Our Civilization is in Danger

Goodbye.

Valentin Sigalov // Prokhor Zakharov

The Guardian reported on environmental degradation on Earth. Apparently, our kind of life on Earth is at risk of dying out due to humanity’s consumption of resources and general degradation of our own life support systems. The rate at which we are growing causes great damage to ourselves.

They split the devices required for the survival of life into 9 categories, of which 4 are massively off-track - exceeding safe levels. The effects of our ever-growing civilization includes human-driven climate change, loss of biosphere integrity, land system change, and phosphorous and nitrogen content in oceans due to fertilizer run-off.

In the last 60 years, we have caused changes not seen in the last 10,000 years. Carbon dioxide levels are at historic highs, and the rate at which species become extinct is now 100 times faster than ever before. Our urban populations have increased seven-fold, energy use by a factor of 5, and fertilizer use by 8.

The article proceeds to explain that these actions are driving the planet into the environment not hospitable for human life. So, what are we going to do about it? Well, according to the writer of the article, our economic system is driving us towards an unsustainable future. Our generation will be the ones to experience the blow of this maddening industrialization and growth. So that’s probably what we should change for us to stand a chance.

“History has shown that civilisations have risen, stuck to their core values and then collapsed because they didn’t change. That’s where we are today.”

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