Unreached

Chapter X: The Environment, The Crime.

For more than four billion years, planet earth, like any other terrestrial planet, has witnessed and survived many cataclysmic events and natural phenomena from asteroids passing through its atmospheric entry, to intense and extreme ice ages, and to the division of the supercontinent Pangaea into the current ones. Today, a new danger arrives.. major weather changes, and an unprecedented melting of the surface of the ice sheet.

kicking off the twenty-first century, a new episode of multiple existential threats is starting, as the silly sitcom delivers irreparable and irreversible damage being done to our planet by our own hands. It is an unquestionable fact, that today, the climate is changing, the globe is warming, the ice is melting, the fauna and flora are being wiped out, the ozone layer is damaged and the ecosystem is being destroyed. Earth became an unhealthy place to live in and soon will be inhabitable. The least we can say about these acts towards mother nature that they are an unethical crimes and an immoral violations.

How To Destroy Your Planet in Three Simple Ways. By Humans.

One. Pollute, pollute whatever you can pollute and don't you even dare to think that it's wrong or to try to convince yourself that you are acting irrationally, pollute everything whether it's air, water or soil. Today,  scientists are referring to new forms of pollution, i.e. thermal and radioactive pollution, and so, humankind hold loyal to being creative regarding founding new forms of pollution and new ways of killing ourselves, destroying our habitat, and assuring to our descendants a hellish life full of despair and agony.

Two. Deforestate, deforestation is the best thing we can do to lose our biggest ally in the war against climate change, trees. A record of more than 10 billion trees are being cut down every year around the globe and if we continue to violate the environment this ruthless way, we'll be treeless in only two hundred years. Why trees are so important and are 'the biggest ally'? Trees produce half of the oxygen in our atmosphere through photosynthesis. One acre of trees absorb about two tons of carbon dioxide yearly, without this absorption, the negative affects of climate change will increase significantly.

Three. Plastic. Since 1950, we've created more than six billion tons of plastic, That leaves us with a lot of unrecyclable items thrown away in oceans and forests, as waste. We've reached a high point of irrationality where we made ourselves dependents to plastic merchandises, products that needs more than seven hundred years to degradate became a daily need in our life and a permanent toxic introduction to the environment, as they are made of petroleum, natural gas and chemical substances. Bad news, five trillion plastic bags are produced every year.

Consequences?

In 2015, more than six million deaths linked solely to air pollution! 2019 was the second hottest year ever recorded, and the last decade was the warmest.. So as the global temperatures rose, the arctic permafrost's melting process will get faster and faster and will release more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere which enhances earth's greenhouse effect, trapping more heat. In natural conditions, the polar ice keeps the planet cool by reflecting the sun's energy back into space rather than absorbing it -known as The Albedo Effect-. With less ice, ocean currents directions will be disordered which will result to wind pattern changes and will cause extreme weather disturbances, without forgetting the so called sea level rising danger that threatens to inundate major cities around the world. If we ever live to this alarming stage, we better find fast solutions to face oceanic hurricanes, extreme heatwaves, floods and droughts.. because we'll see them often.

We're not living alone in this planet, animals live here too and they are dying from plastic. period. As plastic garbage are thrown everyday in the oceans, Marine animals, sea creatures and polar species face unevitable danger as they mistakenly attempt to eat indigestible bags, thinking it's food, this will lead to entanglement and plastic ingestion, and death to those poor helpless animals.

"Humanity has wiped out 60% of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles since 1970." The Guardian.

We'll be talking about climate refugees, and talking about people who aren't able to grow the food they need to eat healthy, We'd have to call for a national security issue and a major global crisis as there will be a lack of water and food.

Solutions?

Climate change is occurring and is so severe and rapid, the damage is happening and exponentially increasing. We have to find solutions to save earth instead of trying to terraform other planets! Easier task right? To face such challenge, there is no doubt that Humankind is obliged to work and collaborate together in order to save their race and their planet from the danger they created themselves. Isn't it possible to delay the profits wars and the possession-guided governing until we eradicate climate change and pollution, and ensure to our descendants and the living beings a healthy and habitable place to live in? Can't we unify ourselves as it is now a common moral responsibility, and acting immediately is an urgent need? History says no though, yet there always a start for -Almost- everything.

This collaboration should be a worldwide inter- and intra- nations. There should be a massive planification that considers geographic, popular and cultural constrains and neglects the interests of capitalist corporations, that need to admit that their short-term profits are not more important than the future of earth. We have to stop fossil fuel, coal, oil and gaz dependence as it is the number one source of the environmental threats that includes plastic production and toxic induction to nature. And as a substitute, we're ought to migrate to renewable energy sources and energy-efficient appliances, and switch to economic, sustainable and green energy systems, which means relying on solar, wind and hydraulic sources for producing our daily necessities.

Preventing further damage is also a smart move to take, there should be collaboration between national institutions to aware people of the danger they are facing, i.e. adding environmental education in all schools. Announcing an environmental crisis is cool, but founding a legislative and executive instances that cares about climate justice and fights climate change is way better! Also, putting heavy fines on companies' pollution activities is so old school, instead, it's more reasonable and appropriate to adopt strict regulation against any form of pollution, and to criminalize environmental violation. We can also create healing centers of polluted water, and recycle the plastic we putted out, who knows, we might be too stupid to throw it again in the oceans.