Sustainability in Civilisation | Sashenka P S | TEDxKsirs International School

So the most sustainable society in history did not try to save the planet but they tried to save themselves. So there was a famous playwright named Eugene O'Neill who said that there was no present and future. It was only the past which happened again and again over. So according to what he said let us travel back in time and let us see how civilizations lived a very sustainable life. So to start with there was a very big flood in Pakistan in 2022. So it caused a very big loss to the Pakistan government like 43 billion dollars. It was a very big disaster but speaking about that there was a fascinating thing happened there. There was a city called Mohenjodaro in Pakistan which was drier compared to other cities in Pakistan. Why was it? So archaeologists say that there was a drainage system built by Harappan civilization people. Drain that water out which was built 4500 years back. Let me repeat 4500 years back. So it is so fascinating right. So let me explain how it worked. They had a grid pattern in their settlements. So pavement of this grid system was easy so that they can build the drains. So because there was no roundabouts and all so they felt it easy to pave the drains. Then they had this soak pits and sediment traps which acted like big sponges and like filters which filtered the sediments. They used normal techniques like gravity and normal physics concepts to do that. So speaking about how they all connected each house had a washing area which was connected to a private channel then the street drain and then it was disposed in the reverse. So it is so amazing that if we think that the drainage system which they built 4500 years ago is still working now. So here if we build sustainability for survival rather than success it is going to live more far and longer than the civilization itself. So this is the best example which explains this line. So sustainability for survival can be in many different forms. For example 9000 years ago there was a civilization in Çatalhöyük Turkey. So these people were so fascinating like the neighbors were so close that they shared the walls. Like this wall was the house of the neighbor also. So if you want to enter into their home that you do not have to go and knock the door because you have to enter through the roof. They did not have streets they walked in the roofs. So they had this kind of compact system where they wanted to save space. They did not want to lose space because of unnecessary reasons. So speaking about that further these people had spiritual beliefs. They did the spiritual activities in their home itself and it gets more wonderful now. If someone died in their home they buried them under their home itself. If that happened here I would like run away from there because I do not want my home to be a graveyard. See if you think those people had their house as a temple as the graveyard and they lived there too. So they did multi-purpose. I think there was always out of budget. So it is funny but they were highly sustainable. They used this obsidian which is the volcanic glass. It was so abundant there because it was a volcanic area. So they used this glass. They did trade. They used it for making utensils and stuff. So they used the resources which were more abundant. So this is a kind of environmental sustainability and most importantly what we do not have now is gender equality. Scientifically they have proven that in this civilization men and women were equal. They have found that from the DNA samples that the diet of men and women were equal. Their workload and lifestyle were same. So yes this happened 9000 years back. So thinking about that Harappan civilization showed sustainability through engineering like building dams, building those drainage systems. This Chattanooga civilization showed a sustainability through restraint. They controlled all those land uses and they saved our environment. So speaking about that Chattanooga shared their walls but there is a place just 200 kilometers away from here which shared something more important that is technology. Let us come back to our home from Turkey that is Keredi. Keredi is a civilization in Madurai only 200 kilometers from here. So I told that they shared technology. What is technology? Pots. It might be crazy but pots are the technology which I mentioned. So the kind of pots which they found was black and red ware. As the name suggests it was black and red in color. How did they make it? So first they took this clay and mixed it with organic matter. First they burnt it with oxygen. I am going to speak some science. So they burnt it with oxygen. The iron in that clay oxidized and became red. Now what they did is so fascinating. They burnt it again double burning. They burnt it again with insufficient supply of oxygen. What did happen? This carbon in this organic matter did not evolve as carbon dioxide but it became nanotubules. Everyone does know what is nanotechnology, right? Everyone does know, right? So it is very very small particles which are so strong and light. So these people without even realizing that they were using nanotechnology they did it. Like now we use the word nano in some products and double its prices, right? But at that time Keredi people just put this nano in pots then they cook dinner. And going through the civilization there are many Sangam literatures which tell about how they respected the nature. About that there was a poem which tells that the earth and water combine together to give you food. Food is the source of life, right? Without food I cannot come and stand here. So that poet tells that if food is the source of life, things which give you food is the creator and superior for everything. That what they have mentioned is the earth and water. That is natural resources, right? So they respected natural resources as God and very superior thing. So that is why they respected and protected their nature. So going on like this survival as the goal for sustainability, you can list out many civilizations like this. Like the Mayans, the Incas and I have to mention this civilization called Banpo which was in China. These people had a circular layout. Their settlement was in the shape of circle. They had a empty space in between that is for the gatherings for children to play in something like that. And around that they had houses. Then they had this burning places. Then around that the burial sites. This settlement acted as a natural blanket. You see this strong winds, cold breezes. These did not affect the settlements because of this pattern they had. Speaking more philosophically, the circle, no end, no beginning and there is no ups and no downs. So they philosophically told that there is no end and beginning and they had a balance and equal life. So I can list out many, many civilizations. And speaking about that, the ancient civilizations had sustainability at its peak. And when time went on, the sustainability became low and at some point sustainability just become zero. And at that time we found sustainability and we started to be sustainable for that word sustainability. So the moment we started talking about sustainability was the moment we started to forget that we are a part of nature. Nature does not surround us but include us. Let me repeat, the nature did not just surround us but it included us. So sustainability is not just a choice but the way of living when you remember that we are just a part of the nature. Let us just love and respect this nature like the ancient people did, our ancestors did and that would be the most pure form of sustainability we ever had. Thank you.