This letter is also dedicated to children, like my friend Sophia, who have a passion for nature. |
To my dearest children,
Today is a special day that we call "Earth Day" and I have found myself awake very early in the morning thinking about you. I don't know you yet but I already love you and care about your future. I hope that you will get the same chances I have had to enjoy this beautiful planet we call "Earth". However, I am very worried that you wont. Every day it seems that parts of our planet are irreversibly destroyed.
Everyone is supposed to do something today that will make a difference to the future of the planet but I can't help feeling like it is a joke. How can we be happy setting aside only one day for the Earth when every day needs to be "Earth Day"? Sure one day is better than no day but it pains me to know that for most people the other 364 days are all "Treat the Earth Like it is Disposable" days. We can't carry on like this. We only have one planet to live on and that's it. We wont be handed another after we have completely screwed up this one and even if there is a God and he had a another planet for us, I'm sure he wouldn't let us get our filthy hands on it because he'd know exactly what would happen if he did.
When I was only 10 years old I remember reading that rain forest the size of a football field was cut down every minute or so. I thought that surely by now we would have realised how insane this is and that we would have stopped but I am now nearly 30 and the situation is even worse. The global timber industry is out of control. Deforestation has wiped out plants and animal species, increased soil erosion and flooding and contributed to global warming. The entire planet appears to be getting hotter, which is a great worry because many wonderful animals are already threatened by the temperature change not to mention the millions of humans who live in areas that will soon be flooded or hit by stronger and more frequent hurricanes. In addition to chopping down rain forest and global warming we are; creating more waste than we are able to deal with, making plans for the use of nuclear weapons we are storing that can immediately kill millions of people, ignoring poverty in the poorest countries, catching too many fish, killing whales and releasing too many toxins into the environment... to name but a few things!
I know that this all sounds very depressing and you may ask yourself how can anyone even contemplate bringing you here? I know you will be disappointed when you learn what we have done to your planet and that you will not be able to forgive us because what we have done is unforgivable.
It might seem like there is no hope at first but I can tell you that there is. Sometimes things have to become worse before they get better but it is still possible for our situation to improve and I am pretty sure it will. However, it will not be easy and you will need to fight just like a warrior if you want to make the Earth a better place. I will be fighting with you and we will not give up because every day makes a difference.
So today is Earth Day and although I will go out and try to make a difference today, I will keep on doing it tomorrow and the next day and the next day and the next day because I love you very much and I want the best for you. You will be here soon and I can't wait to meet you.
With Love
From your future mother
Lisa.
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At this moment in time my husband and I are planning to adopt children but are still considering having one of our own.
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More Earth Day Links:
Earth Day: raise a ruckus about climate chaos - Greenpeace
Calculate your ecological footprint
SHOCKING GLOBAL FACTS
Commercial logging is believed to be responsible for the extinction of tens of thousands of species each year in tropical forests alone. Over 20,000,000 hectares of tropical rain forests are destroyed every year, enough trees to cover both England and Scotland. Just four days of global military spending (estimated at $20 billion) could finance a five-year action plan to protect the world's remaining tropical rain forests.
Climate change is now considered the greatest environmental threat that we currently face. Today there is water at the North Pole in place of pack ice and carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are higher now than at any time in the previous 20 million years. The accelerating decline in species indicated that the Earth is on the verge of a mass extinction and this one will be the first to be caused by another species... us!
Coral reefs, which support over 60% of the world's fish stocks occupy an area about half the size of France. Many of these ecosytems face extinction because of rising sea temperatures and human pressures.
70% of the Earth is covered by water but less than 25% is freshwater. Only 0.25% of this freshwater is actually accessible with the rest stored deep underground or in ice. Much of this accessible water is stored in wetlands and yet over 50% of these areas have been destroyed in the last 100 years.
Every minute 274 people are born and 97 die. 177 extra people every minute means 93 million people each year. Some experts predict that, with current trends, in 50 years time human beings will consume twice as many resources than the planet can replace every year.
Earth is 46 hundred million years old. Scale this down to 46 years, then modern man has been around for four hours and the industrial revolution began one minute ago. During those seconds, man has multiplied his numbers to plague proportions, ransacked the planet for fuels and raw materials and caused the extinction of countless species.
The Earth's supply of natural resources may only be able to sustain 2 billion humans by 2100 - not good news for a global population that currently stands at 6.4 billion and is expected to reach 8.9 by 2050, by which time the population in the 50 poorest countries will have tripled in size. Half a billion people already live in countries that are water-scarce and this is expected to triple in the next 20 years.
Approximately 6.5 million tonnes of litter finds its way into the worlds ocean's each year. Every year 100,000 marine mammals and more than 1,000,000 birds are killed by plastic rubbish.
More than 12,000 known species of plants and animals are on the brink of extinction.
More tigers are now kept as pets in New York than survive in the wild in India.
Over the last 10 years, the wild orangutan population has declined by up to 50%.
Canada's annual seal hunt, in which up to 275,000 harp seals are brutally killed, make it the largest marine mammal hunt in the world.
Each year illegal hunting and trade account for the death of between 3,000 - 6,000 apes.
Over 25,000 whales have been killed since commercial whaling was banned by the International Whaling Commission in 1986, because of a loophole allowing quotas for 'the purposes of scientific research."
350,000 blue whales used to roam the Antarctic waters - today there are less than 1,000.
Each July, the annual bloody slaughter of up to 1,500 pilot whales takes place in the Faroe
At least 100 million sharks are caught each year for their fins, depleting some populations by 90%.
Thanks to the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation for the facts
