In the span of over four and a half billion long lifetime of our beloved planet Earth, we have come across a lot of different challenges. Each time, we have defeated our villain and rebuilt ourselves and our mother Earth. Throughout the evolution of humankind, we have challenged ourselves to make a change for the better. But in the 21st century, while the whole world is taking the greatest steps of evolution, our life support system is crashing slowly. EcoSystem is our life support. A community of living organisms and nonliving organisms in a perfect balance and harmony makes up our EcoSystem. Ecosystem in an ongoing cycle where one element's death results in the growth of a stronger element. This is the same environment where one's waste results in the other’s food. This ongoing process has been helping to keep a balance in our surroundings.
Ecosystem has been a perfect ongoing process since the start of Earth. The term ‘Ecosystem’ was introduced by a British ecologist, Arthur Tansley. Arthur Tansley defined our ecosystem as a whole system including not just complex organisms, but also the whole other physical components, which creates a whole different complex and fascinating surrounding environment. For over the past six decades, the situation of our ecosystem has not been the same. From hundred percent perfection to remaining forty percent non-degraded ecosystems. It took us, humans, only sixty years to destroy sixty per cent of our ecosystem. With a growing population and growing economy, we completely forgot to take care of our lifeline. The United Nations declared ‘Ecosystem Degradation’ an important issue on March 1st, 2019 and decided the upcoming decade (2021-2030) to be the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration with over 70 different countries contributing to this cause.
But before all of the resolutions, we have to understand the cause of it. At the beginning of the twentieth century, humans started to take great steps regarding the development of the world as a whole. After both World Wars, countries decided to make themselves strong. To make a country stronger, they needed a lot more land, buildings, roadways, chemical use, and more people. All of the nations started to cut down trees and forest areas so that they have land for their plans. Governments and locals started cutting down trees for both personal and commercial use. In the starting first few decades, this didn't seem to be a problem. And soon it was an ongoing cycle with no end in near future. With selfish human behaviour, everyone wanted to be the strongest. In the beginning of the twentieth century, we had about 7000 million hectares of land covered with forest but today, in the start of the twenty-first century we have around 2370 hectares of land covered by forest. The forest land area has dropped over fifty per cent in just a century. Deforestation is only one of many causes of ecosystem degradation. Modern Urbanization, industrialization,
Over-population, fires and alot more have contributed to this negative power source.
This may not seem like a huge problem to many. What a lot of us don't understand about Ecosystem Degradation is that it just doesn't affect the earth, it affects you, me, our families, and not just us, but also our future. Everything relies on everything around us. With cutting down trees, our atmosphere is getting affected, with the atmosphere not stable enough, the ozone layer is depleting, and with the ozone layer depleting, the temperature is rising. One small disturbance in the ecosystem, the whole cycle is disturbed. A few clearly visible results of our cause includes
Increasing natural disasters such as floods, landslides, wildfires, etcetera.
A rapid rise in sea levels because of constantly melting glaciers and ice caps.
The change in our food chain because of the extinction of a lot of species, land animals, marine animals, etcetera.
Pollution and rising temperatures
Food and Water shortage
These are a few major issues. A Lot more problems will arise in front of us in a dangerously short time. There might be a lot more impact of ecosystem degradation on us, we might have not been made aware of yet.
This by far is the most long-lasting and the hardest challenge we humans have ever faced. But with problems, come solutions as well. A few things we can do with the comfort of our own homes might include the following :
Planting plants and trees in your surroundings.
Turn off light
Don’t keep the tap running
Prohibiting the use of plastic-based products. Especially prohibiting the use of single-use plastic.
Disposing garbage properly
If possible make a compost out of the fresh food leftover and use it as fertilizers for plants around.
Sign online petitions and donate for the proper cause.
Go on rallies and spread awareness about the current world crisis around.
In the new social media age, use it wisely but spreading awareness online and calling out people who spread fake news.
Sign petitions and send it to the government so they use the yearly budget for preserving forests, national parks and building botanical gardens to take care of near extinct animals.
These might not be helpful in completely stopping our land from degrading but it sure will delay the degradation which might help in the research for a proper and permanent solution. A small change today will help a change for the greater.
To summarize all the points above, we are in a world crisis right now, this is the result of human stupidity and self-centered nature. We have been destroying the one source that provided life to us. Ecosystem degradation will take years or even decades to come to a complete stop but that won't happen until and unless we make a change for the better from today. If we want the human race to continue and see a better world than the one we are growing old in, we need to change today. A small step by each one of us will result in a healthier and happier world. Plant a tree today, see the impact tomorrow.