20 March, 2008
Khulna Zila School Hostel,
Khulna

Dear Habib,
At first take my cordial love. Hope you are fine. Many days have passed since you wrote to me. Anyway, today I am writing you about the difficulties that we encountered after devastating Sidr.

Caring for the environment is logical because it provides our species resources on which, and indeed, an environment within which to survive. The argument for preserving it goes far beyond that.

Earth's environment is a complex and interconnected system the fundamentals of which science even in the age of spaceships is still working to understand. There is little chance that humans as a species will "break it," causing all to stop functioning completely, but our ability to disturb the system to where the resources become not so useful to us has been proven over and over again. We as a species can probably build machine after machine to substitute for the environment regulating services the earth inherently has, but the sophistication of our design is still dwarfed by that of nature.

The preservation argument appeals to our sensibilities and even need for beauty and wonder. Imagine being born into a world without forests and only scavenger birds and small rodents as animals. Imagine you are in a world where clear blue water teaming underneath with life does not exist and clean water only comes from machines. Many great marvels of nature have been destroyed in the human march toward progress. These things we will never see, like massive plains covering buffalo herds and sky darkening passenger pigeon flocks. In a stale and sterile future where nature's marvels have been converted to palm orchards and shopping malls, and mice are what's left to pass for the only wildlife encountered outside a screen, people are unlikely to miss what they never experience, but they will have missed a great deal.

So, Preservation and conservation are important for the survival of our species. If we don't preserve and conserve, we waste our valuable resources.

No more today. Convey my best regards to parents and love to the grandfather.