A flood in Mozambique killed hundreds.
A Storm in France left 90 dead with 270 million trees destroyed and 7.5 pounds worth of damage.
Avalanches in Austria killed ten.
In The Arctic World, polar ice cap thinned from 10 feet to 6 feet.
The question arises that are all these events tainted by human actions alone? Well even if human actions are not directly responsible in some cases they have definitely precipitated the process of global warming. The excessive use of CFC’S (chloro-fluoro carbons) is increasing the content of carbon in the atmosphere causing the greenhouse effect. Excessive clearing of land and deforestation have lead to the lowering down of the water table, and the washing away of fertile soil from the land allowing the land to further sink in and making the land useless for cultivation. The carbon and sulphur compounds that enter the atmosphere through the smoke created from factories lead to acid rain, pollution and further warming of the atmosphere.
How many of these incidents can we trace back to our own doings? Well at least the 1992 flood in Hazara had a direct link to soil erosion. Statistics show that 2 million people die every day by drinking dirty water. In Florida, Austria and Asia pollution from the mainland is killing coral reefs, nurseries and hundreds of species of fish. So we are actually killing some part of our conscience when we commit acts which are contributing towards the extinction of many species and killing a portion of our earth day by day.
But what if we put an end to this right away.... It still won’t make a great deal of a difference. According to research ‘if we stopped carbon emission right now, it will take several hundred years for the oceans to keep from rising!’. At the same time ‘If we stopped our factories tonight, it will take several hundred years for the carbon already present in the earth’s atmosphere to keep from causing global warming’. All this tells us is that, we have done quite enough damage already and now there is no turning back.
The purpose of my article is not to give anyone a guilt trip, but to make us realize that in this case, each and every action of ours is having an equal and adverse reaction. A lot of our progress is taking place at the expense of our planet and the other living organisms that are its inhabitants.
Despite such intimidating facts stating otherwise, we can still make a difference, even if we won’t live to see it. A research stated that if we skip a 120-mile drive each week, we could reduce 1100 pounds worth of carbon annually. So it is still not late to take those cotton bags to the store, to not waste those pages of our notebooks by scribbling unnecessary comments and by not sharpening our pencils too much. It just requires a thought, followed by an action.
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