Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced

Human extinction
The topic about extinction of species has been touched quite a lot and it is nothing new
regarding the fact that 99 per cent of species which have ever existed are now extinct. What is
terrifying though, is University of Oxford researchers’ claims that the odds of human race going
extinct in the next year are 1 in 14 000 which is 200 times more likely than winning National
lottery. The sad news is that the mankind is practically destroying itself and not caring about it. We
can not change what we have already done, but also, we cannot change these statistics if we do not
face the problems we have caused. Therefore, today I would like to talk about what human kind has
done but what still should be faced to save human race from dying out so quickly.
Firstly, one of the main factors that affects people’s lives on the planet earth is climate
change. Ever since the industrial revolution began, the amount of climate efficient gasses in the
atmosphere, especially carbon dioxide, has drastically increased. Human activities like deforestation
and combustion of fuels has led us to critical consequences such as melting glaciers, increasing sea
levels and higher temperature. Scientists claim that hotter climate will contribute to more intense
and frequent fires. And that is not a lie – probably everyone has heard about Australia’s bushfires
that have started last year. But is there a way to stop such catastrophes from happening? Well, even
if we stopped emitting greenhouse gasses today, global warming would continue to happen for at
least several more decades, if not centuries. However, that does not mean that we can not take
action and try to save our home planet. Canadian scientist David Suzuki once said “In a world of
more than 7 billion people, each one of us is a drop in the bucket. But with enough of drops, we can
fill any bucket.” The quote basically says how people should unite to change the future for better.
To stop global warming, people should limit their use of fuels and replace them with renewable
sources of energy. Of course, even though people will contribute to stopping climate change, the
problem will still not be solved because the most needed changes can be only made on a bigger
scale, like energy and food industries, which continue to use fossil fuels or set new rules for sectors
like deforestation and farming. This might seem impossible, but co-chair of the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change Debra Roberts says that citizens in fact can put pressure on their
government and on companies to make these much-needed changes.
Another big problem is overpopulation. Professor of microbiology Frank Fenner says that
homo sapiens will not be able to survive the population explosion and will become extinct, perhaps
within a century, along with many other species. You may ask, how could humans go extinct if
there is too many of them? Well, the more people there are, the more products of nature they
demand to meet their needs: meat, gas, oil, rare animals to eat or to use for medical purposes. Also,
the more people there are, the more greenhouse gasses flow into the atmosphere and I have talked
about the consequences of it earlier. Unfortunately, the overpopulation problem is often overlooked
and scientists rather focus on solving climate change cases. We frequently hear about solutions to
overpopulation, but do not actually use them often. To solve this problem, individuals can consider
adoption, educate themselves about population issues, also educate teenage children about
contraception without taboos. Actions that can be taken on the national level include funding family
planning programmes, making modern contraception free and available everywhere, legalising
abortion and making population and environmental issues part of the basic education.
To conclude, I can say that if we will continue living the way we are now and not facing
the problems, we will see the end of human race sooner than we would expect. And just like how
James Baldwin has said, nothing can be changed until it is faced, therefore humans should try
contributing to the much needed changes and, I believe, step by step, we will have a brighter future
ahead of us.