Our Lives Are On The Line

Can we triumph 🏆against our planet's worst catastrophes?

The world as we know has been faced with a lot of tragedies lately. From natural earthquakes, tsunamis and floods to manmade fires, disease outbreaks like Ebola and COVID 19, one begins to wonder which catastrophe will strike us next. We were not prepared for any of the previous ones that lay havoc on us. Our economies collapsed, borders were closed, and people starved. Our very own existence was endangered by those incidents. But yet we survived. Are we really prepared for what is coming our way? Or are we going to face whatever comes heads on with the same optimism that we would defeat it and resume normalcy of lives?

Having existed on this planet for over 3 billion years, what could we not fight? From holocausts, a couple of World Wars, civil wars, genocides, and the above disasters, we have always managed to find a way. With 8.7 million species of living things on earth, it's fair to say, we have adopted 8.7 million survival strategies. We do have a strong grit for survival as humans. The question that lingers is "are we humans ending earth ourselves?

Well to answer that question, let's ask ourselves what we are doing wrong. Is it our indiscriminate use of fossil fuels leading to global warming, altered climate conditions, and unpredictable rains? Are we mishandling viruses in our laboratories? Well, the latter is a discussion for another day. At this point, my reader must be wondering why I am asking a lot of questions. The truth of the matter is there are a lot of unanswered questions around us that we neglect or desperately need answers for. We are left confused by scientists and politicians when faced with these outbreaks.

Let's think and act proactively together. Industrialization is on the rise, and so is the adjacent use of fossil fuels to fuel its advancement. We must act now. If we can plant 7 billion trees, we will win the fight to keep the ozone layer from depleting, curb down on global warming and make rains more predictable to improve farmers produce and prevent food insecurity. Let's shift from plastic to using paper. Let's encourage proper sanitation and prevent disease outbreaks that could cost millions of dollars and lives. It takes less than 5 minutes to plant a tree and 30 seconds to wash our hands. We can save more by doing less.

Yes we can triumph! In the 21st century, we are endowed with a lot of information and advancements that should be in our favor. And I don't mean AI. We know more than AI, and yet we are struggling to keep up.

I hope this passage serves as a reflection of what we could collectively do as a human race to fight for our endangered existence.

Thank you 😊

[All pictures are mine except where stated]