Have you ever heard the term that said our earth is on fire? Or another term that said we live in the endgame era of the world? Or maybe another one that said nature is not on our side anymore? Or maybe you are also wondering how could habitats become extinct? All of them happen as the impact of issue we’ve been dealing with for a long time. It is known as Environmental Issues.
Everyone knows how serious and complicated environmental issues are. But, for the people who said that we can’t help it better are simply wrong. There is a chance. But the question is “How do we make it?”. We should start by understanding how we get to this problem. We used to live within the resources on offer, in balance with nature. Nature determined our survival. But now, it’s the opposite. We now determine nature’s survival. Because at the same time our population boomed, as did our demands. We have an excessive meat consumption, that leads forests being cut down, then replacing them with ourselves, and our domesticated animals. It makes our species has cleared 3 trillion trees, cultivated half its fertile land, and now fishes across most of the ocean. 90% of large fish have already disappeared. In the last 50 years, the population of wild animals have reduced by 60%. The list of endangered species is growing rapidly. The rainforest lose million of acres every year. 75% coral reefs are endangered. Our planet is becoming less wild than it used to be. This biodiversity loss matters so much. Biodiversity equals stability, and stability is the most important thing we need right away. Now, ocean’s being overfished. It is our overconsumption that leads to mass pollution. And it is still our unsustainable use of resources that drains the planet. Our lifestyle is like a poison that poisons our own environment. We are totally out of balance with nature. And if we don’t get our balance back, we won’t last long. These days, almost every person on earth suffers from air pollution, some lack access to clean water and proper food, and the rest suffer frequent disasters. There’s very little wild left, but our planet needs its wild spaces. A less wild is less able to provide for our needs, less able to maintain dependable weather, less able to absorb our impact. Because of that, it is really important for us to regain our balance.
There are some actions that we can do to help regaining our balance. Start from encouraging nature wherever we can. Planting one tree per day in our cities, in our backyards, and even just have plants inside and outside of our house. Trees and plants are good for the environment because they are home for some habitats. Then be a vegan. It’ll help a lot because 91% of deforestation is completely contributed to animal agriculture. We cut down the trees to provide space to raise animals that will be slaughtered for meat. So if we stop eating meat, means we are saving hundreds or maybe thousands trees each year. It’ll require far less space to provide for ourselves, leaving more for grasslands, reducing deforestation, rising fresh air, getting clean water, and feeding people with healthier food. Simultaneously, we are saving our planet from global warming, forest depletion, water depletion, and species extinction. Next, Phasing out fossil fuels and replacing them with renewables. It won't only slow the warming of the planet, but it will also slow the acidification of the ocean, and lead to clean air for all of us. Stop using single use plastic. Don’t use plastic cutlery, use reusable containers. Observing what we buy is also important. Many brands use stuff from unsustainable source, some brands also do their product test on animals, some chemicals or microplastics in products can affect ocean when it flows down the drain, some products also wrapped in plastic for no reason. So watch out what we buy. If it’s bad for our environment, we should leave it away. Recycling is also a good action. Take things we no longer use to a place where they’ll be used again. But honestly, our mentality is what we need the most. Start caring and see what happens and what's wrong in our earth is the key of all of this. We should keep in mind that we are all humans are the one to blame for this, and we have to take responsibility ourselves. In order to save the planet, every living person in this world needs to change themselves. Even though we just do some small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, we do help changing the world. To get our balance back, we need to concentrate our efforts on these things while keep pushing the government, big coorperation, and empowered people to do something about this issue. It’s hard but not impossible. The faster we act, the more chance we have to prevent the worst shape of the environmental issue, when it comes to the worst part, we can’t even imagine how terrible it might be. So we have to make it true. If we can’t sustain the environment, we can’t sustain ourselves. It is something we can’t deny that we still need a future in which both people and nature can thrive. It’s time to face the problem.
