COP27: HEAL THE EARTH.

WE ALL FAIL TO UNDERSTAND THAT THE EARTH HAS FEELINGS AND IT NEEDS TIME TO HEAL. We have long misused the simple and wonderful gift of earth. WHEN I WAS DOING MY RESEARCH I CAME UPON A SITE CALLED GLOBAL CITIZEN THAT SAID ''THE EARTH NEEDS FIVE MILLION YEARS TO RECOVER FROM HUMANS''. According to the global citizen, the Earth’s last major extinction involved an asteroid crashing into the planet, vaporizing large segments of crust, and eradicating 76% of all species and It took a long time for the planet’s biodiversity to recover from that calamity, and many species never returned. The irony is that this extinction happened 66 million years ago. But the world is now facing another mass extinction event. This time, the cause is more slow-moving than a rock barreling through space still the effects are not any less devastating. For example The Asian elephant, for example, has only a 33% chance of surviving through the century, according to the researchers. What would happen if humans stopped harming the planet, within 50 years COULD THE EARTH RECOVER. According to the global citizen, advanced modeling programs and existing evolutionary data, they determined that it would take 3 to 5 million years for the planet’s biodiversity to recover from the widespread purge expected over the next 50 years and another 2 million years for biodiversity to return to levels seen prior to human life.But this is just a best case scenario. his report joins a growing body of research describing an existential threat facing the planet’s wildlife. Another report found that humans have already caused the annihilation of 83% of all wild mammals and half of all plants.

I have but one question rather than speculate about how long it would take for a species like the Asian elephant to once again evolve, why not invest in conservation measures that prevent its extinction in the first place?

We need to learn from countries like Chile, which created three massive marine sanctuaries and set aside 10 million acres of national parks earlier in the year. In Pakistan, an effort to plant 10 billion trees to foster wildlife is underway. And Botswana has dramatically reduced poaching of elephants over the past decade through improved policing efforts, now that is what I call effort.

YES THE EARTH MAY HEAL ITSELF BUT IT NEEDS OUR HELP.

Sometimes it may seem that humans have altered the Earth beyond repair. But our planet is an incredible system in which energy, water, and so much else flows and nurtures life. It is about 4.5 billion years old and has been through enormous changes, at some points in Earth’s history, fires burned over large areas. At others, much of it was covered with ice. There also have been mass extinctions that wiped out nearly every living thing on its surface. Earth’s climate has varied from extremely warm periods with no polar ice caps to phases when much of the planet was frozen. Our living planet is incredibly resilient and can heal itself over time. The problem is that its self-healing systems are very, very slow. The Earth will be fine, but humans must put in effort too help. People have damaged the systems that sustain us in many ways. We have polluted air and water, strewn plastic and other trash on land and in oceans and rivers, and destroyed habitats for plants and animals. But we know how to help natural processes clean up many of these messes althgough there has been a lot of progress since people started working on these problems a few years ago.

If we give the earth attention it would heal itself, yes it might take some time everyone needs to do their part. If any one has a spare planet somewhere now is the best time to speak up. We all need this planet and we all need this earth to heal.

We need collective action, there are simple things we can do individuals can do their share: through everyday choices, we can contribute to reduce our use of water, switch to a more sustainable diet based on plants and reduce our consumption of non-reusable, toxic products, such as single-use plastics that are choking and polluting the planet’s ecosystems. when I started writing this I remembered and advert I always saw on my DSTV about water conservation. We cannot afford to wait for the next report to remind us that the time to act is now.

Basically I just want us to discuss these questions:

SHOULD WE LEAVE THE EARTH TO HEAL ON IT'S OWN OR SHOULD WE HELP IT OUT.

CAN THE EARTH RECOVER IN LESS THAN FIVE MILLION YEARS, WHY OR WHY NOT.