Climate Change and the Future of Mankind

(Photo Courtesy: http://climate.nasa.gov/ )

Since the beginning of mankind, humans tried to master the environment around them. Now thousands of years later in the 21^st century it seems that the humans have finally conquered the Mother Nature. Humans have habitats in all possible places in the earth ranging from freezing Antarctic ice caps to scorching deserts regardless of their hostile environment. It is apparent that human race is unstoppable and they are the master of plant earth. Is it? New developments of how environment behaving now proves otherwise. Is it possible for humans to hold nature’s wrath any longer?

Human population was well under 1 billion until 1804* and the natural environment was relatively intact until the industrial revolution in the 19^th century. Since then, man made his print on earth exploiting its resources and filling it with his offspring. It is true to say that man has altered the global landscape once in for all during the last 2 centuries.

Humans thrive when they have all their basic needs such as food, water and shelter fulfilled. The complexity and sophistication of human needs also increased steadily. All those needs costs energy and natural resources. Those resources need to be extracted in industrial scale. Energy is the key to human success. Starting from coal burning steam engines to electric motors and diesel engines all of which needs energy of some sort, human dependence on energy makes oil, natural gas, coal precious commodities. Timber, metals and water from aquifers also adds to the mankind’s growing resource need. Land is also had to be reclaimed from virgin lands for dwellings and farming not to mention the sea, which is used to fulfill countless needs. Burning fossil fuels and adding nuclear waste as a byproduct of energy generation is inevitable. Humans have littered the environment with waste which is mostly toxic to the environment. Even the space is not left intact by filling it with space junk originating from thousands of discarded spacecrafts and satellites

Early warning signs of the fact that the earth can no longer sustain the beating it gets from human presence was disregarded. Even the melting of the South Pole ice cap was dismissed of having any connection with human activities. Even the scientific community was turning a blind eye to the climate change and the changing environment. Sometimes there were confusions in identifying natural phenomenon such as “El Nino” and “La Nina” different from man made changes. Most of the people well in to the 1980s thought that earth can take anything we throw at her.

With the global temperatures getting higher, natural disasters happening at an alarming rate and with sea levels rising, finally mankind gets a taste of what it is to come. Only now the scientific community and the general public started to see a connection between climate changes and human activities.

It is lucky to see the environmentalists educating the public and lobbying for politicians and policy makers to seriously think what we do to the environment in the so called process of industrialization and development. Still rapid alternation of our way of life is needed. We either have to slow down our impact on earth or find ways to reduce if not reverse our negative effect on the environment. With the growing population it is impossible to slow down the development activities so only option left for us is reducing human footprint on earth. We should be smart and efficient. The technology which made the negative effect on the environment itself can be the savior of both the mankind and the environment. New technologies which help to achieve maximum growth with less environmental impact may hold the key to future. It is true to say that there is no silver bullet to save the planet from eminent destruction in the future. People need to gather at personal level, city level and country level to battle this problem. It is apparent that we only have the plant earth to fulfill all our needs. If we destroy it, our industrial might, growth opportunities and above all our material wealth will be on jeopardy so number one priority should be given to reduce harmful human impact on earth and keeping Mother Nature calm and quiet.