The Status Of Our Planet In The 21st Century

Earth is called the blue planet, the only planet that can sustain life and its existence. But, in today’s world where the beginning of mass extinction has started and people only talk about their money and tales of eternal economic growth, I don’t think that the truth of Earth being home to billions of living species will exist like the truth as time passes. It is only when we run out of things that we take them for granted and realize how valuable and priceless it really was. But by that time, it’s too late to make a difference and bring about a change.  

The political landscape surrounding the climate and ecological crises is constantly changing. Many people including Autumn Peltier, a 15-year old who started a global climate movement, another girl, Leah Namgerva who held a protest for climate action and also launched a petition called #BanPlasticUG. And now we have Greta Thunberg, a 16-year old Swedish climate activist who launched a School Strike for climate change in 2018. Because of all these sacrifices, people don’t admire her but call her a “brainwashed child” and that she will degrade the economy of the Country. All this makes me feel sad that people are not uniting to fight against climate change for our planet, instead, they are discouraging others and boosting more about our materialistic pleasure which will one day perish away. Great leaders are paying no interest to this highly important issue. Many are calling this as illusions of nature, not real and some even don’t care.  

As Greta Thunberg rightly said, “You are never small to make a difference.” If the adults aren’t doing anything then it us, the youth. We are the future generations of this planet so the duty to protect it is handed over to us. And like responsible habitants we all need to use our voice for this change. Our voice is a vector (carrier) which connects to our heart and mind and conveys our message to the world. Our generation is breathing in tons of carbon-dioxide with technologies which barely exist and this polluted air is affecting us and our dear ones. Research says that if we start taking steps to control climate change there are only 12 years more.  

Rainforests are so much more than our typical image of just trees and shrubs. They are home to the most diverse species of plants and animals and we are thoughtlessly destroying it. Our tree cutting is also causing soil erosion, flooding, and global warming. We have been seeking ways to make our life comfortable, but our comforts have created discomforts for Mother Earth. Half of all amphibians’ examples frogs, snakes, crocodiles, etc. are at risk of extinction due to climate change. An area of coastal ecosystems larger than New York City is destroyed every year, removing an important buffer from extreme weather for coastal communities and releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. NASA says that due to a lot of accumulation of CO2, the ozone layer might get damaged and this will decrease life on Earth. A conversation on COVID-19 with the director of Harvard University's Center of Climate, Health, and the Global Environment concluded that Covid 19 doesn’t have a direct relationship with climate change but climate change also increases the risk of pandemics like these.  

Recently, during my visit to a seaside, my eyes were opened to the sheer amounts of discarded waste, stretching from the beaches to the sea. I was appalled by the amount of unexpected litter strewn across the beach that people ruthlessly throw here and there. Wastewater from factories and insecticides from farms had also ended up in the sea. How can we forget that the oceans are one of Earth’s greatest gifts to humans, and is a valuable part of the ecosystems? Global warming, or climate change, as it is more often called eradicates coral reefs, causes species to go extinct. Due to temperatures rise up to 1.62-degree Fahrenheit every year the ice caps melt and ocean levels rising 8 inches more which then causes floods.  Oil spills pollute the waters and decimate habitats, as do over-hunting of marine species. It contributes to rising acidity levels in the ocean, which is reducing the number of coral reefs by 70-90%. There are planktons in the oceans that produce 10 % of the total oxygen on Earth, are getting extinct due to plastic accumulation in water bodies. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that we only have twelve years to prevent the worst impacts of climate change, after 2030 these will be irreversible. 

During one of her speeches, Greta Thunberg said: “If a few children can get headlines all over the World by not going to school, then imagine what all we could do together if we really wanted”. We all have this very last time to do something for Mother Earth. So now I end by saying there is no planet B, this is our home and we all need to wake up and take actions that together can bring about a change