Shifting baseline syndrome - A Generational Amnesia

In general parlance the meaning of Shifting baseline Syndrome is the way how we gradually accept environmental degradation as normal over generations, and why this psychological phenomenon undermines any or all conservation efforts. 

The term shifting baseline syndrome was first coined by marine biologist doctor Daniel Pauly in 1995. It is the gradual shifting of the accepted norm when it comes to the condition of natural places. We notice the changes occurring in our lifetimes and take the status from when we were young to be the best condition. We fail to go back and see the conditions as they were when our parents and grandparents were young. This is the same for older generations who cannot see times before when they were young.

The ‘baseline’ is how we saw nature when we were younger. Over generations, the baseline keeps shifting and this in turn has a profound impact on wildlife and conservation efforts across the globe.

Some examples include  my home State of Uttarakhand where older generations might remember the abundance of certain species like the snow leopard, Himalayan bear, or various bird species in areas where their numbers have significantly declined. Also factors things like depletion of forest cover due to unsustainable practices have seemed to be ‘new normal’ for the younger population .

Our generation needs to understand the environmental degradation historically and holistically and foresee the negative consequences of such degradation for the generations to come and the Administration/Govt needs to understand the same as well and needs to immediately stop the rampant cutting of trees and digging/blasting/cutting the mountains in the name of development ignoring the perils of natural disaster in the state.