‘Global Cataclysm’ - Governed by Harsh Realities

The discovery of ‘Higgs Boson’ or at least, a particle in closest approximation to it, had made for prominent headlines not too long ago. Known as the ‘God Particle’ it was considered the bi-product of a mechanism by which a hypothetical quantum field is generated that gives mass to elementary particles and thus, to the matter that makes up the entire Universe. But to the common man, the mystery of how the Universe was created is nothing beyond a convoluted jigsaw of scattered clues.

 

Something very similar had happened some four years ago when an experiment was about to be conducted then in a tunnel at the French-Swiss Border to discover the elusive particle. With the most formidable of atom smashers producing collisions of protons traveling at the speed of light, one group of theorists felt that it would be a discovery to beat all others in re-enacting the ‘big bang’ that had led to the creation of the Universe, while another, said it would unleash microscopic black-holes that might well be trapped in the earth’s gravitational field and threaten the very existence of our planet. Since then, experiments & theories have continued to make the rounds but there is no sign of an apocalypse as was feared.

 

But what foreshadows a future that is perilous is that we, as the inhabitants, are finding newer ways to push the world, closer & closer to a cataclysmic edge. So, more than the extraneous factors that threaten our existence, we are in the clutches of an internal mechanism that is squeezing life out of our planet.   

 

To what extent do we justify our existence as part of nature? For generations to come, we might leave behind a legacy that strips the Earth of its natural assets. The global threat occurring with the depletion of the Earth's ozone layer, the release of greenhouse gases due to rapid industrialisation, the massive deforestation leading to the extinction of rare species are collectively impacting the eco-system, just as the increasing use of chemicals in agriculture is resulting in steadily decreasing harvests and increasing soil erosion.

 

Is this the price we have to pay to perpetuate the process of evolution? Scientific theories do matter but we find that soon after being hot topics of discussion, they are relegated to a cosseted space till another glut of conjectures & inferences are drawn forth. The Earth happens to be a tiny speck in the Universe[al] gust but as the epi-centre of human existence, it cries out for a ‘planetary’ shift in the global consciousness of thought as dictated by harsh realities that cannot be sidestepped.

 

The cosmic process of evolution says that the Universe began as infinitesimally small and then expanded. About planet earth one fears a trend in the reverse; that its vastness could shrink to a raw, diminutive core. So each of us needs to participate in a process of creating a better world by understanding the purpose of the Universe and identifying ourselves within it for common good - as we own a common destiny.