious (and inclusive) human beings. An intellectual understanding, and more importantly, an experience of inclusiveness need to happen to as many human beings as possible, especially for those in positions of power and responsibility. This inclusiveness, the inter-connectedness of all life, is not an idea but an existential reality.
Yoga, which means union between the individual and the cosmic, is a science of bringing about an inclusive experience of life. Yoga also provides methods of creating pleasant experiences within so that the need to extract the same from the outside stops.
The well-being of one is no more dependent on the outside. One’s way of being becomes entirely self-reliant. As Sadhguru, in his book Inner Engineering, A Yogi’s Guide to Joy, says, as there is a science and technology to create external well-being, there is an entire science and technology to create inner well-being. This is the science of Yoga, and its practice, in its true essence, not just guarantees physical and mental health but also brings about much-needed individual transformation. This science of tremendous antiquity is more relevant now than ever, both for individual well-being, and the well-being of all life on the planet. To be continued….
