This day, as we have stepped into the year 2011, I see how human activities have

petriIied the environment. For 200 years, we have been conquering nature. Now, we are
beating it to death, and the prevailing circumstances urge me to think in what a disaster our
environment would be by 2050.
I would say that today, we live in waste paper age. What I imagine would be in 2050
is that man, as he has created the plastic, tin, aluminum and the paper plate, which was
good Ior his greed and luxury, would soon be no more than trash and waste Ior him. And
soon, the earth shall be covered with plastic, aluminum cans, paper plates and waste and
there will be nowhere to sit or walk, and then man would shake his head and cry, 'Look at
this God-awIul mess.
Human`s indiscriminate material wants simply multiIold every year. By 2050, earth
shall be on the verge oI isolation, nothing more than humans, their technology, and their
waste. The human race is plundering the planet at a pace that outstrips its capacity to
support liIe. More than a third oI the natural world has been destroyed by humans over the
past three decades. Thank God men cannot Ily, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.
Humans have been exploiting natural resources Ior their own greed Ior decades. By
2050, earth's population will be Iorced to colonize two planets within 50 years iI natural
resources continue to be exploited at the current rate. Seas will become emptied oI Iish
while Iorests - which absorb carbon dioxide emissions will be completely destroyed and
Ireshwater supplies would become scarce and polluted. Humans would be at war with each
other Ior the inheritance oI consumable water. Obtaining non conventional energy would
also become challenging. By 2050, earth`s atmosphere would be so Iilled with air
pollutants and electronic wastes like unproductive satellites and gadgets-n-gizmos that a
clear vision oI the sun would also be considered a miracle..but still, man would Iind a
way to harness solar energy...II sunbeams were weapons oI war, we would have had solar
energy centuries ago...In that case, man would be using all his mental skill to exploit this
energy because that`s all he should be leIt with by then.
By 2050, Man shall be leIt only with two productive elements- His mind and
technology. Modern technology, developed by man himselI, is the greatest threat to the
well being oI our environment...I visualize that the human thirst oI power, luxury, greed
oI wealth, exploitation have been directly quenched by technology. Unethical
Industrialization and the urge oI making invention Ior the luxury and so called GOOD` oI
mankind is the very reason oI the beginning oI the degradation oI environment, has been
directly and indirectly supported by technology. As it is said-technology owes ecology an
apology.` So bleak is this picture...that the bulldozer and not the atomic bomb may turn
out to be the most destructive invention oI the 20
th
century.
Till now, man has been up against nature; then, he will be up against his own nature.
Today`s issues oI global warming and ozone depletion would be the very result and
prevailing conditions then. Survival may be possible using ozone umbrellas and oxygen
cylinders. Man shall be proved to be the terminator oI his own Iuture. What we do today
shall have its immediate reaction tomorrow. We do not inherit the earth Irom our ancestors;
we borrow it Irom our children and rip it apart. What will be leIt oII to be seen in Iuture
would be AstroturI used instead oI grass in parks, Iorests...or better called artiIicial
landscapes..with electronic trees and plants. There may be no REAL` nature leIt to be
witnessed. Living creatures, other than humans, shall be Iound in museums only..dead
or alive..they would turn Irom inheritors to attractions oI earth.
Yet, having said this, we are still in the year 2011..A lot oI time to come, a lot to
Iace and a whole new generation is on the doorstep. Our precautions today can be the cure
oI the diIIiculties tomorrow. There is suIIiciency in the world Ior man`s need, but not Ior
man`s greed. When we heal the earth, we heal ourselves. We have been developed in a
system where we can reap the way we want to.. II civilization has risen Irom the Stone
Age, It can rise again Irom the Wastepaper Age. We inherit our planet and we cannot blow
it up good planets are hard to Iind..So, we should act now rather than repent tomorrow.