Have you ever wondered what would happen if you started taking down your home’s doors, knocking them off their hinges, or if you just broke every other one of your room’s windows? What would the consequences be if you began scraping the walls, or spraying them with multicolored industrial paint? What would your parents say if you woke up one day and decided to embark on a mission to destroy the faucets and break off the oven into tiny pieces? I know for sure that, if I did any of these things, my mom would probably disown me or kick me out of the house. And, what is worse, I’d have to live with the fact I was one of the main reasons my family ended up living in a burning mess or even without a home.
When talking about specifics regarding your very own home, destroying and vandalizing it seem like heinous and unforgiveable acts. Thinking about rendering your family homeless is almost unthinkable as well. How can anybody consciously cause a deterioration in an inhabited place? Is it really plausible for any human being to willingly annihilate or damage the home they are living in? The automatic answer would be no, since it’s the far more logical and reasonable one. No one would readily harm their home.
However, one particular aspect of our daily lives comes to mind and, suddenly, the answer doesn’t seem quite as sound anymore. Climate change, accelerating deforestation, pollution and an imminent global drought because of lack of water, sound as far off, inconsequential problems that only start burdening our lives when, out of nowhere, the weather starts to get warmer or the phenomenon of “El Niño” lashes out furiously all throughout the country, resulting in a water shortage and agricultural crisis. Yet, these environmental issues have had an impact on Earth for a while now and the fact that they only worry us when they have a direct repercussion in our lives, doesn’t mean we are allowed to ignore them constantly.
Just a few days ago, I woke up to my dad telling me we had no electricity and no water. The dim lit sky and residual sleepiness didn’t allow me to fully comprehend what he was telling me. But then, after a few, bewildered seconds, my dad’s words found meaning in my mind and, just like that, panic struck. Now, like the technology-oriented, teenaged girl I am, my first thought went out to my cellphone, that was still being charged and, next, to the wifi-less aura that would surround my whole house. Then, I realized I wouldn’t be able to shower and that my greasy, disheveled hair would have to remain like that for everyone at school to see. And, next, I pondered about the possibility of not having water or electricity to cook some things. My house stayed water and electricity-less for about 30 minutes, as a result of a malfunction in an electrical transformer that affected about 10 neighborhoods around. Just 30 minutes in which I brooded over the lack of light and in which I panicked over an imminent shower-less day. 30 minutes that had me anxious over the possibility of having no electricity and water for a whole day, let alone two. 30 minutes that ended all-too-soon and not fast enough and that had me wondering, for the rest of the day, what it would be like to live in a world where 30 minutes are 24 hours a day.
The world population is 200,000 people larger than yesterday and the burgeoning population could cause the global economy to grow 26 times in just this century. This outrageous increase in economy could put an enormous pressure on the Earth’s resources, that are already being overused at a 160%, with today’s consumption. Would it really be plausible to imagine an Earth existing with double the population, thrice the greed and a 26-times-larger economy? In addition, the number of planets we need to continue surviving safely is nearing the number of two, which will happen by the mid 2030’s. Thinking about it, it seems very far ahead, since it is in almost 20 years, which is more than most of us, students, have gotten to live up until this moment. However, this will be around the time where most of us will have a stable career, a family (some of us with children) and an increasing number of dreams, hopes and projects. Will we start caring then? Because, although 20 years are more than what we have gotten to live, if the Earth’s history was compared to a calendar year, modern human life has existed for 23 minutes and we have used one third of Earth’s natural resources in the last 0.2 seconds (The World Counts, 2016).
We’ve all been taught about eco-friendly ways to save the planet, step by step, person by person. I can guarantee almost all of us collect the water that comes out of the shower when we are waiting for it to warm up and that the majority of persons nowadays know the basics to recycling. I, for one, have been heavily influenced by my family in the saving of water and energy, by reducing my showering-time to 2-3 minutes (which is the one needed) and by turning out lights and disconnecting devices when I’m not using them. Doing things like these is what gives us peace of mind and solace in knowing that “At least I’m doing something.”
However, this huge environmental problem is reaching unimaginable heights that are transcending all sorts of human comprehension and capacity. There’s a ticking, decreasing time clock indicating the day in which not throwing garbage on the street is, simply, not going to be nearly enough to save the planet. There’s a huge change that has to be made, not only in our in our actions and behavior, but, more importantly, in our mindset and outlook on progress. Because, maybe, the fast-paced human being of the 21st century has to learn that, it’s not so much about moving rapidly and progressing at the speed of light, but about heading in the right direction with sound, promising steps.
Would this great change require a radical change in our actual lifestyle? Probably. However, we have to keep in mind that different doesn’t mean worse or less, it just represents something new. It will be extremely hard to change our current lifestyle, but it is a transition that must be made. An eminent Australian scientist, Professor Frank Fenner, predicted that the human race will be extinct in a 100 years.
The clock is winding down and, this time around, we truly don’t have all the time in the world. The planet’s fate will be decided solely by us and, if we don’t do something radical, humanity could probably cease to exist. The choice? Ours. This life? Ours. The change? Ours. The ticking clock? Winding down. The time? Now.