THE scale of human intervention in the ecosystem increased drastically since the industrial revolution in Europe. Colonisation transplanted reductionist European science all over the colonies and marginalised the indigenous knowledge. Ever since, the received human perceptions of nature have evolved largely along the European tradition. The economics that developed with science in Europe viewed nature as a stock of `natural resource', leading to the proverbial vision of the economic society that saw only the timber while looking at the forests.

The post-colonial euphoria of `catching up' and rapid economic development conferred on European science and related principles of economics an almost universal acceptance. This led to technologies and economic activities that did not take a holistic view of nature.

In the 1960s, air pollution in Europe, destruction of capture fishing in industrialised countries, poisoning of the Great Lakes in North America, and so on, were among the first to attract public criticism in the industrially advanced countries. This led to the establishment of green political parties, which have gained respectability in certain parts of Europe.

In the developing world, environmental degradation initiated during the colonial rule continued with economic growth without adequate institutional control over environmentally harmful practices. Often, environmental concerns were seen as obstacles to the national agenda. Hence, any initiative for redefining the relationship between human societies and nature got branded as anti-national by industry and government.

During the 1960s, the youth movements in Europe and North America looked for an alternative to the corporate-industrial model for human societies. The environmental movements in those countries were largely internalised in that broader assembly. These movements must be credited for their partial success in drawing much needed global attention back to the sensitive relationship between human beings and nature. The holding of the first ever global meeting on the Human Environment in Stockholm in 1972 was a result.

In India, environmental issues have been taken up mainly by Gandhian activists, as an extension of their opposition to large-scale industries. Some of the top political leaders of the country, interestingly, had shown remarkable commitment to environmental protection, as exemplified by Indira Gandhi's stand on the Silent Valley project and her open support to the forest conservation movements in the Himalayas, like Chipko.

The globalised market system, with its advertising and managerial capabilities, has successfully promoted a natural resource intensive consumer culture all over the world. In reality, however, it is now established that, attainment of higher economic growth rate on a sustainable basis pre-supposes a clearer understanding of the sensitive links of economic activities with the natural environment.

The common perception of many urban children in urban societies that "milk is manufactured by dairies and delivered in plastic bags" exemplifies the level of detachment. With this level of alienation of humans from nature, the question of ecological sustainability is difficult to be conceptualised. This challenge cannot be overcome by stray opposition to the pollution of a stream here or the removal of a tree there. An effective redesign of the relationship of human societies with nature needs a conscious move to an ecologically informed consumption pattern.

Pushed by public opinion, industry in Europe and North America has focused attention on the natural environment, though from a different point of view. During the past 20 years or so, major corporations have been constantly expanding their search for more knowledge about nature and ways to accommodate an expanding industrial system within the limits posed by nature. The emergence of industrial ecology and metabolism is an example in that direction. This new knowledge about nature, however, is not easily available in the public domain.

At the level of interested common people, general knowledge about nature can easily be obtained. People can also be happy in following a nature friendly consumption pattern now being popularised in the industrially advanced countries as the green lifestyle. However, as far as the core of the new knowledge is concerned, human societies have limited options. First, the average person is unable to understand complex information. And, second, they have to be content with whatever scientific information and data about nature is allowed to cross the IPR regime into public domain.

From the knowledge of the composition of the upper atmosphere to the usefulness of or risks from genetically modified organisms, people's access to free and dependable knowledge has become difficult. Efforts to redefine and update the relationship between nature and the human society as a whole will have to address the reality that the access to necessary scientific information is controlled by the patent regime. In the war on the ownership of knowledge, it is important that a new equation for the sharing of scientific knowledge on nature is arrived at between corporate research giants and global civil society. In the absence of any agreed arrangement, the environmental consciousness of the people of the world would at best be useful in promoting a rather superficial `green' consumerism, while nature could be separately understood and increasingly marketed for private gains. The biotechnological revolution has made this amply clear.

Thus, a strong possibility exists that in the future, the market may emerge as the designer of a new relationship between human societies and nature, almost unilaterally, where `green' consumption patterns would emerge by the power of the advertisement, than by knowledge.

One has to only observe the revolutionary changes in the efforts of the giant multinationals producing beauty products, to convince the consumer about how `traditional' and `natural' their modern cosmetic products are.

To generate a future relationship of human societies with nature that will not be mediated by the large corporations, it needs to be ensured that the domain of scientific knowledge about nature is not made their exclusive domain. Else, the classical confrontation of reductionist science with humanity will remain alive. It is a great challenge for the green movements of the world to address this issue and grow further to make the necessary moves.