WW3 is imminent. Humans against humans creates devastation, death and destruction, despite the competitors being of even level. A war against almighty mother nature will be cataclysmic.
The 2015 Paris agreement committed to limiting the global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, although we should be dipping to minimum emissions by 2020, which we are miles away from. This is our final countdown to catastrophe, and we decide to pour fuel on the fire.
Carbon and Methane: worldwide criminals, posing as much threat as the Earth’s serial killers combined. Suffocating our vulnerable planet, they force heat to fester around us. They viciously help the smoke-vomiting factories; the terrorising tanks that murder our forests and the poisonous plastic that infects all life - all in pursuit of money.
By 2050, plastic will be responsible for up to 13% of the ‘carbon budget’. Identified in 90% of rainwater samples taken from across Colorado (according to the US geological survey), it is literally raining plastic. Water: a source of food for prospering plants, a symbol of life and rejuvenation: vital for health and well-being, has been contaminated with an unnatural, harmful killer.
Our self-interest is currently obliterating our world. Are you satisfied? Are you satisfied with our burning Amazon Rainforest? Are you satisfied with the extinction of species that once lived alongside us? Sir David Attenborough thinks “climate change is the major challenge facing the world”, but challenge is a euphemism when it has already started its eradication (extinction of animals); it is only natural that we are next.
Since January, 70000 fires have danced through Brazil, annihilating greenery with every step. According to the national institute for space research, Brazil forest fires have increased by 84% since 2018. This not only removes Earths lifeline (oxygen pumping trees), but also bleeds extra carbon dioxide into our lungs. Rising sea levels, drought and crop failure are additional issues incited by climate change.
Fight against this murderer like your life depends on it, because it does. Curb climate change! Sign petitions, for example the ‘Friends of the earth climate change’ petition, to encourage the government to take vital action. You can donate; French president (Emmanuel Macron) gave a $2.2 million fund in the G-7 summit, use renewable energy like solar panels. Nonetheless, if you cannot create a vigorous wave against this global issue alone, remember that with the 7.5 billion people on our planet, we can create a tsunami-powered resistance against climate change.
Moreover, we are able to save the World and money at the same time; grow your own food, buy energy-star labelled (energy efficient) products, use public transport where possible, and unplug electrical appliances when not in use and buy re-usable materials. If you bought a single use plastic bottle per week in your life, about £4680 pounds would be wasted. Alternatively save £4680 by purchasing a re-usable, high quality bottle for £10. Why would anyone not want to save money, and more importantly the World at the same time?
We - the most advanced inhabitants of this earth; the top of the food chain; the most evolved species - are calmly watching our very existence crumble like shortbread. Is it ignorance or arrogance? Is it that we are unwilling to accept it as the truth? It is ironic that we pour plastic waste into the sea, whilst we squirm about plastic mutilating the gentle, beautiful sea creatures. It is ironic that we conjure up these industrial buildings producing carbon like a heart pumps blood, although we are stressed about the carcinogenic pollution. It is ironic that we entered a state of panic about the alight Amazon, while we purposefully destroy it ourselves.
Join Greta Thunberg and the millions of the people who care about the planet that we call home. Fight like your life depends on it, because it does.
Make one change today.
by Megan Bantleman
