Now is the time to come to the aid of the planet

3 min read

You may have heard that the United Nations revealed in a report published in May 2019 indicated that after reviewing more than 15 000 scientific papers, we were well on the way to the extinction of a million species on our planet by 2050. It is hard to really understand what a million species looks like. There are a lot of 'critters' on the planet, but how big is 1 million species? First of all the total number of species on the planet is estimated at around 9 million, give or take a million or so. So, 1 million is more than 10% of all the currently existing species.

The major causes of this have been identified as: land conversion, including deforestation; overfishing; bush meat hunting and poaching; climate change; pollution; and invasive alien species.

You may have noticed, if every you drive through the countryside, that the number of insects you collect now on the front of your car, is many fewer than you used to. This lack of species is actually evident.

Sir Robert Watson, Chair of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) said: 'We are eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health, and quality of life worldwide.'

It seems, we are sleepwalking slowly into a place of no return, a place where the Aside from the impact of climate change on sea levels, which will affect many millions of humans, there are other factors at play with the pursuit of profit over environment, that will continue to have a devastating impact, on the planet, and on human life.

But what does this mean?

The way that our economy operates encourages people to profit from what they do, and there is a competitive spirit in this enterprise. Systems of consumption implicate everyone into a commercial system from which it is hard to extricate ourselves. If we want to live a modern life, we earn and we consume, and that consumption is driven to be cheaper and cheaper, and this is often at the expense of the environment which is often the soft option. It is a system that it is almost impossible to exit. If we consume electricity, or buy food or clothes, or use fuel based transport, we are implicated in this system, as much as it might seem that a dependency on these things were reduced, the change that our society would need to undergo to do this would be somewhat overwhelming.

Human beings have long hoped that changes in technology would bring about efficiencies meaning that the human footprint on the planet were reduced, but our energy usage is still increasing.

The damage to the future of our way of life is not inescapable, but it does require immediate and wholehearted action.

Without a doubt, this is the principal challenge of our time. As human beings we have a responsibility to address these issues, as educators we have a responsibility to set an example and to convey the importance of the message to our pupils.

Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister during the Second World War said of the war effort, "The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences." We have entered this phase of human life. There are consequences of action and consequences of inaction. Sadly, our generation has not set a good standard, mistakes have been made, but what we do now will set in motion the nature of tomorrow. Thankfully, human beings have a knack for solving big problems as well as creating them.

Challenging film for pupils: Koyannisqatsi

Simpler Version

The United Nations is a global organisation whose job is to take action on the big issues facing the planet in the 21st century including: peace and security, climate change, sustainable development, human rights, human and health emergencies. In May 2019 it reported that the planet was well on the way to the extinction of a million species by 2050. It is hard to really understand what a million species looks like. There are a lot of 'critters' on the planet, but how big is 1 million species? First of all the total number of species on the planet is estimated at around 9 million, give or take a million or so. So, 1 million is more than 10% of all the currently existing species. That's 1 in every 10 kinds of species.

The causes of this include: converting land to farming, cutting down forests; overfishing; killing animals; climate change and pollution.

You may have noticed, if every you drive through the countryside, that the number of insects you collect now on the front of your car, is many fewer than you used to. Many years ago if you went for a drive in the country the front of the car would be covered with insects. Where have they gone?

We depend on insects and animals to make the earth strong. The more species there is the stronger is the environment. Its like have a football team with lots of players with different talents. As we lose this diversity we weaken the planet, it becomes more vulnerable to failing, and this is the earth we depend on for food, fresh air, and health.

The future of the environment is our future, and as you grow up into it, and as we look after you into the world you grow into, we all have to make decisions, and sometimes hard decisions to make the right decisions. This might mean taking the bus not the car, eating less meat, walking more, not using plastic bags nor take away containers, never littering, taking fewer trips abroad, taking things to recycling, when we'd rather be doing something else.

This is the world we are growing into. This is not a future that one that needs to be afraid of, but like we are, it is a future that needs to be cared for and looked after. This is increasingly a responsibility and an important one. If we all manage to do a little bit more than we would like then we can look forward to a future we would want to live in.

This is an important challenge for all of us.

Challenging film: The Lorax