Learning through enviornment

Learning through environment 

Modern world has been built by people who lived with nature closely. When we consider early human civilizations have built near rivers like Hovanho, Nile, Tigris and Euphrates and Indu . They lived with natural environment always. They got natural things as their foods like meats, nuts, leaves and they selected caves and tree holes as their residences. So they could study the nature well. They looked at sky, water, trees, animals and natural phenomena like wind, thunder, rain, sun rise etc. So they oriented to the nature from the past and human was a part of the nature.

All scientists, philosophers, architectures and poets got simulations and concepts from nature. That universal theory was inherited to modern world also. Modern buildings, automobiles, dresses and all other needs of human are based on nature.

Look at the Japanese people. Lot of active volcanoes are available in Japan. So people who are live around the volcanoes they build temporary houses. The reason is, most of the time volcanoes will be activated instantly. Therefore, building permanent houses will be a waste. Look at their behavior, they studied the nature and understood the real world. They have only two choices, one is stop the activation of volcanoes or get suited to nature.

The famous incident is Sir Newton’s story.  Isaac Newton was spending his free time under an apple tree while reading a book. Suddenly an apple was fallen. After that he got the apple to hand and thought through it. He thought that “why it fell down. It can go horizontally or vertically up”. So he did lot of experiments and researches regarding it and after that he discovered the gravitational theory. It is one of the major concept of modern physics and applied mathematics. Sir Newton got the stimulation to discover gravity theory from nature.

Now let’s consider a famous and wonderful example from Sri Lanka. In British era they built a railway from Fort to Demodara but they couldn’t able to extent that till Badulla because of the geographical characteristics of that area. So engineers faced to a big struggle. At that time a villager called P.K.Appuhami  came up with an idea to build a bridge. It was within nine arches. That arch concept was come from nature. Arch shaped objects can feel heavy load than other shapes. The Appuhami was not a degree holder. But he had a great knowledge about technical things more than engineers since he lived in nature not in artificial world. The arch concept has in our body also. Look at our foot, there is an arch because the arch can withstand heavy load.

Consider the high speed electrical trains of Japan. All electrical trains have a beak shape front. What is the reason for that? In the past they constructed it as flat. Then the engines had to use huge amount of high voltage electricity. While they are finding a solution to reduce it, they looked at flying kingfisher birds. They have long beak and they fly without any effort. So they implemented front side of trains using the beak of kingfishers. After that they could reduce the consumption of electricity. Another well-known adaptation is the implementation of aero plane wing structure observing the Beehive. Also lot of poets in the world had enjoyed the nature and written about its beauty.

We have learned and invented lot of things from nature. Also there are lot of existing problems in modern world. Definitely we have to live with nature and get solutions from nature. Modern consultant doctors and Ayurveda doctors are inventing treatments for cancer, AIDS, tetanus and dengue from nature, it is good trend and it must be. Actually the solution is hidden in the nature. If we forget the nature and find solutions without nature it is not success. For a sustainable world we must learn with nature, live with nature and get innovations through nature.

A submitted an article to "International Essay Contest 2017" organized by Geo Piece foundation in Japan and UNICEF by me.