Dear Youngistan
You better decide next course of action after reading these facts on Earth Day.
GOOD NEWS
Ozone is healing: Thanks to the awareness about ozone layer and its importance, world is now acting better and cleaner. Ozone layer protects us from UV rays that cause skin diseases. Last year, a UN assessment revealed that the ozone layer was finally starting to heal and should be back to its 1980 levels by 2050 or so.
Population is in control: We are sitting in India, so it is hard to believe. But birth rates have fallen by about one-half around the world over the last 50 years. Developed countries are championing the cause of reducing births. The poverty levels have also come down worldwide.
Natural resources ain’t drying up: Don’t worry. Natural resources are in abundance and are more affordable than ever before. From cocoa to cotton to coal, they are cheaper than what they were 100 years ago. Technology has far outpaced depletion of the earth’s resources. But that doesn’t mean that we are out there to finish them.
BAD NEWS
Oceans have beds of plastic: So where does plastic finally go? Maybe oceans. While we already know of the Great Pacific garbage patch, a giant patch in a swirling subtropical gyre in the norther Pacific Ocean, there are at least five of such patches around the world in oceans.
Antarctica is melting faster than expected. The latest study last month revealed how the massive ice sheet atop Antartica is melting due to warm water underneath.
Coral reefs are vanishing: Twenty seven per cent of our coral reefs have been destroyed. If the rate continues, remaining 60% will be gone in 30 years.
No more jungles: The world has already lost 80% of its forests and we’re continually losing them at a rate of 375 km2 per day!
(The illustration by Nirjhar Som first appeared in The Pioneer)
