Train ride into ecological uncertainty

Nature has always influenced history; it has given birth to civilizations and nurtured them. Rivers, valleys and mountains determined the demography of a place before humans snatched away this task and began playing hide and seek with nature. Patient and forgiving, nature understood the needs of humankind, and at times even welcomed us to trample its most sacred of laws. We burnt coal in our furnaces and engines to power the Industrial Revolution. We cut mountains, dug tunnels, built bridges, harnessed rivers and blocked the sea. Vehicles sped through valleys and deserts, trains trundled through wilderness, and planes tore through the skies, guzzling billions of tons of fossil fuel.

And then one overcast, melancholic, suffocating day some of us woke up to realize we had pierced nature's heart. Yet nature didn't lose its all-forgiving smile. And yet we misread its pain and sufferings.

Thankfully, there are still places relatively untouched by human hand. Thankfully there are still biospheres and forests that store huge amounts of greenhouse gases. And thankfully, some people are still trying to leave them as they are for the benefit of all.