Nature's fury

If Nature, by its mighty standards, decides to show that it is not in the least amused by man's irresponsibility and nonchalance, there can be unimaginable devastations. In recent times, environmentalists are getting more dismayed and anxious by natural catastrophes—they are even more exasperated that their warnings have been going in vain. 2017 will certainly be remembered for nature's anger that manifested itself in terrifying storms, hurricanes, wildfires, land and mudslides, high river levels, dormant volcanoes turning active, earthquakes and tornadoes yielding the most unpleasant of surprises. The trend has continued even in the first week and a half of 2018. California and its southern region is a case in point. The Governor of this West American State attributed the long-ranging wildfire, then the incessant rains followed by the raging mudslides, death and destruction, to the sea getting warmer and other manifestations of Climate Change. Someone like Al Gore who is famous for "An Inconvenient Truth" and its sequel can always turn around, shrug and say, "I told you so." For the last few decades, there have been enough warnings on the consequences of large-scale carbon emissions. These emissions have been the inevitable practice since Industrial Revolution. Now, they have assumed alarming proportions with greater industrial development. Add to this, the ever-growing and unmanageable human population. In 1800, the total world population was close to one billion. It grew to 7.6 billion in 2017 and, at this rate, it is likely to be climb close to more than eight billion in another three years. The more the people, the greater the demand for industrialisation, the lesser the green and forest cover, more depletion of natural resources and the worse. The celebrated Philosopher, Bertrand Russel, in his "Impact of Science on Society" tried to justify wars and natural catastrophes by arguing that these were the only way to check population. A modern day war with nuclear explosions would take a very heavy toll on both man and nature—that is why, before matters could get totally out of control, the Paris Climate Control Treaty came into being. Plenty of right-thinking countries were signatories. President Barack Obama played the leading role to show others the way. But matters changed as soon as his tenure ended. His successor, who was determined to remove the Obama legacy in every conceivable way, decided to look the other way. On Thursday, at the White House official media conference following the official meeting with the visiting Norwegian Prime Minister, President Trump declared that he would have nothing to do with the Paris accord on Climate Change because he was more committed to conventional fuel businesses like oil, gas and fossil fuel. When the Norwegian leader told him that their country depended on hydroelectric power for energy, he replied rather dismissively, "Good idea and good for you." The French President, Emmanuelle Macron, who is emerging as a very active leader of the Western world, is confident that he would be able to persuade his American counterpart to join others on the Paris Treaty. Here's hoping, even against hope, that he would succeed if only for man's survival against all odds.