was watching the national geographic channel on this series by nick middleton called going to extremes...each episode depicts the existence of human life in the most extreme of weather or natural conditions. man has learnt to adapt to and carve out an existence in areas which faced extreme cold, heat, dryness and wetness. the co-existence of mankind with the environment and the dependence on other living inhabitants were clearly depicted. it was an extremely interesting series which had me hooked on every episode as i was awed by how mankind has actually managed to survived in conditions that seemed so uninhabitable. here i was...complaining when electricity was down, or when the weather became hot or rainy. yesterday's episode was unnerving. the host visited kazakhstan where water was a scarcity. formerly part of the soviet union, their water source, the aral sea was rapidly dried up as water upstream was diverted for irrigation purposes. as a result, the salinity of the water increased, the fishing industry suffered an impact. other industries such as agriculture became non-existent as there was no suitable source of water. desertification occured and the country became a wasteland. additionally, during soviet rule, the russians developed strains of diseases such as small pox and also anthrax to be used in biological warfare on this island in kazakhstan. now abandoned, the host embarked on a trip to this island to visit the abandoned 'medical' premises. gas masks had to be worn as strains of these highly infectious dieseases may be lingering. it was total chaos. respirators and beds with straps were seen. probably. some unfortunate souls were strapped into these beds for testing. bags upon bags of blood and some undistinguishable liquid were thrown into a big pile. one can only wonder what these bags contained. it was something that the host said that striked me deeply. he finds it ironic that despite the extremes of the natural environment, mankind has learnt to adapt to these conditions. yet, in the event of a man made 'extreme', it was impossible for man to survive in such environments. this was the gist of what he said. the beauty of mother nature has left us in wonder and awe. yet, we have witnessed the strength and horror that nature can bring, such as the boxing day tsunami. as one of the co-inhabitants that dwell on this earth and dependants on nature for survival, isnt it disturbing that perhaps, our 'strength' and 'terror' are even more of a horrifying force than the natural disasters that we have witnessed. our selfish attitudes may one day render this home unihabitable, not just for mankind, but also for the millions upon millions of living organisms that had a harmonious co-existence for millions and billions of years. what right of mankind, as a relatively new species of living organism, has to render earth to such conditions. as what a lecturer of mine once said, we do not inherit this earth from our ancestors, rather..we borrow it for our children.