Whether human beings are capable enough to reshape the Nature according to their will or Nature restructures the life, the debate going on for the Charles Darwin’s “Natural selection.” It postulates that only nature has the capacity to determine the process of Biological Evolution. The most intelligent Human beings are incapable to impede the process. But the recent development of “gene technology’ takes the Theory granted. We now claim that in near future we can modify not only human life but also other animated things according to the changing environment.
Prior to the Darwin, Thomas Robert Malthus in his book “Essay on the Principle of the population (1789)’ opined in each uniform interval of time with the increase of the arithmetic food growth the population is capable of increasing geometric progression. The simultaneous increase of arithmetic food growth and geometric population growth predicted a future when humans have no resource to survive on. When such situation arises, the population will be checked by war, famine, or disease. It then drops below the food supply. As the population recovers, so the cycle continues.
He projected that the in 200 years earth’s population is capable enough to grow to 260 billion. By the time the subsistence was only capable to increase to feed 9 billion people. His calculation and projection seem to be true until WW2 (total world population was 2.3 billion), but since then the population and production of food growing dramatically. According to the recent data (USDA foreign agriculture service), total food grains supply (2017/18- projection) is 3181.18 million metric ton and use is 2,648.15 million metric ton for the population of 7.5 billion (April, 2017). It means we are producing food sufficient for the 12 billion people. According to the statistics, it seems that we are not in a shortage of food supply to the demand, but in contrary the according to the state of food insecurity of the world (2015) 10.9% of the total world population is living undernourished (living lack of sufficient quality food).In addition to this the considerable amount of the unnecessary wastage of food.
Now come to the India, according to the data provided by the Ministry of Agriculture (February, 2017) the total food production of the country is 271.98 million ton and sufficient for its 1.25 billion people. But in converse India also ranks 97 among 118 countries in the world hunger list with 194 million people. In addition to this we are wasting 70 million of foods every year.
Both the world and National figures shows the anomalies of unequal distribution of foods, and unnecessary food shortage.
I have presented the figures only to understand the situation of the climate change and related poverty, mass migration, death due to famine and subsequent psychological change of the human population. My point of discussion is not on these things particularly but to reveal the relation of the behavioural changes to the climate.
It is evident from the human history that the human activities are directly linked to the environmental and geographical phenomenon. For example, human civilization flourished better in a favourable environment like fertile river plains, unlike harsh climates. It is also proved that the cognitive process like spatial reasoning, decision making, and behaviour conditioned by the geographical situation. We can conclude that the human world is the ever-changing result of individual and group human actions, working within natural and institutional framework. Sometimes physical landscape modified by the human activities which is more or less regulated by the social, cultural and political (governmental) institution. These modifications later influence the environment and persuade the human behaviour.
According to the Vedic philosophy; the basic elements of nature like Water, Earth, Fire, Air and Ether although remains more or less same in every human being. But the ratio of the ‘Driving Forces of nature’, like Satva, Rajas and Tamas inured the human personality/reasoning/decision making. It manipulates its environment according to its disposition. The excess activities of Rajas and Tamas endanger the environment and subsequently its own existence.
From the above, we can deduce that whatever may be the technological progress we made it cannot make us capable enough to reshape the natural phenomena, altogether. It may be presumed that at this present juncture Human psychology is a bondslave of the climate, which influences our behaviour.
Now with the growing problems like higher rates of migration, rise of sea level, increasing unviable spaces for human habitation, spreading of new parasitic deceases etc compels us to link it with the climate change. Day by day scientists are finding more and more links with changing Climate and behavioural pattern of the humans. Some of the observations/Research can be summarised as follows;
1. Warmer temperature will lead to more violence and conflict.
In 2013, Solomon M. Hsiang,Marshall Burke, Edward Miguel in their research paper ‘Quantifying the Influence of Climate on Human Conflict’ pointed out that “median estimates indicate that the frequency of interpersonal violence rises 4% and the frequency of intergroup conflict rises 14%. Because locations throughout the inhabited world are expected to warm 2 to 4σ by 2050, amplified rates of human conflict could represent a large and critical impact of anthropogenic climate change.”
2. Climate Change Will Increase The Incidence & Severity Of Mental Illness.
(Continued....Part-2)
