Kamal Parajuli

In August 2019 came news from Sauraha, Chitwan that American and European tourists have largely boycotted safari – elephant riding. It was welcomed change for animal rights activists while a loss of profitable avenue for tourism entrepreneurs. For me, it was a harbinger of further ominous scenarios to unfold.
Humans have used animals since centuries. And recently, in circuses world over. But exploiting animals for fun and work is passé. As we become civilised, we have realised animals too are sensitive to pain and possess sense of belonging.
When I was young, circuses were common. While others used to laugh at the antics of animals, I used to contemplate the torture they must have endured to master those unnatural feats. Maybe, passion for reading had made me precocious. But miseries of life caught up and I have grown inured to much of the pain being inflicted around. Now, it is economics that is at the fore.
For the ordinaries, it is the job that connects them with the economy. So, what are those mahouts going to do? Despite pollution, switching to jeep for safari like in African Savanna is an option. But neither do we manufacture jeeps nor do we produce oil. The switch would make natural and locally available elephants redundant while tying our fate to expensive imports. But the call to not use animals as an economic means is hard to decline.
It is believed Nepal imports 80 per cent of goats that are consumed. So, along with agriculture which has romanticised city youths, animal husbandry has become another must-do. The flow of subsidised capital into the sector is expected to boost domestic production and raise national income. Not a bad idea.

Animal slaughtering
But, slaughtering animals on industrial scale to satisfy human needs is barbaric. Just hear the wails of animals in slaughterhouse as they sense inevitable death. One might shun meat by the end of the video. People for the ethical treatment of animals (PETA) have always been against the idea. But it is the voracious appetite for meat in developed world that have smothered the objection.
But then comes ‘Beyond Meat’. It is an American company that is perfecting method to create plant-based meat substitute. With taste getting realistic with each new batch, it has grown popular among ethical meat-eaters. Accordingly, McDonalds and Taco Bell have entered into collaboration with the company.
Meat is too tasty to relinquish for most humans. But plant-based substitute, for lack of culinary history, still triggers repulsion. Some westerners are avoiding beef not least because they have subscribed to the idea of cow as mother but because it burps too much climate-altering methane. A palatable plant-based substitute would save the planet all the while satiating taste buds.
With the growing concern about climate change and companies like Beyond Meat and Next Level Burger working to perfect the taste the shift is inevitable. Happy days for our goats but not for the ranchers. Then comes coronavirus. Being highly contagious it quickly spread through Europe and the US with great devastation. People from underdeveloped world attributed high mortality to weaker immune system of the westerners. It might be; might not be. And they were equally jubilant they would survive the onslaught of virus and go on to own the world.
Not so fast. Vaccines have saved numerous lives by training our immune system to recognise and respond to proteins produced by infectious agents. Those vaccines have been manufactured by either inactivating the disease-causing real virus or using altered adenovirus. Though tried and tested, the process is laborious and it takes time to harvest real virus. And if it mutates significantly, then new vaccine has to be developed from scratch. It looked like vaccine for COVID-19 was never coming as no vaccine previously had been developed in less than four years.
But never discount science. Within 11 months of discovery of SARS-CoV-2, regulators in the US approved mRNA vaccine for general use. The technology is nothing short of revolutionary. Virus contains DNA or RNA core enclosed in protein coat. The coat is made by mRNA – the instruction set of DNA. Scientists managed to produce synthetic version of mRNA used by coronavirus to produce spike proteins that latch into human cells. Encapsulated, it would be delivered into human muscle cells which would accept the instruction and start producing spike proteins. Our immune system would recognise those foreign proteins and start mounting a defense.
The beauty of mRNA vaccine is it deploys host cells to produce the required proteins to train its immune system. Being synthetic, virus need not be farmed. And mRNA, just being instruction, can be altered as quickly as virus mutates or even designed for possible mutations in advance. No surprise, the possibility of cell targeting has mRNA technology being studied for cancer treatment.
Poor us. Hardy we might be but difficulties in verification means natural immunity does not count. Forget shaping new world order, one instead needs to be vaccinated – vaccine passport – in addition to visa to travel to developed world. Blame it on mRNA technology.
Civilisations which mastered science have and will continue to dictate lifestyle for rest of the world. Coal was ok, natural gas was ok till solar and wind power – both great products of science – became as cheap. The trend is to master science to harness energy of sun and quit fossil fuel: maximise use of plants for food and leave animals alone: use machineries to aid our work and do away with animals. To put it short: embrace science and invent; exploit nature but also acknowledge and strive to limit damage.

Rebellious civilisations
Sounds great: but can poor countries emulate the model? No way. It is too difficult to extricate themselves from the traditional mode of interdependence with nature for food and resources. But the wind of change will compel them to upend their lifestyle.
There is still no dearth of undeveloped yet rebellious civilisations. Wait until Elon Musk is done with putting constellation of 12,000 Starlink satellites in earth’s orbit. Regimes have firewalled their internet to check flow of information. With satellites beaming free internet into ubiquitous smartphones, it would be advanced science, if anything, that can help those battered regimes wrestle back semblance of control over their citizens. Until next time.

(Parajuli works with Himalayan Bank Limited. kamal.parajuli@himalayanbank.com)