How the relationship between man and nature is changing

We live on a very close planet where everything is interconnected. A person is only now beginning to realize his responsibility for its future. The environmental agenda is getting louder every year, and governments, corporations and schoolchildren from different countries join the voices of a few activists. Green technologies and environmental awareness are becoming part of our daily lives.

We use the resources of the planet as if they belong to us

In the 20th century, world production increased 20 times. Largely due to this, the well-being and quality of life of people has increased. For example, global child mortality rates have halved from 1990 to the present, and average life expectancy has increased from 59 to 73 years in the past 50 years.

Now there are 7,6 billion people on the planet, which is only 0,01% of the weight of all living beings. However, humanity has already led to the death of 83% of all wild mammals and half of all plants, analysts from the World Economic Forum (WEF) note in the report on natural risks for 2020. The existing economic cycle – patterns of production and consumption, land use and urbanization, trade, industry – requires a radical revision in terms of human impact on nature.

Humanity consumes 50% more natural resources than the planet can replenish. If this trend continues, then in 30 years we will need three planets like Earth to satisfy all needs.

Now we are in a situation where it becomes clear that if we continue to produce and consume at the same pace, the future generation has little chance of surviving on this planet.

Human impact on nature can no longer be rolled back

The average temperature on the planet has increased by 0,9 degrees since 1880, more than two-thirds of the increase has occurred in the last 50 years. The main source of anthropogenic impact on the climate is the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, in particular carbon dioxide. The temperature of the world’s oceans has become higher, eternal snow and ice are melting. Extreme natural events such as droughts, floods, hurricanes and fires are increasingly occurring. They lead to the destruction of infrastructure, hunger, lack of clean water.

The habitat of wild animals is changing – as a result of the melting of ice in the Himalayas, the population of snow leopards has decreased, due to the increase in the temperature of the world’s oceans, corals are dying, and then the living organisms that feed on them. A million species of animals and plants are now threatened with extinction. Entire glaciers are disappearing – in August 2019, the Okjokul glacier was officially buried in Iceland. According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), in the next few decades there will be almost no ice cover in the Arctic.

If no action is taken to mitigate climate change, temperatures could increase by 5 degrees by 2100. The world community needs to pursue an active environmental policy so that this scenario does not come true. Compliance with the Paris Agreement can give the planet a chance, while significantly affecting national economies.

However, the trend is still disappointing: after the 2016 Paris Agreement, COXNUMX emissions₂ into the atmosphere broke new records in both 2018 and 2019. As the dynamics of the 20th century shows, the only thing that reduces emissions for a short period is economic crises, epidemics, and wars. Thus, emission reductions were established during the First and Second World Wars, the Great Depression of the 1930s, and the energy crisis of the 1970s. Emissions were last reduced during the global economic crisis of 2008-2009. But in each of these periods, as soon as the situation returned to normal, the curve continued to run upward. This is exactly what we are seeing in 2020. The spread of the COVID-19 virus has reduced global economic activity and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

Generation Z is no longer just our conscience, but also an active participant in change

At the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2019, one of the most important international events, teenagers speak for the first time. This is no coincidence: it is they who begin to understand and define the new world in which we will live in a few years. The name of the young Swedish activist Greta Thunberg is becoming literally synonymous with the environmental protests of 2019-2020.

Generation Z, born between 2001 and today, makes up a third of the world’s population, according to Bloomberg research. If millennials were distinguished by the lifestyle of “here and now”, then generation Z cares about their future. Their attitude towards themselves and the world around them is more practical. The future worries them in all aspects, including environmental ones – what will happen to nature and climate if the current economic and political trend continues.

Economics

The world economy is slowly starting to turn towards the environmental agenda and turn into economics. It is not yet clear how much the necessary changes will cost and how much money and resources we will lose in the future if we do not do something right now. But already now, careful attention to the environment is becoming a topical issue for many corporations. And the green economy can become the leading industry of the coming decade, where investments will be attracted, start-ups will be born and major technological discoveries will take place.

Woke up – clean your planet

The growth of the world’s population, coupled with the growing level of prosperity, creates one of the main problems of our time – the increase in the amount of waste we produce. Often we do not see the path that a plastic bottle makes after we have thrown it into the container. Therefore, it seems to us that it simply disappears without a trace. But it’s not. The number of landfills, especially in developing countries, is constantly growing. And in our country it is an urgent problem.

One of the most common and dangerous types of waste is plastic. About 8% of the produced oil goes to its production. And the life of plastic packaging on average is one minute after the purchase of the goods, after which it decomposes up to 1000 years.

On average, a person produces about 1 kg of garbage per day, and annually up to 2 billion tons of waste is generated on the planet. A third of all waste is produced by 16% of the population from countries with a high standard of living. And according to forecasts, the annual volume of waste in the world will grow by another 70%.

State programs, investments in “green” technologies and local eco-projects will become effective when there is an awareness of the responsibility of each person for their future. You can not shift it only to politicians, businessmen or activists. You have to start with yourself.