Why should we care about this planet?

Nowadays we hear a lot about the impact of humans on this planet. Humans are the largest consumers of the natural resources of this planet. We benefit immensely from the things produced by nature, we are heavily dependent on some of them like sunlight, natural gas, air, water, etc. Any living entity needs to consume at least a few things from its surrounding environment to survive, if consumption is matched with regeneration of consumed stuff then life is in perfect balance. But for some reason, if we cannot maintain this balance then also nature adjusts as much as it can, but there is a limit to how much abuse it can take, and when things go beyond a certain limit results can be catastrophic. Because of recent developments in science and technology, we have seen tremendous improvement in the quality and longevity of human life, this has also resulted in an increase in the consumption of natural resources at an unprecedented level.

We need to learn how to reduce our carbon footprint so that we can minimize the harmful impact of consumerism on our planet. There are many environmental problems like air, water, and land pollution, global warming, depletion of non-renewable natural resources, etc. They all are related to the heavy use of natural and human-made resources. Because of tremendous progress in the area of science and technology, we have achieved many things that were considered impossible a few decades ago. This has resulted in heavy consumption of natural resources such as water, land, trees, fossil fuels, etc. Instead of using these natural resources, we are misusing them, nature can not take this abuse endlessly, we are seeing some early signs of warnings in the form of climate change, unpredictable weather, and natural disasters. Right now, we have all the necessary technology,  necessary resources, and the required capability to address most of the issues on our planet. Never before in the history of humanity have human beings as capable as we are today.

At present, this is the only planet in the entire universe on which we can survive without any artificial aid. We are still trying to find proof of the presence of life on other planets. Even if we find proof of life, it's very unlikely that we can find any other planet that will be as suitable as this one for our habitat. We know the problem, we even know possible solutions and we have all the resources and capabilities to control the damage, but still why we are not doing it? What is stopping us from taking those steps? Is it that difficult? Are we so selfish that we don't want to think about the well-being of our future generations? It's not that we have to make huge sacrifices to control global warming, people who don't want to stop excessive consumerism paint the picture as if global warming advocates want people to stop breathing because they emit carbon dioxide, it's not like that, small steps can bring very effective change. A few things that everyone can do are to save electricity, limit the use of vehicles (walk wherever possible, its healthy also), and try to use renewable source products (like paper, bio-based fuel, etc.). These are very easy steps to follow, It's not the responsibility of governments alone to ensure the well being of this planet we all should contribute. If we care we must show by our actions that we really care just thinking about it or talking won't help.

The quality of our lives is directly related to the health of our planet. There can not be a good life without a good planet. Currently, we can't create a new planet but we definitely can maintain and preserve the planet which we have. We are not doing any favor or some social work for others by preserving this planet, we have to do it for our own lives, and our own fellow beings. We all breathe the same air, and live on the same planet, if anything goes wrong with his place we all will suffer. We can enjoy a good life because our ancestors didn't destroy the ecological system of this planet, and they didn't disturb the natural balance that is required for the smooth functioning of our ecosystem and environment, are we doing enough to make sure that we pass on similar healthy planet to our future generation? 

Thanks for reading and please share your views.

Related References:
1. http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming
3. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/globalwarming/index.html
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy

(Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing at vvt1974@gmail.com)