Will It Take A Billion Animals Dying In Australia For Us To Care About The Planet?

Experts fear close to a billion animals have died in the Australian wildfire, one of the most heartbreaking incidents to have been happening even as 2020 just began. Many animals were well-adapted to cope with bushfires, but the current blaze was beyond their capacity.

Even the animals who survived will mostly continue to perish because of starvation, dehydration, and diseases. Now, let’s talk about the reasons behind this devastating forest fire.

Bushfires are a regular feature in Australia. This fire is fuelled by a combination of factors such as record-shattering heat, prolonged drought, strong winds, and other factors. Somehow, we can conclude that their prevention efforts were not sufficient.

As a society, we must also understand that no short-term fixes or answers exist for such challenges. There is an urgent need to think in this direction. We have been busy playing with environmental equations.

It is a well-known fact that greenhouse gases have far-ranging health and environmental effects. Smog, air pollution, extreme weather conditions, food supply disruption, increased incidents of wildfires are some consequences.

Although it is a worldwide problem, India has become one of the world’s worst victims of extreme weather conditions. Our crops are being destroyed due to climate change and its effects, and I hope we are familiar with the economic slowdown that happens as a result.

The initiatives of Greta Thunberg, and others, caught momentum, but we must not forget that we are still suffering and will keep on suffering until we really give our ears to it. We must contribute through small efforts.

We all know that the situation is at its worst, so it’s time to act, and we must aim for dynamic changes. The more we reduce emissions, the less our planet will suffer.

Just take a moment and recall bedtime stories we used to listen to; mostly stories that were set in forests. Undoubtedly, “Once upon a time, there lived a ferocious lion in the forest…” is a very popular opening line for such stories. Whenever we see forests, somehow it connects us to our childhood, yet, we end up being its destructors. We are supposed to take care of nature.