AS WE welcome in the New Year, 2021, we find ourselves in ‘Lockdown’ once again—and the world continuing to grapple with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Quite rightly, while the number of cases continues to rise with an ever-increasing death toll, we should focus on the vaccines—which we hope will bring an end to this terrible scourge that has brought so much devastation to the human population of our planet.
But once we’ve reached that point, will we have learned anything to take forward when it comes to protecting our beautiful world for future generations?
Last year, during the first lockdown, people were convinced that the pandemic would be a game-changer—and that once we’d won the fight against COVID-19 we’d look at our lives and realise we don’t need all the things that, up until now, we thought made us happy.
Many people began to realise life wasn’t all about materialism, and that so many of the things we have all around us are not only free to enjoy, but also vital to our continued existence on planet Earth.
We are lucky to have icons like Sir David Attenborough, who constantly push out the message about the damage humans are inflicting on the planet.
Sir David is quick to point out that, although we’re getting dangerously close to the ‘point of no return’ it isn’t too late to ‘turn the tide’—but only IF WE ACT NOW!
Experts of Attenborough’s calibre, plus many other naturalists and scientists, are simply not wrong with their predictions about the potential demise of our world.
Temperatures and sea levels are rising because the polar ice cap is melting—and the continual deforestation of the rainforests is a major contributor to that.
However, despite individuals raising awareness and each of us doing what we can to try and reverse the decline, the reality of the problem is so vast that it’ll take a monumental global effort from every government to even begin to make a difference.
And that’s where the problem lies. Many governments and large corporations, driven by greed and power, show no desire to take responsibility for their actions, which are bringing the planet to its knees.
They continue blindly along the path of destruction, ignoring what is clearly going on around them and, it seems, with no initiatives to make inroads into the major issues facing us today: the over-population of the planet, high levels of CO2 emissions, plastic and chemical pollution and the ever-increasing number of endangered species—vital to maintaining a healthy eco-system.
How stupid are the people running some of the biggest economies in the world?
So stupid they cannot see the planet is in serious trouble?
So stupid they cannot see there will be no planet if we stay on the same trajectory?
So stupid they refuse to acknowledge that none of them will live forever—and that the world they’ll leave behind for their children and grandchildren will be rapidly declining and out of their control.
In the end we have to accept that the human species is this planet’s greatest enemy—and, until we do, the way ahead looks bleak.
The lifestyle we’ve all become accustomed to has to change.
Our acknowledgement that we have the power in our hands to re-balance the planet by allowing the eco-system to recover is as good a place as any to start.
So, heading into 2021, each and every one of us has to make our voices heard.
We have to push for change from the top and force governments to face up to reality and create new policies to bring calm to the looming storm.
Starting right here, right now!
Make this your New Year’s Resolution!
And if this pandemic has taught us anything, it is that nature holds the ultimate power, and as a species we must recognise and respect it.
With hopes for a change-in-attitude in 2021.
’Til next time,
Granny FlapjaX