Humans Have Overstepped a Threshold

How we are wrecking nature

I brought you into a bountiful country, to eat its fruit and its goodness. But when you entered, you defiled My land And made My heritage an abomination

Jeremiah 2:7

Three months ago, I was appointed an ambassador to represent Kenya in Tunza Eco Generation, a CSR initiative by Samsung Engineering and the UNEP to create awareness of environmental issues across the world among the youth and children.

In the three months in this role, I have developed a keen interest in environmental issues. I have read a ton of damning write-ups, talk of heart-rending columns, reports and factfiles on the degrading global environment.

Just like a lot of people, I knew climate change and environmental degradation were happening. I had seen weather patterns change and streams dry up. I had seen waste being disposed into rivers. I would be grossed out by the poor quality air downtown. I knew something needed to be done. But I didn’t quite think about it, because that was fundamentally someone else’s job.

But now I’m actively reading and writing about the environment thanks to my ambassadorial position. This has given me new light. I no longer see trash-dumping in Nairobi River as mundane and normal.

What I see now is a wave of destruction happening in my time that will be nearly impossible to recover from. That’s why I feel a sense of duty to proclaim these truths:

We are exhausting our natural resources.

We are stuffing our rivers with plastic waste.

We are causing an increasing number of species to go extinct.

We are adding harmful chemicals to the water and the air we live on.

(In some countries air quality can get so bad, people have to walk with gas masks) .

In the pursuit of economic interests, we have wrecked our pristine nature!

We thought that nature is too strong to be controlled, too big to be affected by our deleterious actions. But here it is, jaded and sick.

A global trend

Two of the 13 global trends in the Global Risks Report 2018 by the World Economic Forum are namely, environmental degradation and climate change.

We are experiencing everything that’s egregious in record numbers. We have witnessed the heaviest floods, the severest droughts, the hottest summers.

Carbon IV Oxide levels have never been this high.

There is unequivocal scientific evidence of climate change. Global temperatures are rising, glaciers are retreating, oceans are acidifying, sea levels are rising, extreme weather events are increasing in intensity.

You can read the facts from NASA:

What is the worst that could happen?

The prognosis is bad: The devastating weather patterns will continue, the Arctic will become ice-free, coastal cities will drown in sea water. 
People will continue dying from heatstroke.

Floods will continue rampaging our lives and property.

There will be smart cities with free wifi but…

There will be no water to drink. There will be no food to eat.

The end will come!

These are morbid thoughts but aren’t we actually headed there?

World hunger has risen in the last three years due to climate change.

The world is already facing a water crisis.

This should hit us in our faces. We need to do something.

Now after reading this we might start to imagine a dystopian future where there will be but no water, no food and ultimately no life.

These, surely, are gleam possibilities. But we are intelligent animals. We can prevent this from happening.

But this will take a radical change.

It will simply be impossible to mitigate climate change and environmental degradation without involving everyone. No government, organisation or group of people will be able to do this alone.

The environment is our mutual interest.

Cutting carbon emissions, switching to renewable energy, pressing for environment protection policies and adopting plant-based diet* is a good place to start.

The future is green

I’m looking forward to a future where every household will be lit by the sun in the day and the night and even raindrops will be used to generate electric power.

People will be giving trees for gifts and planting trees instead of blowing candles on birthdays.

Biodegradable will be the catchphrase on packaging, clothing and home decor.

It will be fashionable to walk/cycle to work.

Vegetarian will be the diet of the future.

We will have a green GDP, it will be important to factor in the environment in corporate strategy.

Office files will be paperless.

We will not have notes because we will be using cryptocurrency.

Natural resources will be used sustainably.

Everyone will be conscious of their environment.

I pray this that day will come so that life will flourish again.

There is a strong case that mitigation can not simply happen without butchering the livestock industry)