GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE IS THE BIGGEST PROBLEM FACING HUMANITY, AS IT PUTS LIFE ON OUR PLANET AT RISK. CONTRARY TO WHAT WAS BELIEVED, THE CONSEQUENCES WILL NOT OCCUR IN A Distant FUTURE, BUT WE ARE ALREADY LIVING THEM.
Global Environmental Change is the result of the sum of all human actions that have a negative impact on the planet. Today all ecosystems are highly compromised and the biggest problem is the domino effect that occurs between them. Today it is impossible for science to calculate the consequences of this cascading effect that, in many cases, is accelerating and advancing the most pessimistic forecasts. Being aware of this reality can produce fear and hopelessness, but these reactions must be overcome to generate an active attitude. The change only depends on us. The future is in our hands and it depends on all of us working together and from our place: governments, citizens, and companies. We are facing a new paradigm of economic, social, and environmental development.
The problem is us.
At present, it is no longer possible to speak only of global warming. In addition to the environmental crisis generated by the increase in the average temperature of the Earth, there are other difficulties of equal or greater magnitude.
Deforestation; desertification; agricultural expansion; the massive extinction of species; the devastation of the seas, air, soil, and water pollution; excessive energy consumption, and the destruction of the ozone layer; are some of the serious problems that humanity faces today. For this reason, from R21 we propose to speak of Global Environmental Change: a summation of all the destructive actions that people generate on the planet.
We are responsible for this crisis: it is how we develop that causes this problem. Although it is difficult for us to understand it, our daily actions, which from our personal perspective surely seem insignificant to us, generate a great impact. The problem is that these small daily actions are added to those of more than 7 billion people daily and in that sum is where everything becomes harmful to the planet.
This impact not only affects the environment but also threatens our existence. The ecosystems that we are destroying are those that provide us with innumerable resources without which we could not survive.
It is our ecosystems that generate the oxygen we breathe; they provide the raw materials to make our medicines; provide fresh food; and purify and transport water. However, and beyond all the inestimable benefits they bring, we are devastating them. From 1980 to the present, more than a third of all the planet's natural resources were irresponsibly consumed as if they were infinite, in order to satisfy our demand for goods and services in a system that is not sustainable and therefore needs to be modified immediately.
Understanding that we are the problem is the first step to solve Global Environmental Change. This crisis is nothing more than the result of our disconnection with nature, which led us to seek a lifestyle based on an absolutely wrong economic and production model.
Global Environmental Change is the greatest difficulty that we as a species go through and puts our very existence at risk not only to humans but also to a large part of life on the planet. And the consequences will not occur in the distant future, as was believed, but we are already living them. The time to act is now!
WE CAN SOLVE THIS CRISIS.
YOUR CONTRIBUTION IS THE ONE THAT WILL MAKE THE DIFFERENCE.
