Instant Gratification- serving your passion and interests ASAP without considering the effects in the long-term. It’s a selfish impulse which comes at the cost of others.
Well, this habit of going after instant gratification (collectively) is coming at cost of the planet. Unsustainable lifestyle choices without any conscious effort to make amends have brought ecological issues (carbon pollution, deforestation, plastic pollution, industrial agriculture, soil extinction) and social issues (obesity, wars, migration, overconsumption, food insecurity) in unity, gradually showing what future of the planet might look if plans and actions are not in place. If we don’t talk about it today, we won’t be there to talk about it tomorrow.
Marvin Rees, Mayor of Bristol City, UK rightly said in a Ted Talk that for any plan on climate change to work, it needs to transcend national boundaries and involve global leaders. Save Soil Movement is one such plan, started by Sadhguru, which flagged off in 27 countries with the purpose of raising awareness and taking action on the possibility of soil extinction, or as should be said life extinction.
How can soil be equal to life, you may ask.
A mixture of minerals, organic compounds and nutrients, soil is habitat on which zillions of lives thrive. A teaspoon of it contains 8-10 billion organisms, more than human count on Earth. Soil is also the biggest carbon reserve which can help to fight global warming.
Whoa! But now you may ask how is it under threat?
Ecological and Social issues are directly and indirectly related to the threat of soil extinction/desertification. Soil without its organic compound is just sand. In last 30 years, 80% of micro-organisms have gone extinct. Every 5 seconds we are destroying soil equivalent to football field. UN Agencies have reported that only 60-80 harvest are left, which means in the next 45-50 years the land won’t be able to produce any more food.
To give an extended context, in a rainforest, organic content found in soil is almost 70%. In normal agricultural soil, minimum requirement is 3-6%. In India itself, 60% of the soil has less than 0.5% of organic content. This is becoming a standard number, globally.
If thousands are involved, it’s a movement. If millions are involved, it’s a revolution: People have started to talk, but it needs masses to bring plans into action and the desired change. At the top level, governments and organizations need to come up with plans like educating and incentivizing farmers to enrich the soil with organic content and through the masses the actions need to be taken at grassroots level like planting trees, sustainable lifestyle choices. An increase of even 1% organic content will hold an additional 20,000 gallons of water per acre.
I can just end (or basically start the conversation) by quoting Mahatma Gandhi- “Be the change you want to see in the world.”
