Will Nature Give Us a Second Chance for Our First Planet?
There is no Planet-B, and there is no plan B either. We are ruining it in the worst ways and not taking care. Will nature give us a second chance or will it recreate everything — including humans who will be eco-friendly and worthy of this earth?
Our planet need managing from many different perspectives at once. The wastage done by humans is humongous. Did you know?
The average European household wastes nearly a quarter of food that it buys.
Being rich doesn’t mean that it gives you the power to waste the resources coming from the earth. Instead of wasting your food, feed it to somebody who is dying because of hunger. If you don’t care that people are dying from hunger, you will lose many who will be future workers, scientists or — who knows — maybe even your life saver. The greed of excessive production and waste has put the environment at danger.
At the current rate of carbon emissions, we’re on track to overshoot the 1.5 degree C budget sometime between 2030 and 2040. Last year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that to keep the rise in global temperatures below 1.5 degrees C this century, emissions of carbon dioxide would have to be cut by 45% by 2030. The temperature won’t stop rising until net emissions are zero. Promoting renewable resources isn’t enough to deal with climate change.
I am living in New Delhi. Environmental impacts are being seen every season in India. There had been an unusually long cold spell this winter. Last year, some intense rains fell. The summer season was also unexpectedly long and broke all records.
Climate change is also affecting what we eat. It has led to unexpected issues. The heavy rains, for instance, drained nutrients out of the soil. With warmer temperatures and more pests, farms will produce less food. And farmers will have to work harder to grow what food they do bring to harvest.
Ways to slow down the impact
If we can’t remove 100% of our carbon footprint, we should at least be ready to make efforts in the right direction. Here are few suggestions for how we can reduce our environmental impact:
- Extracting and burning fossil fuel has to become too expensive, illegal or both unless you can think of another possibility for a global constraint.
- Protect natural forest, particularly in the tropics.
- Eat less red meat and more vegetables. We all must eat 40 percent less meat by 2050 to sustain Earth’s food supply.
- Safeguard and restore peat lands.
- Encourage “agroforestry”, where food crops are mixed in with trees.
“Take care of this earth or be ready to perish”. There is no planet B which we can spoil and move on.
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