Ever felt man is the worst kind of species ever created? If yes, welcome to the club.
We exploit the nature that we literally derive everything from in order to survive, trash our environment and lastly, don’t even spare our fellow animals. Extinction is no longer about the survival of the fittest, on the contrary, is about the survival of the meanest. Many animals now are on the brink of extinction, and many more are heading in the same direction- the rate of which is comparable to the last five mass extinctions as a result of “cataclysmic forces”– such as massive meteorite strikes and super-volcano.
In a series of publications, a team of internationally acclaimed scientists wrote in the Nature, “There is overwhelming evidence that habitat loss and fragmentation, over-exploitation of biological resources, pollution, species invasions and climate change have increased rates of global species extinctions to levels that are much higher than those observed in the fossil record.” This loss of biodiversity could “substantially diminish the benefits that people derive from nature”, they warned.
Moreover, humans have a long history of wiping out other animals; it goes back as early as 1500AD, when human destruction of wildlife “accelerated” according
to studies. The paper said, “Human-influenced extinctions began when modern humans moved out of Africa.”The ever-expanding human population that has accelerated by an alarming 130% in the last 50 years is yet another aspect that has led to the increase in demand for resources, as a result, pushing the rate of hunting, pollution, loss of habitat among others, over the edge.
The statistics of the damage we are causing to everything around us collectively is absolutely overwhelming; but there is still a ray of hope- still a tiny keyhole sized light, which we can choose to act upon; by protecting habitats, vouching for stricter conservation policies and changing our diets to less land-intensive food are some achievable short term goals that could in the future help us live better and more harmoniously with other species.
Let us not forget how Mother Nature is all/ever-forgiving and for fact is capable of providing healthy diets for 10 billion people even in the year 2060 in addition to preserving habitats for the vast majority of its remaining species.
