First Presented at Story Slam organized by Climate Reality Project and Climate Generation in 2020.
This story was subsequently featured in the Climate Generation's Winter 2021 edition of their newsletter. Click the link to watch the video or read text below.
My story begins in India where I grew up and continues in the United State where I have lived for the last 30 years. I am very concerned about the global climate crisis that we are currently experiencing in all its forms, and I strongly believe that we need to start having meaningful conversations on this topic even though it brings up fear about our world, guilt for our past actions, and a very inconvenient realization that we need to change how we live. Denial is no longer an option.
My concern for the environment comes from my love for Nature. I was fortunate that I grew up in the foothills of the Himalayas in India and had early encounters with untampered Nature. Our backyard was literally formed by the Shivalik range of the Himalayas and growing up our afternoons were spent exploring the natural springs, brooks, and flora and fauna of those mountains. The dark dense green of those mountains remains permanently etched in my memory, and I am sure that my sensibility of the beauty and mystery of nature was formed in those early years.
From a young age, I was fascinated with living things and wanted to explore the discipline of Biology. After receiving a Masters’ degree and a Ph.D. in Microbiology in India, I spent a valuable year at the University of Goettingen in Germany and four years at Wayne state University in Michigan, USA, to carry out postdoctoral research work. While living in Germany, I was exposed to the writings of Emerson and Thoreau, two American naturalists, who influenced me greatly in forming my thought processes about the sanctity of nature and its value in keeping humans sane.
After completing post-doctoral training, In 1993 I moved to Atlanta to serve as a Professor of Biology at Georgia State University where I taught courses and ran a research lab for 25 years to study molecular basis of drug resistance in bacteria. Microorganisms are the smallest living organisms, and we cannot see them with our naked eyes. But they play an incredibly important role in our bodies and in the environment. Indeed, they hold our planet together by their invisible activities in the soil, oceans, and air. Therefore, my teaching and research activities were always directly or indirectly tied to the environment, however until recently I was not actively engaged in talking about the climate issues affecting us.
When I first moved to Atlanta, I immediately fell in love with the city’s natural landscape. Coming from Detroit, I could not help but instantly notice large tracts of majestic tall trees (tulip poplar, sweet gum, and Georgia pine trees, to name a few) growing naturally in and around the city. Standing in the presence of a cluster of these trees was an experience no less than sacred. Over the years, however, I started seeing how human activities are destroying Nature in the name of development. Unrestrained growth of townhomes, shops, office buildings, and hospitals and an indiscriminate cutting of trees have resulted not only in horrendous traffic jams and smog, but a dwindling tree cover contributing to ever more blistering summer temperatures, barely perceptible winters, and an allergy season that continues throughout the year. These are all symptoms of accelerating environmental degradation, a simmering climate crisis, and a reduced quality of life in the city of Atlanta.
In fact, a 70+ acre mega medical-industrial complex of concrete, steel, and glass is currently being built in and all around my neighborhood in Atlanta. This will be accompanied by additional 25 acres of developments consisting of hotels, townhomes, shops, all catering to this complex. My heart revolts against the idea that I have replaced the dense forests of the Shivalik range of my childhood with the crawl of a concrete jungle of my current life, and the only people who benefit are developers. But my situation is not unique, and the story of my neighborhood is representative of the state of the United States and the entire planet. Moreover, what happens in one part of the world affects every other place.
Our local and federal governments everywhere are allowing harmful environmental policies to continue unabated. There is no concern for greenhouse gas emissions from buildings, coal plants, factories, and cars, thus the constantly intensifying heat waves, droughts, wildfires, and the worsening quality of air we breathe. Much of it is related to shrinking tree and ground cover, which is critical for air and water quality and for removing or keeping greenhouse gases in check.
Being a biologist, I have always understood the concept of ecosystems and that humans live inside the ecosystems not outside of them. We are part of Nature, and in Nature everything is interconnected. We need to understand that since humans are at the top of the food chain, if we destroy nature, we destroy ourselves.
What can we do while we still have a chance to stop the widespread destruction of our planet? How can we protect the diversity of life - on the only planet where we know it exists - from the existential threats of droughts, fires, and floods caused by climate change produced by reckless human activities? First, we must start a conversation on climate change, stop denying climate crisis, and take responsibility for our actions. Second, we need to change our ways, and, finally, every citizen, young and old, needs to get involved in the movement to reduce or stop use of fossil fuels, stop further loss of tree canopy impacting not only human but wildlife habitat, support clean energy and green jobs, and restore the lost habitats on which we all depend.
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