The way we have been treated on Earth is backfiring on us more than ever in recent weeks. Earth has endured five mass extinction events in the past 540 million years, each presenting an unusual cycle of carbon collected into the atmosphere and the oceans.
Many humans do not realize how they are contributing to harming our planet. Because of the protest Earth is making, many have lost their lives. When does it end? The struggle the planet has been facing has been ignored for too long, and now we need to deal with it.
For example, researchers recently reported in CLIMATE-LINKED ILLS THREATEN HUMANITY (Growan, Kommenda, & Bashir, Sept. 5, 2023), “Pakistan is the epicenter of a new global wave of disease and death linked to climate change. This examination of climate-fueled illnesses — tied to hotter temperatures, and swifter passage of pathogens and toxins — shows how countries across the globe are ill-prepared for the insidious, intensifying risks to almost every facet of human health.”
These are the signs of a dying planet fighting back, and it is time to listen. People need to take action to help our planet so that future generations have a place to live and flourish. Keeping with our current destructive trends will only result in worsening global conditions. The current route we are taking results in these diseases becoming more prevalent.
Gowen et al. (2023) also shared that “elderly people are dying on their way to receive medical help. For example a woman died in a boat in transit to the hospital, “overcome by heat and dehydration…[and] dark clouds of mosquitoes are biting through the toughest of donkey’s hides, spreading malaria.” The reporter added, “People came down with itchy dermatitis from walking through the floodwaters. Farmers who could not plant in drenched fields began cutting back their simple meals of vegetables and rice from three a day to two. And then, for some, just one.”
Not only is the current climate causing diseases to spread, but the planet is raging with heat. With the overruling conditions, many people have been left without water or shelter, resulting in overwhelming deaths. The number of heat-related deaths is only increasing; and without the help from the people inhabiting this planet, the numbers will continue to rise at alarming rates.
Gowen et al. (2023) also shared, “By 2050, the number of people suffering from a month of inescapable heat could further grow to a staggering 1.3 billion.”
It’s clearly time to shift our paradigm to one of saving our planet and saving ourselves.
