HUMAN IMPACT ON THE EARTH

BY: Valentina López F.

“We are living in this planet as if we had another one to go to” Terri Swearingen once said this, and as
she expressed her concern about the world’s situation, a lot of scientists have warned through the
results of the most complete planetary health check ever taken, how the Earth’s natural life-support
systems are declining.

The UN global assessment[CITATION Wat19 \n \t \l 1033 ] reported that all of this is happening “from
coral reefs flickering out beneath the oceans to rainforests desiccating into savannahs, nature is being
destroyed at a rate of ten to hundreds of times higher than the average over the past 10 years.” But
how all of these is happening? The answer is simple: human actions.

This report shows that 82% of the biomass of wild mammals has fallen, natural ecosystem lost half of
their area and a million of species are at risk of extinction, mostly are the consequences of human
actions. We hear news everyday about: people hunting, killing animals that they take as trophies, the
amount of residuals that people throw to the ocean, rivers, lakes, etc., how they keep burning at forests
and as a result they cause big fires that destroy everything on its way. Like these, there are other
disturbing actions we see happening all over the world.

For example, in 2019, the Amazon burned for months, this affected the environment and the whole
word. It meant that humanity was sabotaging its own life support system. After months of trying to turn
off the fire, nothing came back to what it was. Large areas of the forest created their own weather and
scientists explained that we will have to face the consequences for our actions, like the possibility that
The Amazon will be caught in a vicious circle that could dramatically speed up forest loss and take the
ecosystem past to the point of no return, despite its large size. As forests are less able to regulate their
own rainfall and weather patterns, they can become progressively drier and prone to fires.[ CITATION
Pav19 \l 1033 ]

In spite of, this is not the first time we hear something like that. Most of the catastrophes are cause by
us. But people seem to not understand how destructive sometimes our decisions can be. On May 27 of
this year, a pregnant elephant in India, died after eating fruit stuffed with firecrackers that exploded in
her mouth. This beautiful animal had to pay with her life because of our lack of respect for the amazing
creatures that live among us. A clear example that demonstrates how we take life for granted and we
are selfish and we think we own the earth.
Even though, it seems like there is no solutions at all, there are still. Not everything is lost. One of the
ways we can stop harming the world, starts with the decisions we make and take from now on. People
needs to wake up and realize that we still have time to amend all the mistakes we have made so far. It is
true that maybe some of them cannot be fixed anymore, but there are some others that can be treated
with time. It is important to believe, that as much as we can destroy things, we can create them. We can
help the world to be a better place not just for us but for all the living beings. The process of change
starts with understanding what respect and love means and what beautiful things can be done if we
start applying them in our daily basics. It is on us to create peace between the human race and the
earth.