Intersectionality of Wars and Sustainability

Each war is a demonstration of how far humankind can go to demonstrate predominance over one another. Battles can leave scars that live on always. The 6th and the 9th of August 1945 were the days when the United States detonated two atomic weapons over the urban areas of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, leaving circa 226,000 blameless men, women, and children dead and severely injured.

Remnants of those 48 hour were experienced by individuals living in those cities for a long time to come. The radiations discharged on that day, created difficulties that are still being passed on from generation to generation.

I also want to talk about the wars that we fight with our psyche, with the people we love. All conflicts are not fought on geographical territorial boundaries, some are fought in homes and hearts.

I believe that, a major reason humans fight wars is that we don't actually want to find the solution to a problem, but instead blame each other for causing it. The human race unrightly believes that a war is a solution to wars we create on the basis of our differences. We preach freedom and love, and yet we make the ones we don’t agree with bleed crimson. We mark boundaries, we mark certain memories as good and certain as bad, but often we forget that the marks humans leave are too often scars. It has been said, 'time heals all wounds.' I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone.

We should never forget the number of people we’ve lost just because they belonged to another religion, spoke another language or lived in another country. We can never forget the pain another caused to us, how we cried all night just to realize that nothing more is left to be ruined. It is said that scars and bruises teach us a lot, that the ones that are scarred turn out to be stronger than the ones protected. However, I don’t agree. While some were traumatized, others prepared for what the world offers. Some slept peacefully and others survived on the very brink of the fight or flight mode. Wars come to an end, but scars never do leave.

A common misconception is that sustainability only links to how green your gardens are, or how many plastic bottles you recycle in a week. But, if we are building a future for coming generations on the foundations of innocent deaths and feelings of hatred, our children will not be able to sustain themselves. Moreover, while wars may primarily hurt humankind, it unfortunately does not stop there; animals and plants fall prey to horrifying impacts of warfare too. A country at war cannons be environmentally conscious. Do we need bigger countries and more rivers mapped out on the side of the border that we reside in? Or a safer and greener future for all irrespective of where they come from, who they love, and what they worship?