Based Upon To The Residents of A.D. 2029
Sometimes it feels like the world runs by itself. There’s always food in the supermarket, life-saving devices in hospitals, and a new iPhone once a year or two. None of this could exist if it wasn’t for the abundance of resources our planet has. Some of them, like wind or sunlight, are renewable and wont run out in the next few billion years. But there are the non-renewable resources, like fossil fuels, trees, water and oxygen that could actually run out
Earth’s oxygen levels have been decreasing for about a million years, says Live Science. The main culprit is carbon emissions, though most scientists agree we’re nowhere near an oxygen crisis. If all the Earth’s oxygen disappeared for even five seconds, airplanes would crash, concrete buildings would turn to dust, among other terrible consequences. About 70 percent of the planet’s surface is made of water, but more than 95 percent of it is undrinkable, according to the BBC, and we face an increasing scarcity of freshwater compared to the demand for it. If we do run out of water, we would go through catastrophes like wars, global famine, and a global economic crisis, according to Newsweek. The Earth lost more than 500,000 square miles of trees to deforestation between 1990 and 2016, and we’re down about 46 percent since the start of human civilization. Without trees, our world would fall apart. Trees give us oxygen, keep the soil healthy, regulate the water cycle, support our food systems, and give us a very good building material. We rely on fossil fuels for things like heat, energy, fuel, and the manufacturing of everyday items like electronics and cosmetics. In the United States, 81 percent of the energy they use comes from fossil fuels, according to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. But our dependence on this non-renewable resource is decreasing our supply, and contributing to climate change. Some scientists predict we could run out of fossil fuels by 2060 if we don’t change to an alternative energy.
I could keep mentioning the misuses of natural resources but I think you already got the idea. We have to end with consumerism and change to renewable energy as soon as possible or we will suffer the consequences very soon. Perhaps we don’t get to see the consequences of our actions but our children will. We have to deliver a good place to live to future generations so we must make some changes.
