Scientists– “You should wash your hands because of Coronavirus.”
Humans- “I am going to maintain hygiene, hoard masks, work from home and totally rearrange my life.”
Also, Scientists- “The #ClimateCrisis will kill millions in a few decades. We must use clean power and change the way we live our lives.”
Humans- “Whatever, NO ONE CARES, SO WHY SHOULD I?”
If this pandemic was unable to make mankind realize their mistakes and feel guilty about their mere existence, I have no idea what else could make us understand the gravity of our responsibility towards this planet.
It’s no wonder that our species have risen to dominate the planet in the past few decades. The human evolutionary speed is high with the human mind that we are blessed with. We discovered exceptional things to make our lifestyle more comfortable from the period of stone age to the present era. Never did we know that it’s going to cost the extinction of our own race.
Humankind turned out to be the dominant force on the planet with rapid evolution. Therefore, three-quarters of the land’s surface and two-thirds of the oceans are impacted by our activities. We have replaced the wild with a domestic disturbance.
Our takeover from the natural world has been so successful, that in the last 50 years, the population of wild animals has declined to a great extent. We love our race so much despite the fact that it takes mass extinction of a million other species for our survival.
Not only we are fond of killing various species, we also love giving hard time to individuals of our own breed: unemployment, underdevelopment, malnutrition, poverty, gender discrimination, murders, suicides, religious disputes and the list would go on if I start naming down all the problems that human race has created for themselves.
Ever pondered about how we created all these problems?
The answer to this is our greed.
We are so ridiculously consumed by self-conceit and lust, that we do not think about anyone or anything else unless we reap benefits by it. This human tendency to procure more than our needs has caused havoc in the ecosystem.
Now let me ask you a question.
Were you completely happy in the past few months stuck up at one place? If answered truly, most of us including me would have said no. Because, even when we were having a great time and were at our leisure in this lockdown, there were moments when we felt baffled, anxious and annoyed because of not being able to move out. We were locked up for just a few months, imagine what these creatures would have gone through when they have been caged in the same place for years.
Why are they caged?
Millions of animals have been isolated their entire lives. In isolation, these animals exhibit behavior including self-harm. No living being should live in captivity.
After this lockdown, I hope people realize that on this planet, we are not the rulers, instead we’re the guests just like the rest of the species.
The global loss of nature is already making the planet less sustainable. Human beings have been a plague for this planet. However, can we change ourselves from being a plague to being the protector of the planet Earth?
YES!
While our past has been written, the future is yet to be determined and it’s in our hands. We, humans are now in the driving seat, determining the future for the whole planet. To change this situation, we require action on an industrial and individual scale at a rapid speed. We should increase our forest cover. We must restore our degraded soils. We should clean up our rivers and oceans. We will have to.
Since the past few decades, the business sector has been one of the strongest forces of change, every company needs to turn the lens on itself and ask how are we designed and how does the designed structure impact and help fight the climate crisis?
Even the smallest steps, such as avoiding plastics products like straws, bags, switching off electrical devices when not in use, and avoiding wastage of food etc, also count.
Sir David Attenborough rightly said, “What we do in the next few years will profoundly impact the next few thousands. The biggest threat to the planet earth is the belief that someone else will save it. Let us take care of the only habitable planet in the universe that we know of.”