The Ailing Planet

Image Courtesy: NASA Earth Observatory Fellow Earthians, The tiny orange dots that can be seen are not city lights; they are fires burning their way through the Amazon , world's largest rainforest . Image Courtesy: GETTY This year, the number of fires in Brazil alone has gone up by 85% from last year. So far, more than 80,000 fires have been detected by Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE), the highest on record since 2013. And these are not minor fires; the resultant smoke is visible from space . Brazil's environmental minister, Ricardo Salles, attributed the fires to dry weather, wind, and heat. However, CNN meteorologist, Haley Brink, clarified that the fires were human-induced and could not possibly have been started by natural causes like lightning strikes. In the words of Christian Poirier, program director of non-profit organisation Amazon Watch, "The vast majority of these fires are human-lit ."  Image

Image courtesy: NASA Fellow Earthians, This year, 29 July marked the Earth Overshoot Day, the day humanity's use of resources exceeds what the Earth can generate in one year. Let's take a moment to digest this. What the Earth produces in 12 months, we humans have finished within  seven months ! At present, we need 1.75 earths to satisfy our needs; we have only one.  Even as you are reading this, billions of pounds of carbon dioxide are being released into the atmosphere, huge chunks of glaciers are melting, hundreds of species are going extinct every single day. And like it or not, you are responsible . So am I, and the rest of all humanity. It is said the greatest threat to our planet is waiting for someone else to save it. I am done waiting. Come, join me on this journey, this race against time to save the Earth, our Earth. We have reached the beginning of the end. It is now or never. Us or no one.