HUMANITY has been victims of calamities both natural and man-made from time immemorial. Each leaves behind in its wake a trail of destruction in terms of men and material and long-term human sufferings of varying intensity depending on its magnitude. It also leaves behind a coded message that we ought to decipher and heed to bolster the chances of our survival and sharpen our collective wisdom. The code is not difficult to decipher. Once decoded, the message is unambiguous and simple. The message may be clearly defined in three sentences:

1)The very existence of humanity, the most intelligent species on earth and endowed with the sense of self is under constant threats.

2)While the threats are multidimensional, vicious and ever growing, man's response is shortsighted, inadequate and ad hoc, to say the least.

3)The earth is the only planet in the solar system (so far known) hospitable to life forms, and probably the only abode in the whole universe to support superior life form like the Homo sapiens.

Are we not therefore under moral obligation collectively to ensure safety and security of our planet and create conditions favourable for growth and well-being of succeeding generations? Let us examine the enormity and multifaceted dimensions of each threat and the response of humanity thereto as well as the prospect of our winning every battle.

A powerful earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale struck in the morning of 08 October 2005 many parts of Pakistan and its region of Kashmir and Indian Jammu and Kashmir claiming tens of thousands of human lives as well as causing immense human sufferings and colossal damage to properties. I take this opportunity to convey my deep condolences to the bereaved families and wish the injured early recovery. May God give all sufferers fortitude and courage to overcome the tragedy that befell on them. It is redeeming to note that more than six billion people in the world today feel oneness with the victims of the earthquake. A few days back, hurricane Katrina and Rita wreaked havoc in quick succession on the southeastern coast of the US. Loss of lives and properties as well as human miseries laid bare the grim reality how vulnerable and ill-prepared even the most economically and scientifically advanced country in the world is.

While natural calamities like earthquake, cyclone/tornado, forest fire etc. are occurring off and on, man-made disasters are happening more frequently. Major man-made disasters that struck recently like release of toxic fumes in Bhopal in India in 1984, meltdown of Chernobyl nuclear reactor in Kiev, Ukraine in 1986, that in Brazil in 1987 and two in Japan in 1994 and 2004 at Tokaimura and Mihama respectively, and oil-spill from mega oiltankers like Exxon Valdez in 1989, Mega Borg in 1990 and Erika and Haven more recently are illustrative of man's inability to ensure full safety and security of its operations. Man's response to disasters due to its own ignorance and callousness is equally appalling. Global warming due to greenhouse effect, ozone-layer depletion (mitigation process is going on satisfactorily), dumping of toxic wastes including nuclear waste into land, river and sea, deforestation, loss of biodiversity or extinction of species due to human activities, particularly attempts at tampering with nature are depleting as well as degrading natural resource-base like quality of air and water, forests, hills and mountains, wetlands and bio-diversity. Over exploration of natural resources and demographic pressure are major contributory factors for dwindling of arable land, forest, fish and other natural resources on which future survival and well being of humanity depend.

The most formidable threat to human existence comes from microbes. According to notable scientists in the field of life sciences, the much-touted fight against bacteria that was believed to be won is in fact lost because many hitherto easily treatable

bacterial infections are now hardly responding to common antibiotics. As for example, infections by resistant strains of staphylococcus, one of the most common bacteria, which were treatable previously even with simple penicillin, do not now respond to available antibiotics except vancomycin. While new antibiotics keep on coming to markets, resistant strains are proliferating almost in equal proportion. It seems it is an arduous and long drawn-out fight where man can be complacent only at its own peril.

At a time when World Health Organisation was celebrating at its headquarters its triumph over and complete eradication of small pox caused by vaccinia virus from the surface of earth, new viruses mutated, swapped each other's genes, became virulent and jumped over inter-species barriers to claim more human lives, albeit in a moderate scale to date. This may not be the case in future. Since the outbreak of influenza pandemic in 1918, the probability of another one of similar magnitude or more has never been so real as it is today. There has been much talk within the scientific community about a catastrophic pandemic of avian flu by a virus named H5N1 originating from South-east Asia that is estimated to possess the lethal power to kill more than 150 million people because air travel by tens of millions of passengers annually would make contagion extremely difficult to contain. In the aftermath of such a pandemic as stated above, healthcare infrastructure all over the world will inevitably collapse as we can surmise from past experiences, and overwhelming number of victims will be left writhing in pain, agony and distress, and at the mercy of natural healing process.

