Any sensible, well-opinionated individual cannot agree more with the assertion that over-consumption of the world’s natural resources is already causing the planet’s ecology to bleed in catastrophic terms. Particularly disturbing is the assessment that human beings and their domesticated animals now account for 96% of the total global headcount of mammals whereas all other species, mammals, beasts, birds, and primates have either been rendered extinct or rushing towards extinction.

Countless birds, frogs, fish and other exotic species have been wiped out due to continuous human expansion and settlement across all continents.

Furthermore, the present receding state of the natural world is inversely proportional to human activity; the more human endeavours expand, the more the depredation and disaster to befall global ‘nature’s capital’; we are already getting accustomed to catastrophic wildfires, collapsing ice shelves, scattered micro-plastics, rusting belts, polluted rivers & streams, widespread droughts, massive, relentless rainfall at odd places, and so forth, thanks to the so-called human advancement!

The global forums such as UN, WWF, OECD, IMF, should not adopt a callous attitude to the disasters befalling our nature and, consequently, befalling us.

Therefore, our basic human values need to be reconditioned so that human existence, wherever on this planet, begins to live, respect, and co-share our habitat with the ‘natural world’; to aptly conclude:

“Plans to protect air and water resources, wilderness and wildlife, are in fact plans to protect man.” (Stewart Udall, politician).

ABBAS R. SIDDIQI,

Lahore.