Our Beautiful planet is unique in many ways, the only planet where life not only exists but also thrives. And among all the different living creatures humans are regarded as the most superior. Over the years humans have not only evolved but have also learnt to use earth’s resources to our advantage. Among all the other living creatures humans are the ones gifted with a superior nervous system. We have the ability to create, think, analyze and work together. Over several thousand years we have come far from where we started.
But with all our superior traits and abilities, we are also the most selfish of all the creatures. With our thirst for knowledge and growth also comes our greed. Our greed for more, has indeed led us to disrupt every aspect of our environment. We have become a real threat to the existence of all life on earth, including our own selves. One of the most amazing things about our planet is that it provides resources for all forms of life to co- exist together. But we humans in our quest for more have caused so much damage to the environment that it has now started to come back to us in many different ways. Our selfishness and greed has indeed come back to bite us, the chickens have finally come home to roost!
We humans have burned and destroyed so many forests to make concrete jungles we call urban cities today. Knowing well that tress are what gives us oxygen, only the most essential thing we need if we want to keep living. No other excuse to cut trees can match up to this one reason; this should have been enough motive for us to not harm trees. Deforestation has led to the loss of habitat for our wildlife but since we are too engrossed in making more buildings and structures we have somewhere sidelined this issue. Who can think of wildlife above one’s own need for comfort, luxury and space! Our irresponsible behavior and unlimited greed has brought continuous harm to earth and all the life on it.
We cut trees for wood, rubber or space for building cities. We kill animals for fur, meat and other uses, we pollute rivers and water bodies by dumping our garbage and factory waste in it, further destroying life under water. We pollute our air with toxic gasses from the all the vehicles, for which we use natural oil reserves that are now on the verge of running out, due to our over- consumption. These are just a few examples from the long list of ways in which we bring harm our planet, every single day. And it should really be no surprise to us that now we are encountering the ill effects of our very own doing.
Climate change has become an undeniable reality today. The environment today is constantly changing and has become more un-predictable over the years. Our world has become more susceptible to natural disasters and un-explained weather patterns. We have officially entered the future that many environmentalists had warned us about in the past.
It is high time that we realize that our actions are causing a very real and serious threat to our survival. The need to make serious efforts towards preserving our planet has become alarmingly urgent. Our world today is grappling with problems like pollution, over-population, waste disposal, natural resource depletion, loss of bio- diversity and many more. These problems have become a nightmarish reality and things seem to be going down- hill as no major steps are being taken to do damage control.
Human- beings among many other things are also blessed with the quality to adapt and change with time. And it’s about time we make changes for the betterment of our planet. It’s time we give back to our planet and stop taking it for granted. We need to realize that the stacks of money we earn at the expense of our environment will not be able to save us. Money won’t be able to buy us clean air, clean water and other natural resources once we run out of them.
We need to come together to save our planet in our collective efforts if, we want to preserve life. We need to change our tendencies to over consume if we want to leave a world that is worth living in, for our future generations. We need to consciously decide to choose sustainable usage, every time we are faced with a choice to over consume in the name of luxury, money or business.
The advent of a global pandemic has made ample clear how close we have come to destroying ourselves and going extinct. If we fail to mend our ways now we’ll only have ourselves to blame, once the inevitable doom arrives. We are well aware that everything comes at a price, but are we ready to pay the price of our selfish actions towards our own environment? Are we ready to bear the collective karma of humankind for the abuse we have put our planet through? It’s time to make a choice, a choice to either take care of our environment as it has taken care of us for all these years or to perish in pursuit of our selfish needs.
By:Ms Tanya Chopra.
