My blog

Homo sapiens has become rampant on Earth. When Christ was born, there were 250 million of us. The first billion burst at the beginning of the 19th century, the second in the 1930s, and we entered the 21st century with a population of about 6 billion. The human population is currently growing by a billion every 12 years or so. Next year, we will celebrate crossing the 8 billion mark, and just after 2050, we will break through the psychological barrier of 10 billion apes.

Our civilization has accomplished great things. We have discovered fire, invented the wheel and writing, constructed the steam engine, learned to farm, built factories, invented vaccines, contraception and in vitro, built the computer, created the internet, social networks and bitcoin, flown into space and stood on the moon, while at the same time humiliating and plundering our Earth, which bore all the costs of these changes, discoveries and inventions.

Despite our wisdom, we die to a significant extent from two seemingly trivial but incurable diseases. The first is wealth. Its symptoms are obesity, lack of exercise and unhealthy food. The second is poverty. Its symptoms are lack of access to water, a doctor and work. There are currently 1.7 billion overweight people in the world, and 0.8 billion are obese. One billion people do not have access to safe drinking water, and 8 million people will die from hunger this year.

Meat consumption has doubled in the last twenty years and is still growing. The average person on Earth eats 35 kilograms of meat per year - twice as much as the World Health Organization recommends. Americans eat the most - over 100 kilograms per person per year, and residents of the European Union - 70 kilograms per person.

Farm animals make up 60% of the biomass of all mammals on Earth, and farm birds make up 70% of the biomass of all birds. Animal husbandry is responsible for 16% of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere and 44% of methane emissions. A single 5,000-pig farm produces more excrement than a city of 50,000. Animal husbandry is the largest source of ocean pollution, the cause of ocean "dead zones" and one of the major causes of coral reef death. Animal husbandry uses one tenth of the world's drinking water resources. It takes 20,000 liters of water to produce a kilogram of pork, and up to 50,000 liters of beef. Meat production takes up 70% of agricultural land and 30% of the Earth's ice-free surface. The logging and burning of forests for feed crops and livestock farming cause enormous environmental damage.

The average inhabitant of the Earth generates about 300 kilograms of waste per year. A Pole – 350, a European 500, a Dane 700. It is estimated that by the middle of the 21st century the amount of waste generated by humans will increase by as much as 70%. 37% of the Earth's garbage ends up in legal landfills, 33% ends up in illegal or uncontrolled landfills, 19% percent of waste is recovered in recycling and composting processes, and the remaining 11 percent is incinerated. 15 million people in the world earn an informal living as garbage collectors.

Globally, one third of food is wasted at various stages of its production and consumption. Every European wastes over 150 kilograms of food per year. Poles rank fifth in Europe in terms of waste. The average Pole throws away one third of the food they buy, which is about 52 kilograms per year. Wasted food is responsible for 8% of greenhouse gas emissions, and 30% of the world's crop area is used to produce food that ends up in the trash.

Humans consume far more resources than the Earth can naturally renew and emit far more waste than the Earth can absorb. We consume the equivalent of 1.7 Earths. In other words, if we had 1.7 Earths, our consumption would be balanced with the Earths' capacity to renew itself. If we consumed like Australians or Americans, we would need 5 Earths, like the French, 3 Earths, like the Chinese, 2 Earths, like the Indians, 0.7 Earths.

Earthlings use almost half a billion megawatts of energy daily. This is about 1.5% of the energy that reaches Earth from the Sun every day. However, we are not able to use this solar energy. Globally, only 15% of the energy consumed by humans comes from renewable sources, and the remaining 85% is obtained from traditional energy sources, i.e. oil, gas and coal. Their deposits are slowly running out. Oil resources will last us for 41 years, gas for 164 years and coal for 405 years.

Oceans make up 70% of the Earth's surface, but fresh water makes up only 3% of the Earth's water resources, and only 1% is suitable for drinking. An American uses 400 liters of water per day, a European 200 liters, and a Pole 160 liters. It takes 1,000 liters of water to produce one T-shirt, and 10,000 liters to produce one pair of jeans.

The concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has been increasing at an unprecedented rate in recent years. Scientists are sounding the alarm – an acceleration of climate change is inevitable. Such a high concentration of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere occurred four million years ago. The temperature was probably 2-3 degrees higher then, the ice in Antarctica and Greenland was melting rapidly, and the sea level was a dozen or so meters higher. This scenario may repeat itself.

Can the process of degradation of our planet be stopped?

The problem is that neither states, nor governments, nor ordinary citizens are particularly determined to take bold actions to save the planet.

During the last UN climate conference – COP26, last year, the final document was agreed with difficulty. Almost 200 countries committed to a gradual, but too gentle withdrawal from fossil fuels, including coal. The commitments made, which - if kept - can limit global warming to only 2.4 degrees compared to the beginning of the industrial era. According to scientists, the necessary goal for the Earth is 1.5 degrees. Only this level will protect us from serious climate change.

In turn, governments are not eager to implement ecological solutions, because these usually involve inconvenience, costs or at least the necessity of changing the habits of their voters, which will not help to maintain power for the next term of the government. The misfortune of ecological actions is that they bring effects in the long term, which usually goes far beyond the current term of the government.

I don't understand, for example, why in Poland we can't introduce a simple law that completely prohibits the use of any packaging in stores. I still remember the old days when no one thought about ecology and to buy anything at the market you had to bring your own bag or packaging.

The ecological approach is not common among ordinary people. People generally don't give a damn about ecology and are not going to change their habits or give up comfort in the name of fighting to save the Earth for future generations. The vast majority of people will start taking care of the environment, segregating waste, minimizing the use of packaging, or limiting meat consumption only when they are forced to do so through legal regulations introduced by the government, and the government is not in any hurry to do so.

The only thing that can save the Earth from our debauchery, consumerism and ecological ignorance is science. If it invents a way to produce food that significantly reduces the carbon footprint or finds a cheap method to obtain energy from the unlimited resources of the atom or the Sun. For now, however, there is no indication that this will happen any time soon.

Just as I am an incorrigible optimist in life, I do not predict anything good for the future of the Earth. Maybe not tomorrow or next year, but I do not expect anything to happen that will stop us from sawing off the branch on which our human species is sitting.