Earth Day
(Vinod Anand)

On 22 April every year, there is the Earth Day. You must know that Life began 3.5 Arab Years back, and the age of earth is 4.54 Arab years.70 % of the Earth is covered with water, and 30% is the plain. How audacious that we can even think we can allot a day for the earth!

Both day and night happen only because the earth revolves. Our very body is an extract from this planet. For human beings who have forgotten that they have just temporarily come out of the womb of this earth and one day will be sucked back into this earth, this day is a reminder that you are an art of this earth.

If humanity has to live for along time, you have to think and act like the earth and be the earth because that is what you are. This is the first time in humanity’s history that we have to talk about protecting this planet which has nourished thousands of generations of human beings. None of them ever thought a day would come when we have to take care of the planet.

The preservation and nurturing of this planet is not different from aspiring for a good life for ourselves, because there is no good life without a good planet. The very body that we carry is just an outcrop of this planet. However, our ideas of development and economy have taken us away from this reality.

It is time that we realize that the fanciful ideas we have about life, economy and the world do not work anymore. We have to do something more mature to make this work. This maturity needs to arise in business, industry, government and whoever else is involved in managing or destroying the planet. Right now we are looking at ecological concerns as an obligation to fulfill.

Somewhere we believe only we are life, and everything else is not life. This is happening because the whole experience of life is limited to the physical sensations of life. What you think is life is just your body, but you think only you are life, and the rest is not.

If you are spiritually aware, then you would naturally know that everything is life. No one would have to tell you to protect the ecology. People are talking about ecological awareness today not because of overwhelming love for other life forms, but because they have begun to realize, “My life is under threat right now.

If this continues, I will not live and my children will not live. We have to do something about it.” Someone has reminded you that your survival is under threat. This is an unfortunate way of caring for other life around us. Our lives are not separate from each other; our life is an integrated, connected one.

How healthy the worms are today will determine how healthy we are tomorrow. Spirituality essentially means an all-inclusive experience. When there is an all- inclusive experience, being concerned and caring about everything around you is very natural because anyone who looks into himself, anyone who turns inward, naturally realizes that his existence and the outside existence are not different.

Today, we have the necessary technology, resource and capability to address every fundamental issue on the planet. Never before in the history of humanity have human beings been as capable as we are today.

The only thing missing is inclusive consciousness. In our lives, if we do not do what we cannot do, there is no problem. But if we do not do what we can do, we are a disaster. It is my wish that we as a generation do not become a disaster in every sense.

Author's Bio: 

VINOD K.ANAND: A BRIEF PROFILE

Born in 1939, and holding Master’s Degree both in Mathematics (1959) and Economics (1961), and Doctorate Degree in Economics (1970), Dr. Vinod K.Anand has about forty five years of teaching, research, and project work experience in Economic Theory (both micro and macro), Quantitative Economics, Public Economics, New Political Economy, and Development Economics with a special focus on economic and social provisions revolving around poverty, inequality, and unemployment issues, and also on informal sector studies. His last assignment was at the National University of Lesotho (Southern Africa) from 2006 to 2008. Prior to that he was placed as Professor and Head of the Department of Economics at the University of North-West in the Republic of South Africa, and University of Allahabad in India, Professor at the National University of Lesotho, Associate Professor at the University of Botswana, Gaborone in Botswana, and at Gezira University in Wad Medani, Sudan, Head, Department of Arts and Social Sciences, Yola in Nigeria, Principal Lecturer in Economics at Maiduguri University in Nigeria, and as Lecturer at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in Nigeria. Professor Anand has by now published more than 80 research papers in standard academic journals, authored 11 books, supervised a number of doctoral theses, was examiner for more than twenty Ph.D. theses, and has wide consultancy experience both in India and abroad, essentially in the African continent. This includes holding the position of Primary Researcher, Principal Consultant etc. in a number of Research Projects sponsored and funded by Universities, Governments, and International Bodies like, USAID, IDRC, and AERC. His publications include a variety of themes revolving around Economic Theory, New Political Economy, Quantitative Economics, Development Economics, and Informal Sector Studies. His consultancy assignments in India, Nigeria, Sudan, Botswana, and the Republic of South Africa include Non-Directory Enterprises in Allahabad, India, Small Scale Enterprises in the Northern States of Nigeria, The Absolute Poverty Line in Sudan, The Small Scale Enterprises in Wad Medani, Sudan, Micro and Small Scale Enterprises in Botswana, The Place of Non-Formal Micro-Enterprises in Botswana, Resettlement of a Squatter Community in the Vryburg District of North West Province in the Republic of South Africa, Trade and Investment Development Programme for Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises: Support for NTSIKA in the Republic of South Africa, and Development of the Manufacturing Sector in the Republic of South Africa’s North West Province: An Approach Based on Firm Level Surveys. Professor Anand has also extensively participated in a number of conferences, offered many seminars, participated in a number of workshops, and delivered a variety of Refresher Lectures at different venues both in India and abroad. Dr. Anand was placed at the prestigious Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS), Shimla in the State Himachal Pradesh, India as a Fellow from 2001 to 2003, and had completed a theoretical and qualitative research project/monograph on the Employment Profile of Micro Enterprises in the State of Himachal Pradseh, India.