The World As We Know It

Ladies and Gentlemen, we’re halfway through 20-fricking-17. I mean, come on, look at how time flies. We, as a human race, have made it so far in all this time. Industry has been evolving since the mid-1700s, when the Industrial Revolution took place; technology even more so: from basic computers that required a whole room to themselves to having basically your whole life connected to a thin, portable mobile phone. Pretty damn amazing, huh?

But under this glitz and glamour of ‘advancement’, we tend to neglect the most important aspect of all this, something that made it possible to have a base to ‘advance’ or ‘evolve’ from: *enter dramatic pause* The Environment. *yes! what a moment*

Tough as it may be to believe, natural resources are the building blocks of whatever we make, use, wear, eat, drink… you get the drift. If you’re thinking, ‘Hey, if all this is so important, why is it coming to light only now?’, you’re a bit misinformed. The truth is, the problems have always been there, we’ve just missed the hints Mama Nature’s been dropping all this time.

You see, the amount of natural resource present on Earth is dependent on a few factors: the rate of consumption of the resource and the rate of production being the main ones. At the moment, we can say that for any natural resource, the rate of consumption is far greater than the rate of production. Take coal, oil and gas for instance. They take millions of years to form, but due to the boom in industry (and the population; we’ll delve into this later), they are being consumed at a much, much higher rate.

One can’t specifically say how long a natural resource is bound to last, because:

1. It is being produced continuously
2. There may be reserves that we haven’t been able to tap into yet
3. The population is constantly changing

Now getting to the point I had raised about population. The number of people on Earth is, safe to say, increasing EXPONENTIALLY. So on a graph, the population across the years is never a straight line, and in the recent years, is a curve. And every year, there are different projections regarding the population that the resources on Earth can support. Since the amount of resources are technically increasing, albeit rather slowly, the projections are always greater the following years.

The population growth since 1050.

But if you do look at the above graph, you have a fair idea of how quick the population is increasing. It’s pretty crazy. Given the current rate of consumption of our natural resources, it’d be a better idea not to rely on all these different findings. Natural resource depletion IS a problem. Period. The sooner we try doing our bit, the more assured we’ll be of a safe world for the generations to come. You wouldn’t want your grandchildren struggling to survive in some post-apocalyptic world like you see in the movies now, would you?

Then I also needn’t explain how you can help the world. I’m pretty sure all of us learned the techniques to save electricity, fuel and all waaayyyyyy back in school. As minuscule as these actions may seem, when we work together, they DO make a big difference. So what’re you waiting for? Go out. Do your bit. Make sure we have a future to talk about.

*oh god dramatic ending accomplished!*