Humans should rebuild their linkage with Mother Earth: Scholar

Human beings should rebuild their linkage with Mother Earth in building ecological civilization, said R.B. Singh, an Indian scholar.

"The Indian culture has a belief in respecting the Mother Earth," said Singh, on a forum on building ecological civilization at the 5th Annual Session of the Taihu World Cultural Forum held in Beijing on Thursday.

"Every element of nature is considered to be a source of strength so we cannot afford to pollute them. Nature is a priceless treasury and not possible to measure through only ecosystem services."

Singh said ancient Indians discovered the truth of spiritualism along with the survival and development of nature, forest life and plants in Vedic and Upanishad period.

Nowadays, human has detached himself from the earth, dwells in multi-story building, puts on costly and harmful clothes and as a result, suffers from harmful diseases, he said.

He said the respect for Mother Nature is ignored today.

"We get food, fuel, fodder and shelter from nature. However, human beings are over-exploiting these valuable resources."

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need but not to satisfy every man's greed, he quoted Mahatma Gandhi as saying.

When natural environment suffers from land degradation, pollution and climate change, farmers are the first victim, said Singh, especially in India, where agriculture remains the largest economic sector.

He said drastic change of the global food and agriculture system is needed if we are to feed today's 925 million hungry and additional 2 billion people by 2050.

We need more green jobs in agriculture industry, services and administration that contribute to preserving or restoring the quality of environment, said Singh.

"Sustainable energy is needed for strengthening economies, protecting ecosystems and achieving equity. We also need to achieve resource recovery from the wastes."