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We're finally going to get the bill for the Industrial Age. If the projections are right, it's going to be a big one: the ecological collapse of the planet, says Jeremy Rifkin. At the dawn of the industrial age two hundred years ago, humanity took a wrong turn when it started living on nature’s capital instead of nature’s incomes. It started gorging upon resources that took nature millions of years to create and which were saved up by nature according to its own plan of functioning. Nature has her own way; she better understands her own affairs than we. We have one planet to live on and all our needs have to be satisfied with whatever is in here. We can not import a thing from other planets for our survival, no matter how much we advertise our dubious moon missions by getting worthless rocks and blowing billions. This senseless exploitation of resources can not go on forever. This cradle to grave economics in which we turn every natural resource into a toxic waste is inherently selfdestructive because in nature, there is no such thing as waste. So called waste generated by one living being is effectively utilized by another and so on until nothing is left over. This is called the cycle of life. But today our linear system of living which is immensely destructive has replaced this natural cyclical system. This is where cow comes into picture. Living with cow is living on nature’s income instead of squandering her capital. In the universal scheme of creation, fate of humans has been attached to that cows, to an absolute and overwhelming degree. This implies that welfare and well-being of cows means progress and prosperity of humans and neglect and mistreatment of cows means degradation and ruin of humans. In the natural plan, human society should depend on cows for its requirements of economic prosperity, food production, soil fertility, nutrition, healthcare, fuel supply, transport, spiritual well-being, sustainable development, individual and social peace, higher consciousness, development of human qualities, performance of religious duties, environmental protection, ecological preservation and balance, advancement of art & culture, cottage industry etc. All the maladies staring in the face of human society today can be traced to one factor – humanity distancing itself from the protection and service to cows. Therefore the Vedas, the greatest repository of knowledge, crown the bovine species with the loving title “mother”.