Sustaining planet’s natural ecosystems

It happened in 1982, while I was working as the Managing Director of the Andhra Pradesh Fisheries Development Corporation. Almost everywhere in the world, a rumour spread like wildfire, that on 10 March that year, eight major planets of the solar system would align in a line. Astrologers, Hindu priests, Islamic Mullahs, Christian Clergy and Judaistic Rabbis, alike, put out alarming predictions, that the world was to come to an end on that day. ‘Yawm al-Qiyamah’, as the Holy Quran calls it, the ‘Apocalypse’, according to the Holy Bible or Pralayam in Hindu religious scriptures, was to happen on that day.

A well-educated person, with a rational and scientific approach to such matters though I was, I must admit to having been somewhat nervous about the prospect. Millions round the world spent several nerve racking weeks before the day arrived. And, in the event, proved to be a damp squib, with nothing happening!

Now, that narrative may belong to the realm of pseudoscience. Recent research conducted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), in partnership with Toho University in Japan, has, however, yielded alarming insights into the future of Earth’s habitability.

It is believed that, in about 4 to 5 billion years from now, Earth will be physically destroyed, and absorbed by the Sun. Much sooner, in about 1 billion years from now, the planet will have become uninhabitable, on account of the impact of rising solar radiation, climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, and the gradual evolution of the Sun destabilizing Earth environment.

The prediction has exposed Earth’s vulnerability, while underscoring the immediate need, for adopting sustainable practices, and working out potential strategies, for the survival of humanity.

The most unfortunate aspect of the extant situation is that we, earthlings, hardly ever stop to ponder how privileged we are. In the first place, our planet would never have been able to allow life to come into being, or be able to sustain it, but for several remarkable and coincidental factors.

To begin with, it happens to be in the habitable, or ‘Goldilocks’ zone, of the Solar System, precisely at the right distance from the Sun, for liquid water to exist. If Earth were closer, it would be too hot, and water would evaporate. If it were farther away, water would freeze. Other fortuitous features include a strong atmosphere which, helps regulate temperature, provide life sustaining gases, such as oxygen, and serves as a shield against harmful solar and cosmic radiation.

Earth also has the right chemical ingredients, particularly liquid water and carbon, that are crucial for life’s processes. What is more, Earth’s nearly circular orbit helps maintain stable sunlight and heat, which prevents extreme seasons.

A point worth noting, in this context, is that the behaviours of several species of animals are driven by innate survival instincts, and evolutionary adaptations, in order to maintain the health and balance of their ecosystems. These actions, honed by natural selection over millions of years, are essential for their own survival and the resilience of the habitats they live in.

Certain species, in a manner of speaking, are ‘Ecosystem Engineers’, actively shaping their habitats in ways that benefit many others. Beavers, for example, build dams that create wetlands, which store carbon and purify water, thus reducing flooding and wildfire risks. Similarly elephants use their tusks to dig for water during dry seasons, providing essential water sources for smaller animals.

Scavengers and decomposers, such as vultures, hyenas, ants, and beetles, consume dead organic matter, thus helping prevent the spread of diseases and also recycle vital nutrients back into the soil, which, in turn, support plant growth. Likewise, bees, bats, birds, among others, facilitate plant reproduction, by transferring pollen or dispersing seeds, through their droppings or fur, a process crucial for the growth of forests and agricultural crops, supporting biodiversity and carbon storage.

Similarly predators, such as wolves and sharks, regulate prey populations, preventing overgrazing or overpopulation of certain species, thus ensuring a balanced food web and healthy vegetation growth. Grazing animals, such as antelopes, adding to the overall effort, prevent grasslands from becoming overgrown. Other animals, such as parrotfish, keep coral reefs healthy by eating algae that could otherwise smother the coral.

The health and behavior of certain animals, such as seals and polar bears, can serve as natural indicators of environmental changes like the thinning of Arctic ice, providing early warning signs of broader ecological issues.

The collective result of these individual, and survival-driven, behaviours is the maintenance of a healthy and balanced ecosystem, demonstrating that all species, from the smallest insect to the largest mammal, play a critical role in sustaining the planet’s natural systems.

And, in the meanwhile, humanity is harnessing, to the best possible extent, the unique gift it has been endowed with, that of compromising the integrity of the very environment that sustains it!

And here is a story, before we end this peace, to lighten the mood. There was this professor of Astrophysics who had just delivered an erudite talk to an elite audience in a leading American University. He concluded by warning the group that, unless urgent and extraordinary measures were taken, the Earth would cease to exist 10 billion years later.

Upon inviting questions at the end of his lecture, the speaker found alone hand rising from a far corner of the room. When the Professor signalled him to rise and speak up, the man stood up somewhat diffidently, and asked, in quivering voice, “Did you say five billion years”?

When the speaker confirmed that, that indeed, was so, the questioner heaved a sigh of relief and, saying, “thank God! I thought you said five million years!”, and resumed his seat!

(The writer was formerly Chief Secretary, Government of Andhra Pradesh)