James Lemuel R.

Mallapre CQA on Climate

N10 October 22, 2019

“Living on Borrowed Time”

Why do scientists from all over the world spend billions of dollars to scrutinize their case
study about possible life-sustaining atmosphere on Mars? Robotic spacecraft have given us
wonderful views of the red planet. Satellites have been flying above it to capture the beauty of the
ice caps, canyons, and extinct volcanos. Joint countries are pouring out their pocket chips into the
hands of the organization working on the study. People around the world are waiting for answers
as to when will NASA send the first ever man on Mars. Perhaps, looking for an alternate planet
serves as a parameter that indeed, life on earth would end – not now, but sooner.

As Dr. Strange in the Avengers: Endgame said, “We are in the endgame now”. Our clocks
are ticking faster than it should. The thick ice of Arctic has been melting faster than it re-freezes
in winter. Animals are disappearing in the wild, and the fishes are drowning in our own garbage
tossed in the ocean. All of us are living on borrowed times, and as we continue to torture our planet,
we are far away from sustaining life and closer to the door of afterlife.

What should we do as ambassadors of human life? How do we ensure that human life can
be prolonged? Should everyone be like Greta Thunberg who raised her fist in the middle of a
climate breakdown and marched off the cities leading the climate strike? These questions are pure
rhetorical, and by the time you have it realized, it is guaranteed that we can still put our hopes in
saving our green planet.