It’s no big surprise
Life is pretty amazing, if you ask me.
We’re in an era of man-made masterpieces: those beautiful cheetah-printed or bear-fur rugs, probably from the last animal of that family, skyscrapers reaching as high as the stars, used for corporate offices, cubicle upon cubicle, factories bellowing out the newest cologne or perfume line from famous celebrities, although deriving some ingredients by exploiting animals beforehand, technology as advanced as ourselves—reading into our nature as humans, and beginning to become one of us, as our being and gift of being alive has begun to take a backseat to the environment around us, mindlessly looking out for the next release of the iPhone 18 or for the next big hit in fashion.
Life is so great; we’ve begun deluding ourselves exceedingly to the point that our very own eyes deceive us, and society believes that this is the reality, that this—the mindless killing of the very thing that provides nourishment for our lives—is our purpose on Earth. Perhaps life is so great, that one day, the egotism of our minds will delude us so much that we won’t realize our blind eyes leading us straight to our graves.
The Anthropocene era
Man-made this, man-made that, how about man-made destruction and disaster? Throughout history, there has been six dated mass extinctions: the Ordovician mass extinction, the Devonian m.e., the Permian m.e., the Triassic-Jurassic (K-T) m.e., and the Cretaceous-Tertiary m.e. There are only five listed, and that’s not a mistake. We humans have dug ourselves into the sixth mass extinction ever recorded in the history of our globe—the Anthropocene era. The Anthropocene era is the only mass extinction that isn’t natural. It’s the only one that was man-made, carved from the calluses of our palms to the intricate DNA lining on our fingers.
One of the major roots to this mass extinction is industrialization. The constant and deadbeat cycle of mass manufacturing in factories, cities, seafare, and more. Industrialization leads to a myriad of conflicting issues such as the loss of biodiversity due to the destruction of habitat and disruption of species, the pollution dilemma of plastic and debris overriding the amount of fish that live in the sea, dangerous methane emissions that are flourishing due to the Arctic melting in the North, harmful greenhouse gas emissions, and so much more that still remains uncharted.
Although all types of scientists such as conservationists, agriculturists, geologists, marine biologists, and more, are coming together to help solve this issue, it’s becoming a foreseen issue that our globe is at a standstill—things aren’t improving, and benefit is gradually receding from the effort of the flipside of mankind. These efforts have been turned because of the blind eye of humanity, and their advocacy for a better future has been lost like a broken-record, replaying in the ears of our young yet reaching to no destination yet the soundless, empty air.
There are millions of possible processes that one can undergo to help but before one can become part of the solution, they have to depart from being the problem. We are all the problem. People can rarely fix a broken-record but many continue in hope that the song can still be played for the ears of others. A broken-record can rarely be fixed, but that’s the reason records aren’t the only thing to listen to songs through; there are other methods to listen to the same song, just in a different way.
By 2050
Life is already changing. Slowly, but surely. The Anthropocene era is the most important because unlike all the other mass extinctions, the present-day mass extinction is proved to be moving on a thousand times faster than ever before.
By 2050, over 40% of the population (2.3 billion people) will suffer from the lack of finding freshwater. By 2050, oil will be almost fully depleted from all of Earth’s natural reserves due to overuse in factories, vehicles, etc. By 2050, the most common cause for mortality rates will be due to dangerous air pollution, encouraging the chances of lung disease and other various diseases. By 2050, overpopulation will become an issue, with more than 9 billion people estimated to be alive by then. By 2050, many species that people consume on a daily basis, such as a variety of fish, will go extinct.
By 2050, another common cause for mortality rates will be due to starvation; over a billion people will go without any means of food due to industrialization hurting agriculture, and overpopulation. By 2050, many environmental changes will occur; rainforests will begin to become a rarity, large cities such as New Jersey and Venice will begin to have floods as a commonplace due to rising sea levels, natural habitats will shift as more species become endangered and go extinct, the Artic will continue to go extinct from melting glaciers, and the atmosphere will continue deteriorating the lives of many.
We’ll be left finding it hard to breathe, to eat, to find freshwater that can aid our health and our loved ones. We’re innovators, creating tall buildings and phenomenal inventions, but little do we realize, we’re also digging our own graves. By 2050, societies will fall into chaos as Earth begins declining. That is, if people do something about it. It’s nice that life is pretty great right now, but by 2050, it won’t be.
