All Down the Drain

There is air, water, land, plants, and animals. The air is dirty, the water is polluted, the land is drained of resources, the plants are few and far between, and the animals are mutated. If these all have to be in balance, then the entire scale seems to have gone down the toilet. The air needs the plants to have high oxygen content. The plants need water to grow so they can provide oxygen for the air. The animals also need the water so they can grow, and also so that there is plants to eat. The land needs to be rich and fertile so the plants can grow, so the plants can make oxygen and provide food for the animals. Unfortunately, humans are supposed to fit into the animal category, yet we have separated ourselves from the entire system. We pollute the water, the air, deplete the land, cut down the plants and push animals toward extinction through overhunting, overfishing, and hazardous conditions on land, air, or sea. We ruin the land, air, sea, and plants, leaving nothing for the animals. But we are the animals. We may not think we are, but what were taking from the animals, were actually ruining for ourselves. The environment and balance of nature hasn’t seemed to be of much concern to anyone until recent years. But even now with better fuel efficient cars, greener production and trade, and cleaner energy sources, it doesn’t seem like were doing nearly enough. We have already caused so much damage, most of which we cannot undo. Our efforts to stop our trail of destruction have only made our path a bit smaller. We are still ruining the world we live in. The environment can only take so much more until it will eventually collapse in on itself. Each aspect of nature supports the other. Once one is taken out, all others will fall.

            The only reason that the aspects of nature are still in balance, is because the environment is incredibly resilient. No matter what we throw at it, nature can somehow bounce back to a stable state. In today’s conditions however, I don’t think the environment can take much more. We’re moving at an exponentially faster rate than we were even a few years ago. We expand and grow and create more and more waste, without giving nature any time to catch up. Even though we are trying to slow down, we’re till leaving the environment in the dust. We do just enough to keep people happy, because that’s all we’re focused on. People complain about the environment being in a poor state because it is affecting their lives. We do just enough to make it not our problem. We keep people happy, not animals, or plants, but people. And we will continue to keep people first until the balance of nature completely collapses and threatens to bring people down with it. But by then, it will be too late to save the environment, and therefore too late to save people, because the balance of nature will be forever lost.