WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM DINOSAURS?

14 crore years ago, a dinosaur called tyrannosaurus rex hunted

majestically where we are sitting today! Have we thought about why he is
not around anymore but we still are?

Dinosaurs were giant reptiles who ruled the earth crores of years ago.
Only after they became extinct did mammals get a chance to evolve and
finally become what we are today. Was it really a chance or was the
dinosaur’s extinction a message to us? There are many theories on how
they died out. One of them states that a giant asteroid or comet from space
struck the earth. The force of the impact was worse than a million tons of
TNT. This must have killed all the dinosaurs along with other 70% life then
on earth. Resulting shock-waves and tsunamis helped this catastrophe.
After this initial carnage, a large amount of dust was dispersed in the air
which covered the entire earth for at least two years. This would have
stopped sunlight from reaching the earth. All plants died out and so did all
dinosaurs depending on them. however small mammals managed to
survive and evolved into us! The other theory goes like this. After spending
millions of years here, nature caught up with them. The world around them
was changing. Swamps were drying out, mountains replaced seas and
volcanoes were spewing numerous gases like carbon dioxide and others
thus changing the atmosphere itself. They couldn’t adapt as quickly and
therefore became extinct.

Do these scenarios of climate change sound familiar? The

inconvenient truth of global warming has finally sunk in. So are we to follow
the footsteps of our four-legged forefathers? Hopefully we won’t. There is
not an individual solution to our problem. That is because we do not have
only one single problem! The dying species, reducing ozone, melting polar
ice, rising sea level greenhouse effect, increasing natural calamities are
small parts of the same big monster we have helped create. All have to be
tackled in a separate special way. We have to work in synergy with all
plants and animals to rescue mother earth and thus ourselves from this
monster.
 Dinosaurs flourished for a long, happy period before they died out.
We are comparatively still in childhood, are we to go down without a fight?

We pride ourselves being the most intelligent species on the planet, the
time to prove this statement is near. We have the technology and capability
to improve the present state. Did you know that the amount of sunshine
received in India has reduced by 5% in the last decade due to an enormous
cloud of smog over us! Though this does slow down temperature rise it is
not helpful in the long run. A species of flora or fauna dies out every minute
and so many even before they are discovered! Eventually this comes back
to trouble us.

Dinosaurs had large appetites but they surely lacked our hunger for
energy. Our lifestyles force us to consume electricity and fossil fuels every
second of day and night. All this constitutes your carbon footprint. It
depends on many factors including the place where you live, how much
you travel, what renewable energy you use and of course how eco-friendly
is your lifestyle! In fact the coal and petrol burnt today were dinosaurs
themselves at one point of time! A possible solution is becoming calorie
conscious. Just as you think twice about eating when on a diet similarly
think if you really need the new car? Of course if the old one is a smoke
making machine the change as soon as possible. It is impossible to stop
depending on technology and I confess I cannot survive without television,
computer, cell-phone and vehicle. So reducing your carbon footprint is an
imperative responsibility.

In the long run this is not enough and alternate energy sources need
to be developed and sustained. The damage which has already occurred is
to be also repaired. The steps in this direction have already been taken.
This year the Nobel peace prize has been given to the Inter-Governmental
panel for climate change and the previous vice-president of USA Al Gore
Jr. An Oscar winning film named ‘An inconvenient truth’ about climate
change was made and promoted by him. The news about the problem is
reaching people, the solution must too. Recycling is something that
dinosaurs never thought of. We need to recycle water, metal and paper.
 Again in our haste to repair everything we can’t be careless. Let me
explain. Back when cars were not yet invented then horse-carts were used
in cities like London. All the horse droppings used to dirty the streets and
the people were tired of the ‘pollution’ then Henry ford with his new petrol
engine seemed like a gift from God for them out of the terrible and stinky
mess. But that gift for them today looks like a curse for the environment.
The consequences of our actions are very hard to predict therefore act with
caution.

So while the dinosaurs have left making way for us, they left behind
their legacy. The fossils we burn everyday scream silently to us; do not
follow us into extinction!’

-- Abhishek D Bihani