Besides the above, hunger, poverty and malnutrition are eating into the vitals of more than half of world's 6.25 billion people. Deprivation is perhaps the most fertile ground for growth of militancy, terrorism and restive people around the globe. On top of these scourges, the probability of an asteroid, one of some 10,000-12,000 asteroids between the planets Mars and Jupiter that orbit the sun, hitting the earth and obliterating the existence of humanity, as an asteroid did exterminate dinosaurs some 39 million years ago, is increasing as recent scientific findings suggest. What is humanity doing to meet the challenges posed by all these enemies? Very little indeed. Moreover, men have been creating conditions where they remain engaged in internecine wars, conflicts and bloodletting communal violence.

Nuclear cataclysm in Hiroshima and

Nagasaki is a stark reminder of man's inherent lust for power and hatred against one another. Their activities are contributing even to the intensification and worsening of conditions favourable for intensified and more widespread natural calamities. As is well known, the earthquake that hit some regions of Pakistan and India on 08 October was due to pent-up pressure along the meeting points of Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates. Some seismology experts believe explosions due to wars and conflicts in the regions of Kashmir might have intensified pressure that caused fissures and faults on the earth's crust making it one of the most vulnerable locations on earth for earthquakes. A question may naturally arise against the backdrop of multiplicity of threats. Is the humanity capable of overcoming the threats? The answer is both yes and no, and not either or.

Total global wealth has quadrupled in just fifty years. Enormous advancement has been made in science and technology, particularly in understanding the universe, the bevaviour of subatomic particles and in the field of life sciences including medicine, surgery, microbiology, biochemistry, and genetics and such other branches of knowledge as computer science and technology, energy, space exploration and development-related engineering and technology. While 50 billion dollars can lift children of all developing countries from the trap of hunger and poverty, more than twenty times this sum (about 1.2 trillion) is being spent annually for defence. The US spends about 500 billion in defence, Russian Federation about 50 billion, China about 40 billion, India 16 billion and Pakistan 3 billion. The amounts account for between 5 and 10 per cent of the GDP of these countries. On the contrary, most of the developed countries are reluctant even to set aside 0.7 percent of GDP for ODA despite the fact that at the Earth Summit at RIO in 1992, the developed countries pledged to contribute 0.7 percent of GDP to ODA.

The United Nations was created in 1945 replacing the moribund League of Nations with the noble goal of employing collective power and wisdom through the UN in all international affairs to rid the world of Third World War as well as major wars and conflicts. But the goals still remain unmet while the UN is sometimes bypassed by big powers to serve their national interests. Humanity has the wherewithal to employ superior strategies and tactics based on frontiers of knowledge and rich past experiences to meet squarely any kind of challenge provided all nations can muster political will to cooperate closely and draw on each other's experiences and best practices, and employ combined wisdom and appropriate technologies setting aside conflicting national interests.

I believe humanity can find much more common denominators to unite than it tends to think it has to divide. As for example, all religions propagate the eternal message of love for humanity and compassion for all living beings as well as all other great virtues that humanity embodies. As regards races, there is basically no difference between one race and the other. In this context, I wish to quote views of Mr. Craig Venter, owner of Celera, whose significant contribution led to the early completion (sequencing completed in 2000) of Human Genome Project, undertaken by a consortium of a number of countries and lately by Celera in parallel. 'Racial superiority is a myth,' he once said to highlight unity of mankind, adding 'The genetic variation among 6 billion human beings (it is now over 6.2 billion) is much less than that of single troop of chimpanzees.' This proves beyond any shadow of doubt that humanity is more akin than it tends to think.

It is the conviction of scientists and philosophers alike that humanity is well-placed in terms of resources, experiences and expertise to triumph over any imaginable threat, but not yet prepared intellectually as one species to put up a decisive fight because its formidable strength and wisdom have been fragmented due to divisions along race, religion, cast and creed, gender, political power and wealth. However, rational and right-minded people all over the world can persuade their political leaders to muster political will and courage to resolve intra and interstate differences through dialogue and draw on best scientific knowledge, technologies and expertise from each other's experiences and best practices to put up a joint front against the common enemies of humanity, that is, hunger, poverty, malnutrition, diseases, natural and man-made disasters and environmental degradation.

Subir Kumar Bhattacharyya is a former Ambassador.