2022 is only half-way through and we've seen a great deal of issues with the climate already. It snowed 3 times earlier this year where I live, and I live in a place were it barely ever snows. And now the wildfires are back. Just to name a couple.
We, humans, are so contradictory as a race, being too selfish (as a whole, as a systemic approach to viewing our species' place on our planet) to care about other creatures and/or the planet as equally (nevertheless more than) as we care about our own survival. Yet, we are not selfish enough to care about the literal extinction and/or suffering of our species.
Disclaimer: By no means am I trying to penalize governments, the industry, or the individual; these are just a few of the thoughts that keep me up at night.
The climate crisis is a global phenomenon, and so is the water crisis, and the energy crisis, and so many other crises. And yet, humanity deals with issues of minute importance, like satisfying the ordained clergy (before filling vacant teaching positions in schools), letting a sex criminal run loose (before ensuring the safety of children), getting lost in the politics of natural disasters (instead of actually mitigating and preventing them).
We live in a society where clean drinking water is taken for granted. So much so we flush our toilets with it, wash our cars, take baths... And all while our neighbor might not have access to clean water. And living in Greece, I won't go so far and speak about a country in the developing world, I'll speak about the Greek villages, where tap water isn't always drinkable water, and they have to purchase bottled water, further enhancing the plastic crisis. It's a viscous cycle at this point. But of course, the individuals are not entirely to blame for their irresponsible use of water (or plastics for that matter, or anything else, I suppose); it's what they're given. On the other hand the industry and agriculture uses most of the clean water supply worldwide, and this use is mostly unregulated.
When governments cherish the economy more than they cherish global prosperity, it's a systemic issue. Wildfires that happen every single summer and that haven't been mitigated properly, this is a systemic issue. If we let the industry and the agriculture run wild and free and untaxed and use up all the clean, drinking water for free, it will be a systemic issue.
The planet can survive without humans, but humans cannot survive without the planet.
But then again, who am I to speak about these things?
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