Dear Offspring,
The world we live today as of March 2020, would not be the same as the day you read this letter. Till 2020, the Earth has faced many changes and this decade also showed us the real challenge we are facing in the future. We are currently in a state of complete lockdown because of deadly Novel Corona Virus coined as Covid-19. This weekend I was planning to go for a trek to the Himalayas but unfortunately, this pandemic stopped all our plans and world is in halt at the moment.

This lockdown has given me time to sit back and reflect on human behaviour which is destroying this blue planet. There might not be any natural resources left for your generation to consume if the rate of depiction sustains like this. Your generation might not know the smell of soil after the rain, the frost at the top of the terrace of your house in chilling winter. There might not be left anyplace for trekking and hiking.
            I think that every outbreak is a natural warning for us to sit back and think about our beautiful planet but the sad part is nowadays every outbreak is incurred with political propaganda. We are in this restless scenario where every nation wants to be powerful with limitless resources that our nature don’t have. Some of the major outbreak of diseases as per my understanding such as leukaemia, Minamata, H1N1, Plague, Dengu, MERS, SARS, Covid19 etc. are caused due to the depiction of nature as well as unbalance in the natural environment. As I experience, nature has tried to put its reset button many times in different parts of the world but we were too busy to stop and think about it. These reset buttons sometimes came as a pandemic, as well as natural disasters. The outbreak of Minamata disease, Swine flu, SARS, Dengue all are caused due to over-exploitation of natural habitats such as forests, wetlands, Amazon forest etc.


            Let me clarify you with the example of a dengue outbreak, it is caused due to deforestation of tropical forest. Also, due to the pollution and emission of CO2 gases our generation saw the depletion of the Ozone layer. This caused the rise of temperature of our planet and the sea level also rose along with it. Currently, we have island nations like Fiji, Maldives, Caribbean nations, Indonesia, Netherland etc that are under sea-level. I am not sure your generation will ever hear about these countries. In our country Nepal, my grandfather used to swim and go fishing in the Bagmati and Bishnumati River. When I was 10 years old, we used to swim in Bishnumati near our home. But, due to pollution and uncontrolled urbanization, these rivers got polluted and I am also not sure you will ever see the existence of these rivers. Many animal species are inline of existence such as one-horn Rhino, Bengal Tiger etc these are common at the moment in Nepal but I guess your generation will not see their faces.

I would like to share you about the term sustainability first termed in 1980 AD by the United Nations. This means to meet the current demand of the people with the idea of preserving the ability of future generations to fulfil their demand. To better describe sustainable development or sustainability Mr Richard Heinberg termed the five Axioms of sustainability. These five axioms discussed by Mr Heinberg were nothing new for human but he systematically formulated these axioms. The five axioms are; the first one is Tainter’s axiom, which highlights that if the society uses critical resources unsustainability it will collapse. For this, we are now using petroleum product and fossil fuel to generate energy. It is predicted that the petroleum sources will be empty by 2030 AD, just ten years ahead of today. I don’t think you will ever know about fossil fuels and natural gases in your period. The overuse of critical resources might collapse the Arab nation’s presently rich with petroleum resources. The second axiom is Bartlett’s axiom which says that with the increasing population, the use of natural resources consumption will not sustain. For this, we can take the example of deforestation of Amazon forest for human settlement. The third axiom, to sustain natural resources, its use should be less or equal to the rate of natural replenishment. The fourth axiom, the use of non-renewable resources must be declining, and the declining rate should be equal or greater to the rate of depletion. Whereas, the final axiom states that the new substance introduced to the environment from human activities should be minimized. The examples given above all justify the five axioms I talked about.
            Let’s see being the first pandemic our generation has experienced I hope that after all this over we will learn our lesson and go for the better sustainable growth of human civilization as well as the protection of natural resources. Though we are a bit late for the conservation part it is never late to feel sorry and start protecting the environment. Many countries are uniting with each other to protect the environment. The United Nation has proposed Sustainable Development Goals. It is the collection of 17 global goals designed to serve as a model for a more sustainable future. From my side also I am trying to minimize the carbon print left by me by not using petroleum product instead of switching to the electric vehicle, using fewer plastics, and using a renewable energy source such as Solar PV etc. Developed countries are also building strategies to deal with sustainability and hand beautiful earth as it is now to our future generations.
            I wish you and your generation a very prosperous and happy life. I don’t know what the future resembles but from my side I will try my best to hand your generation what we have at the moment.
Regards,
Thomas Curtis
March 26, 2020