Unpopular Opinion- Don’t try to“Save the Earth”
Okay okay, I’m aware that that title is a little off-putting. I should begin this article by saying that I am absolutely an environmentalist. My family composts and they are vegan. Most of the volunteering I’ve done in my life has been environmentally-oriented. For my 19th birthday, all I asked for was recycling bins. So I get it: that title just seems wrong. But sometimes, I can’t help but think: maybe we shouldn’t try to “Save the World.”
When we think of the world, we think of the whole thing — a big blue and green marble drifting through outer space. But in reality, we as people only deal with the biosphere, or in other words, the surface. This region is arguably the most “alive” portion of Earth, and we contend for survival within it, along with all other living creatures, including all and any organisms, be them plant, animal, or microorganisms. Altogether, we inhabit the various ecosystems that make up the biosphere. However, like the organisms, these individual ecosystems are more or less living beings, amassing together as a living biosphere.
The biosphere could be compared to a human being in the way it behaves. All living creatures inhabit it and fulfill tasks to foster its vitality. For example, we have trillions of gut flora that perform the functionality of digesting what we consume, allowing us to take advantage of our consumable resources. The earth has trillions of plants that consume carbon dioxide during cellular respiration, in turn producing oxygen so that other members of the biosphere may survive and contribute their own part.
Just as there are organisms that promote life force in the biosphere, there are also those that degenerate it, much like a parasitic worm in a human being. For the biosphere, we (human beings) have become similar to a parasite. The human body is again analogous to the biosphere in this regard. When a foreign entity enters the body and poses a threat, there is an immunologic response. The body’s temperature is liable to increase to make it more difficult for the invader to survive. We call that a fever. The biosphere could be said to possess a similar feature, known more commonly as global climate change. As we continue to create an imbalance in the gaseous ratio within the biosphere through industry and modern lifestyles, the temperature gradient widens, and the climate is altered. In time, the biosphere as a whole may warm as a response, and potentially freeze as a post response. We would not survive drastic climate changes, but the biosphere would remain, and after we are eradicated, be left to rebuild and restructure itself, just as it has since the dawn of its creation, and just as the body does as it recovers from an internal illness.
When we as a society say “Save the Earth,” we usually mean that in regards to humans. Sometimes we bring up the problems of endangered species, but mostly the outcry involves “maintaining the world for our grandchildren,” and avoiding the human-related problems that would occur due to rising sea levels and intensifying temperatures. I believe that the earth is already in the process of saving itself. If humans are the disease, Earth will suffer (as one does when dealing with a disease), but it will survive. As we get closer and closer to our own destruction, the Earth gets closer and closer to the opportunity to be reborn, so to speak. There is a reason that Earth goes through Ice Ages. Earth goes through plenty of extreme changes. The continents used to be the solid Pangea. Earth has been hit by asteriods and solar flares. My point is: Earth will be fine. The planet is saving itself, and when we try to save it for ourselves, we are prolonging Earth’s recovery.
