Our Change.

Humans have been able to advance our technological abilities and grow our population to such a great extent that we are now in what is called the anthropocene by many. This means that we are in an era where our very own species is in control of the fate of the planet. We are changing it whether some choose to accept this reality or not. We remove billions of animals from the ocean, put billions of tonnes of greenhouse gases into the air, destroy ancient forests and melt ancient ice every single year without fail. Since, as far as I can personally imagine, it seems as though we as a species will never choose to relinquish our power over the planet we must instead change the way we run it. We can no longer continue to extract and use fossil fuels. This is a non-negotiable aspect. We must figure out a way to run everything and do all of our activities on renewable energy. We also have to make our food and the production of everything else much more closer to home. However, before continuing to discuss the possible solutions of anthropogenic climate change and all of the other massive problems that we have caused directly, I will describe such problems and discuss how we have caused them.

Firstly, I will discuss how we have caused what some are calling the sixth mass extinction. One reason why this is happening is because we have destroyed so many natural habitats for non-human creatures and plants at such a massive scale that what remains can no longer support the same level of life that it once did before we destroyed it. For example, many different types of elephants used to have free range of huge swaths of land all across the continent of Africa (a level of range that seems unimaginable today). Now, elephant populations are extremely low when you compare them between how they are today with how they were even just 200 years ago (which is not a long time whatsoever when discussing life on Earth and its changes) and this is largely because their populations are limited to areas of land that are a tiny fraction of what they used to be (for example, on elephant sanctuary reservations). Similarly, the Amazon rainforest which holds an abundance of life is being depleted at an alarming rate largely due to companies destroying it by burning it to make space to grow livestock, palm oil, corn, and wheat. One of the greatest things you as an individual can do to not contribute to this violence is to limit the amount of meat and dairy you consume (or even cut it out of your diet completely). I have done this and I can attest that it has only led to positive things in my life. My health is better, I have more energy, I feel good about being more removed from the violence and destruction, and it has been way easier than I had originally anticipated. Now, I will discuss how we are contributing to climate change.

We are contributing to climate change for many reasons but I will now be discussing how we directly contribute to it by emitting large amounts of greenhouse gases. We burn coal and oil and natural gas to heat buildings, cooking utilities, transportation technologies, entertainment, production, communication, etc. We have built a whole life around it as it destroys so much life every day. The carbon dioxide and methane and other gases get trapped in the atmosphere and cause the planet to contain more heat from the sun that it was before we started burning all of these fossil fuels. This extra heating sets off a global chain of reactions that we summarize as climate change. Climate change is currently causing oceans to acidify, hurricanes to intensify, global temperatures to rise, ice to melt, corals to have bleaching events, once fertile lands to have longer and longer periods of drought, etc. We have caused this and continued to do nothing about it because the people who are profiting from destroying the planet in this way are making trillions of dollars and will refuse to give that up without a fight. I am talking about the people who own the oil companies, the people who own the technologies that run on oil, the people who these owners have been paying for decades to not take political actions against them. We can turn everything around as soon as we actively topple these power holders off of their violent thrones. It is only by exploiting everything and everyone that they were able to become so powerful in the first place. It is sickening and sad.

The anthropocene does not have to be the terrifying reality that it currently is and it does not have to foreshadow the devastating future that it will be if things continue as usual. We have the power to rise up and change things for the better! It is going to require outside of the box thinking because we are dealing with a problem that no one in the history of human civilization has ever dealt with before. Also, I think there are many actions and strategies that can be used all at the same time. Again, because we do not know exactly what will work, we have to try everything! Some people can do some things, while others cannot and therefore everyone can have a role to play using their own personal situation in life, skills, location, personal connections, history, knowledge, imagination, etc. Some parts of it might be peaceful, some violent; some easy, some more difficult; some politically, some grassroots We have to remember that we are all connected to each other and that we are also, as a species, connected to all other species in some way or another. We have been living in human systems that purposefully make us forget or disregard these beautiful connections but we must work hard to remember. I have hope that we will turn this around before it is too late because I choose to believe in my fellow human and use every day I have to try to help others believe in our goodness and power as well. How do you think you can personally contribute to the movement to shift global society towards a standard that is in harmony with the rest of life on the planet? How much are you willing to do to make this happen? How much are you willing to give up? Do you think that not taking action is worth whatever you will have gained by remaining complacent?

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