'The Nature of Nature' book review: False solutions for climate change

The Nature of Nature: The Metabolic Disorder of Climate Change

Author: Vandana Shiva

Publisher: Women Unlimited Ink

Pages: 166  

Price: Rs 450  As the ghastly impacts of climate change become more visible in our everyday lives, it is hard to shake off the feeling that one must step up and do something constructive. Conscientious people all over the world are evaluating their choices with respect to food, clothing, transport, leisure, and housing, then switching to alternatives that support the health of our planet. Their actions show that humans are capable of thinking beyond their own convenience, and cultivating new habits that are better aligned with collective well-being.

 

While individual acts of resistance and care are worth celebrating, there is an urgent need to understand the systems in which we participate and are influenced by. Good intentions are simply not enough to fill knowledge gaps that exist in our society at the moment. In a powerful new book titled The Nature of Nature: The Metabolic Disorder of Climate Change, ecologist and scholar Vandana Shiva—who founded the NGO Navdanya and Bija Vidyapeeth—alerts readers to the emergence of “a new green colonialism” that promotes “false solutions for more profit and greater control over the earth, its resources and our lives”.

 

This book is a must-read for people who beat themselves up for failing to avert every environmental disaster that makes it to the news cycle. Shiva offers a sobering reminder that “these crises are not the anthropogenic impact of actions caused by all of humanity”; rather, “they are the capitalogenic impact of the reckless actions of the 1 per cent”. Multinational corporations prey on our guilt and deceive us with supposedly green technologies of food production that harm not only forests and farms but also our health, she says.

 

People who adopt a vegan lifestyle out of compassion for animals might be shocked to learn about the dangers of plant-based food products that are marketed to them as ethical and non-violent alternatives. Shiva notes, “Artificial meat is made up of protein and fat from peas, potatoes, soya and maize grown in monocultures, based on the same heavy-duty processing methods, chemical inputs and genetically modified organisms that compromise global biodiversity, destroy wildlife, alter soils and pollute groundwater sources.”

 

“Carbon dioxide emissions resulting from the industrial processing of synthetic meat may persist in the atmosphere for hundreds of years, unlike methane produced by traditional livestock farming, which dissolves in the atmosphere after about ten years,” she adds. The book reminds readers that herbivores like cows prefer to eat grass. When they are put on an intensive grain diet, they find it difficult to adjust. The metabolism of these animals is disturbed as a result, and this is what contributes to increased methane emissions.

 

The book will shake up people who feel smug and virtuous about what they consume as Shiva goes on to talk about how ultra-processed fake foods manufactured through “technological innovations such as synthetic biology and genetic engineering” are detrimental to human health thanks to the presence of additives, fat, sodium and sugar in high quantities. Throughout the book, she emphasises how interfering in nature’s processes harms humans. The book also registers a strong protest against digital agriculture, which is based on Big Data and supported by the Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM for Climate). It challenges the bizarre notion—that “farming without farmers, without nature’s and farmers’ intelligence, is the only climate-positive way forward”—being promoted by corporate bigwigs who are desperate to turn the climate crisis into another lucrative profit-making opportunity. Their unchecked greed poses a grave threat to the food sovereignty of local communities.

 

Shiva clarifies, “Spraying harmful pesticides from high-tech drones will not reduce the pesticide burden; rather it will spread over a wider area, even to farms that want to remain pesticide-free. Digitalization will also increase energy use for computational purposes.” She points out the folly of viewing farmers purely as inputs and emphasises their vital contributions as members of our society who deserve respect, fairness and justice.

 

The biggest takeaway from this book is that humans need to let go of four delusions. The first is that we are separate from the earth, and can gain mastery over it. The second is that the earth is valuable only as a source of raw material. The third is that the resources originating from the earth are meant only for humans to enjoy because we are superior to other beings. The fourth is that indigenous, non-industrial cultures are backward and primitive.

 

These delusions are hardwired into how we think and behave. It is high time that we got rid of these; otherwise, we will continue to come up with superficial ways of addressing the climate crisis that show little understanding of the interconnectedness between various species that inhabit the earth. A little humility might help us see things more clearly and act sensibly.

 

The reviewer is a Mumbai-based journalist and educator who can be reached @chintanwriting on Instagram and X.