How about saving ourselves

These days people say that Gloabal warming is a hoax. It is what the West created to stall development in the East. My friends argue with me about the accuracies of what scientists say about carbon emissions, and why we need not worry about it, cause the sun is heating up in any case, and we cannot stop it. So might as well enjoy ourselves, while it all lasts, but my question is what are we leaving behind for our future generations?

Yes, it is true that the sun is heating up, and that Rajendra Pachauri's data points were not entirely correct. His report led to a lot of debate on global warming, and a lot of so-called non-profits also cashed in on this opportunity.

It is true that such extinctions have happened before, and this may probably be one of them. The planet has its own way of repairing the damage done to it
We may not be able to save the planet, but we are not helping either. Human activity is taking away the very coping methods that the earth needs to repair itself.

Our carbon emissions may not be the cause for global warming, but then the rainforests which the earth uses to repair itself, which took millions of years to create, are being cut in a single blow

It is true that De-forestation, over-fishing, over-poaching, even killing of animals does not lead to global warming, what it does is destroys the animals and trees which depend upon each other to sustain the ecosystem

People in Africa, eat anything and everything because they need to survive. Problem arises when man goes overboard in trying to earn profits, without looking at the result of his actions.

Eating tigers in China may be justifiable according to many of us, but what this does to the forests in India is irreperable.

Closer home, it may be okay to cut down huge amounts of rainforests in Indonesia and Malaysia to make way for palm plantations, but then I guess Singapore's zoo will be the only place left where we ever get to see orang utans anymore.
It may be okay to eat whales and dolphins, but over-fishing has only lead to imbalance in the oceans destroying the coral reefs, which are the rainforests of the ocean

Of course, the world will not end purely, because we go on destroying what took the earth millions of years to create. What it will do is only make survival of mankind difficult. We cannot save the planet, we need to save ourselves

Here's the latest UN report http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100510/ts_afp/unenvironmentbiodiversityeconomy

My identity

Here's something I scribbled recently
In his book "Identity and Violence" Amartya Sen says that identity is the root cause of conflict. Human being group themselves into different groups, as per their comfort. For eg. we become a part of a certain school/college/institution or a certain society youth group or as a fan of Liverpool or Manchester United. We start associating ourselves not just with religions or professions or nationalities or food habits, but also dressing styles, behavioural styles, and maybe even zodiac signs.
These choices also constitute our identity.

Every individual wants to set himself apart from the others, wants to be unique and starts associating with groups that he identifies with.

The problem arises when people start staunchly following their beliefs. That is when they see themselves as Levi's and not as Wrangler, and then everything about Wrangler seems wrong. Sometimes Wrangler may sound so wrong, that Levi's goes all out to prove a point against him, and in extreme cases it may lead to violence.

Wrangler may not have been right or wrong, but the fact that he choses to be wrangler and separate himself from Levi's is irritating to Levi's. Levi's forgets that he is a son, a brother, a Hindu, an Indian, an IT professional, a cricket fan and in that instance choses only to be Levi's

According to Amartya Sen extremity of associations leads to violence, eg. Nazism, communism, religious fervour and racial influence.