Essay on the selfishness of human beings destroys the environment
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Human destruction of nature is rapidly eroding the world’s capacity to provide food, water and security to billions of people, according to the most comprehensive biodiversity study in more than a decade.
Such is the rate of decline that the risks posed by biodiversity loss should be considered on the same scale as those of climate change, noted the authors of the UN-backed report, which was released in Medellin, Colombia on Friday.
Among the standout findings are that exploitable fisheries in the world’s most populous region – the Asia-Pacific – are on course to decline to zero by 2048; that freshwater availability in the Americas has halved since the 1950s and that 42% of land species in Europe have declined in the past decade.
Underscoring the grim trends, this report was released in the week that the decimation of French bird populations was revealed, as well as the death of the last male northern white rhinoceros, leaving the species only two females from extinction.
What is biodiversity and why does it matter to us?
“The time for action was yesterday or the day before,” said Robert Watson, the chair of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) which compiled the research. “Governments recognise we have a problem. Now we need action, but unfortunately the action we have now is not at the level we need.”
Our environment is like a huge balloon of transparent substance in which we have our being. When this balloon was created it was filled with pure wholesome gases. However, when man learnt to tap latent resources of nature, industrialization followed. This industrialization led to urbanization.
The selfishness combined with greed did so much damage to this beautiful balloon that most of the gases, that were so wholesome, are now unwholesome and poisonous. He cut trees and trees in millions of acres of forests; he installed manufacturing units on the banks of life-giving rivers; these manufacturing monsters spewed toxic smoke into the atmosphere whose air he himself breathes!
His greed didn't let him realize that it was mandatory to treat the toxic effluents before releasing them into rivers, lakes, oceans, etc.; he ignored the most important fact of preserving the purity of environment. He was so smug to have invented refrigerants unaware of the fact that the same would damage the ozone layer.
Undoubtedly, he has woken to the shocking irreparable damage his greed has wreaked on this planet, but it is very late! The only hope of the survival of the planet lies in his treating the planet, its environment, ecology, animals, plants and trees reverently. Let him worship the source through which he lives! Otherwise utter annihilation waits him. All of us need to make environmental preservation our first priority, only then will we be able to restore it.
Lastly, he must modify his developmental strategies. He must ensure no damage to the environment while modifying or using the natural resources. He must adopt the principles of sustainable development. Only then will he be able to save the environment and his own existence.