Why servedplanet?

You think of Mother Earth and terrifying apparitions of global warming, climate change, receding glaciers,  torrential rains, flooding, landslides & avalanches, water scarcity, dipping water tables, desertification, growing food insecurity, deforestation & forest fires and pernicious pollution pulverize the heart and mind.

The planet is groaning under the weight of man-made polycrisis. The mad race for unsustainable development and blind pursuit of consumerism are pushing humankind to the brink. Add to that senseless military conflicts and the arms race and you wonder why humans are chopping the tree they live under.

Our economic models are down in the mud; financial institutions are crumbling with alarming regularity. Inflation is in full rage even as recessionary trends loom large on the horizon.

According to the World Economic Forum's Global Risks Report 2023, cost of living is the "most immediate and severe global risk". At the same time, the report has identified our failure to curb and contain the climate crisis as the "biggest future threat facing the world". And that catastrophe is merely a decade away. Given mankind's history of neglecting environment-linked challenges with impunity, the biggest threat may strike earlier.

Among the 10 risk categories likely to play havoc within a decade the following six are directly linked to the environment: failure to mitigate climate change, failure of climate-change adaptation, natural disasters and extreme weather events, biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse, natural resource crises and large-scale environmental damage incidents.

How can we halt the advance of such a frightful future?

It was wisely stated at the recent WEF session that solving climate change is the ultimate team sport. To halt the calamity in its tracks, people around the globe need to join hands and work for the planet's health. It is time to heal the wounds we have inflicted. It is time to serve the planet.

I come to you with a fortnightly digital publication, servedplanet, hoping that its simple and straightforward writings will enlighten us about the challenges we and our habitat face. With no illusions of being an academic journal, servedplanet will seek to serve as an easily digestible resource on the environment for one and all.

Let the good word spread.

Basant Chaudhary
Publisher