MOTHER EARTH IS IN PERIL
IF NOTHING IS DONE, MOTHER EARTH WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SUPPORT ANY FORMS OF LIFE MUCH LONGER.
Planet Earth, the only planet known to support life in the Universe is facing multiple and destructive, man – made crises. Such as, ever increasing world population, extreme climate changes, raising sea level, deforestation, overgrazing, pollution, overuse of insecticides and artificial fertilizers, extinctions of biodiversity, the deadly coronavirus pandemic, hunger and the unprecedented refugee crises are creating very big turmoil, and causing catastrophic changes in our living planet.
Even though these crises are intertwined and feed on each other to create a vicious cycle of destruction on Earth, we should look at them more closely and one by one, in order to better understand the dangers we and Mother Earth are facing.
Climate change makes climate events appear in most extreme forms, like dangerous global temperature rise that cause increased heat related deaths of humans and every living creatures, melting ice-caps and glaciers are causing rising sea levels, which is starting to put coastal cities and many islands under water, increasing evaporation of ocean water, which is causing more rain, more powerful storms, flooding and defrosting of permafrost with release of ginormous quantities of methane (a powerful green-house gas) to the atmosphere that raises global temperatures even more, extreme drought in certain regions, which is causing wild fires, desertification, famine and hunger.
While certain interest groups and politicians are denying the climate change, climate scientists have shown it’s true, and it is caused mainly by humans’ activities of using fossil fuels (oil, gas and coal), which emit more and more CO2 and green-house gases in the atmosphere to trap heat from the sun rays.
Oceanographer scientists predict that 90 percent coral reefs will disappear over the next decade due to the warming of ocean water, the acidic pH of water, plastic pollution, and agricultural runoff. This would cause estimated 4,000 fish species to disappear and as much as half million people who depend on fish for food would starve.
Extinction of biodiversity is less publicized, but it is a dangerous warning for humans, like the dead canary in the coal mine. It shouldn’t be ignored any longer. Extinction of many animal species, insects and plants are accelerating in an unseen pace. Scientists have shown countless insect species and a nearly 3 billion birds have been permanently lost. These loses are causing a diminished pollination of food crops, and with increasing drought plus ever-increasing world population, worldwide hunger becomes inevitable.
Zoonotic diseases, viral infections and pandemics are becoming more common because of extinction of diversity. The current deadly coronavirus pandemic is a good example of it.
Biodiversity with incredible varieties and amounts of plants, insects and animals make the Mother Earth alive, and create Mother Nature, by providing enough Oxygen to breath, food to eat, fertilize the soil, and pollinate our food crops for more food production. When this harmony between Mother Earth and Nature is broken, natural disasters strike with extreme force, as we have all experienced in recent years.
Climate change could be remedied by turning to renewable energy sources for energy productions, thereby reducing CO2 and the green-house gases emission to the atmosphere. But there are no fixes to restore extinct biodiversity. They are gone forever.
Drought, famine, increasing natural disasters, flooding, raising sea level, civil and religious wars, terrorism, worldwide hunger and unemployment, political corruptions, cronyism creating a perfect storm for travails, trauma and the dire situations that cause relentless migration and/or seeking refugee status, all over the world. Just closing the borders without addressing the root causes of migration will not solve worldwide refugee problems.
So, it appears that relentless population growth, our addiction to fossil fuels for energy production and transportation, our addiction to plastic production for the sake of convenience, the industrialization pollution of our world and life on Earth to a point of no return. Besides moral reasons to care for all living creatures and plants on Earth, we rely on nature and Mother Earth for our own survival.
It saddens me to see nothing meaningful is being done, except talks and promises, to save our planet, our future and the future of our children and grandchildren.
