By Julian Gearing
Something is wrong. We spend billions of dollars to explore Mars, yet are doing little to tackle the massive destruction of the environment back on planet Earth.
Don’t get me wrong – I am all for adventure and exploration, a fan of explorers and people who push things to the limits of human and scientific endeavor.
But isn’t chasing around on Mars a prime example of a world that has its priorities wrong?
Shouldn’t we be throwing all that effort and money into sorting out how we live on planet Earth?
It is partly a problem of perception. We all live in a personal bubble of day-to-day life and movement that makes it hard for us to really get a handle on just how small our planet is and just how limited our layer of atmosphere is.
If you view Earth from far out in space, you get a better perspective.
Do the sums
The challenges we face here on Earth comes down to simple math. It does not take a genius to realize from the figures that we are in serious trouble:
PEOPLE – We are seeing a net population growth of 120,000 people per day, close to 50 million people a year, on a planet with 7 billion people. That is three times as many people as half a century ago. About a billion people go hungry every year and many, many more live tough, uncertain lives.
ANIMALS – Thousands of wild animals are killed for their fur, bones and meat every day. As many as 10,000 species go extinct every year. Massive overfishing is taking place in the oceans. And this does not include the mass mistreatment of factory farm animals.
TREES – About 29 million trees are cut down every day, covering areas the size of thousands of football fields. That is about 10 billion trees a year. Some countries are left with just 90 percent of their original forest cover.
WATER – Aquifers or underground water levels in countries around the world are dropping by centimeters every day. Every year, many become unusable. River levels are dropping. Just check out the Colorado and Mississippi.
LAND – Every year, more and more land becomes unusable for agriculture. More and more trees are being cut down to make way for agriculture, with the inevitable drive to input millions of tons of toxic fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. There are worrying signs that what were “Green Revolution” agricultural dreams could soon turn into dust bowls. Check out the farms in the Punjab, India.
POLLUTION – On top of it all, we are polluting the land, sea and air, in effect trashing our own backyard. We are knocking down mountains is a scrabble for oil and coal. We are fracking the ground for gas. We are spilling millions of tons of oil and chemicals on the land and into the rivers and seas. We pump millions of tons of carbon into the atmosphere every day. Although it is hard to be precise, there is currently 394 parts per million of carbon in the atmosphere, whereas the upper safety limit is estimated at 350 ppm. You don’t need to be told how this is negatively affecting the world’s climate. Some scientists have warned us that we are heading for tipping points that could dramatically worsen our troubled climate.
The list could go on and on, including the threats to biodiversity and the negative consequences of companies genetically modifying crops and even animals.
Unsustainable life on a finite planet
It is pretty simple if you take a moment to think about it. Man’s approach to living on Earth is unsustainable. Period.
This is a finite planet.
The plain fact is that there are 7 billion of us and the population continues to grow dramatically. And all these people are making an awful mess – yourself included if you live a “normal” consumer lifestyle.
There are those who argue we will invent out way out of this. We will find cleverer ways to feed and support ourselves. There are even those who dream of populating other planets.
But come on, folks. Let’s get real. There are limits.
Get off the couch
The time for action is now. But trying to get people focused on what environmentalist Bill McKibben calls the “fight of our time” is tough. The world’s leaders and corporations are not listening. For them it is business and power as usual. Mainstream media is also choosing to keep climate news on their back pages. There is an active drive by the authorities to stamp on people’s free speech and protests.
And therefore it comes down to you, me, and every one of the growing chorus of people calling for a new approach to how we live on Earth.
We need to push for a paradigm shift in how people view the Earth.
Let’s turn our gaze away from Mars. Your home needs attention because it is collapsing.
Julian Gearing is editor-in-chief of Earth Tribe – Activist News.
