Dr John Mohan Razu
Professor of Social Ethics
The entire world is reeling under various disasters. The cause for all the disasters is the way with which we, homo sapiens have treated the nature. In the West the summer was so hot that crossed the usual temperatures; in some parts of the world erratic floods and in others famine and droughts. Erratic temperatures have drastically altered the seasons, which in turn turned the patterns of life we have been following all through in total shambles. Because of these sudden changes everything has changed. It is predicted that we would see more such reversals in due course of time if we fail to list to Nature.
Nature is functioning in accordance to its laws. Nature is tied-up with innumerable laws functioning in perfect coherence and harmony. The laws of Nature are so intricately women and thus functioning in such complex formulations which Nature alone can work with such precision. Science has shown innumerable examples how a city or even countries went into deep dooms whenever Nature showed its anger. Nature functions on its own laws. Let not Homo sapiens think that they could tamper with the Nature as they feel like. Barouch Spinoza uses Nature or God; and for others Nature is part of God’s Creation and so is part of Nature.
The recent devastating floods that struck the Nepal-Tibet Himalayan region last week are not merely another natural disaster. They carry a deeper meaning and warning to all of us. We may be living in different countries or regions or continents, but a common factor to all of us is we live under one sky, breathe the same air, and inhabit one interconnected ecological system vis-à-vis Nature. Scientists are trying to know the causes that triggered the sudden floods. Recent high temperatures and rapid snowmelt may have played a role. Glaciers are melting in such faster levels which is not good for our survival.
Scientists have been warning that climate change is creating conditions that can destabilise high mountain ice and rock. Nepal has already lost nearly a third of the glacier ice in the past three decades.
Antarctic glaciers form the massive continental ice sheet covering roughly 98% of Antarctica, holding about 90% of the world’s fresh water. If we go deeper, a thick layer of ice covering almost the entire landmass of Antarctica, and if indiscriminate human intrusion or meddling with it will have ramifying impact of the entire human population. Without understanding the laws of Nature some global leaders keep defying and taken the warnings of the environmentalists, ecologists, and scientists as if they’re jokes.
It is ironic that Nepal is hardly responsible for the world’s carbon problem. In 2024, it produced only about 0.05% of global CO2 emissions from fossil fuels and industry. Yet a country with such a tiny carbon footprint seemed to have been caught up and faced the wrath of a warming planet. Here is another warning that Nature is one large unit around which others hang, if something happening somewhere will have its direct impact in some other place. It works on the basis of cause and effect’. The planet earth is part of Nature. It is providing everything for our sustenance to live. Let us not think that we can conquer everything.
Nature has shown its rage in diverse ways—recent earthquakes, floods, temperature cross 40-degree Celsius, drought, and many others point to only one thing that we have been behaving reckless.
Nature does not care about national boundaries and for Nature there are no boundaries, and so goes with such fury in unpredictable ways. Nature shows its wrath in some place and some other ways which no one can predict. The Himalayan tragedy reminds us that irresponsible actions carried out somewhere resulting in hundreds and thousands of lives mostly those who went for pilgrimage.
The dire human and economic cost of the catastrophic flash floods in Nepal on August 26, 2026, serves as a stark reminder to countries of the urgent need to relook at saving the environment and eco-system in responsible ways. Climate change impacts countries disproportionately. The disasters should make us to come to a realisation that the ecological message of all—be it believers, atheists, rationalists, and agonists that need to recognise wholeheartedly to understand that the planet earth we live is one interconnected whole be it God or Nature.
At this juncture I would like to bring to quotation one by Stephen Hawking: “We think we have solved the mystery of creation. Maybe we should patent the universe and charge everyone royalties for their existence.” The other one is by Ralph W Emerson: “Nothing divine dies. All good is eternally reproductive. The beauty of nature reforms itself in the mind, and not for barren contemplation, but for new creation.”
