Mother Nature's Last Stand by Maddie DiMarco

Mother Nature's Last Stand

The development of the human race has always entailed the destruction of the earth. Had it ever been considered that this path was not the only one available? Had our ancestors understood the road they set their children upon? Generations previous have reveled in the filth they stained this planet with and left so many of us to clean up their mess. Most have showed no inclination to clean or the slightest ounce of empathy for those who are. But the past is unchangeable, and the future is not nearly as pliable as we once believed. The window for the earth’s salvation is shrinking.

According to the world wildlife fund, WWF, our generation may be the last with a chance of saving the nature. We have some of the technology needed to help save the environment and are developing the rest, but largely continue to operate the same way we have for the past hundred years. Worldwide wildlife populations have fallen by 60% in little over 40 years, products of the escalating crisis, fueled by man-made factors. Humans hunt and they poach, the chop down forest and burn fuels, pushing the extinction rate of species to 1,000 times higher than before human intervention. The slivers of land left uninterrupted by humans is predicted to drop from a quarter to a tenth by 2050 as disease, pollution, habitat destruction, and climate change run rampant. WWF’s director general, Marco Lambertini, referred to the phenomenon “unprecedented in its speed” and gave us “about 40 years”.

We are a generation grown on the idea that our earth is dying. Only a small portion of us attempt some solution. We still shut our eyes as we spoon feed our planet poison in an attempt to block out the truth.

Citation: Picheta, Rob. “This Is the 'Last Generation' That Can Save Nature, WWF Says.” CNN, Cable News Network, 30 Oct. 2018, www.cnn.com/2018/10/29/health/wwf-wildlife-population-report-intl/index.html.