The world is not getting better

The world is not getting better

People's lives may be improving, but what about everything else that shares our planet?

During difficult times, social media users tend to share thought-provoking pieces, charts and graphs that prove that humanity has never had it better.

These graphs focus on the growth of beautiful things like basic education, literacy, democracy and vaccinations and the decline of terrible things like extreme poverty and child mortality.

The diagrams are often accompanied by pithy captions such as “great proof that humanity hasn’t really screwed up.”

alt="People's living conditions are improving (Image: Our world in data)">Our world in dataPeople's living conditions are improving

What the captions ignore is that humans are not the only species that matters. The world may be a better place for us, but what about the millions of species that also call Earth home?

Even the most measured debates about climate change are about our lives, our children, our future. Perhaps this solipsism is necessary; Maybe most people just don't care about a problem unless it creeps into their own shadows or knocks on their own door. There are kids and bills and everyday errands - who has the ability to worry about gigantic problems like climate change?

However, as we go about our daily business, our devotion to obscene consumerism is gradually wreaking havoc across the planet.

Loss of wilderness

Last year, scientists revealed that humans have destroyed a tenth of Earth's wilderness in the last 25 years alone. The study, published in Current Biology, reveals alarming findings about the world's wilderness (defined by the authors as "largely biologically and ecologically intact landscapes that are largely free of human interference").

alt="Climate Change: Amazon">DreamtimeThe Amazon accounts for 30% of the wilderness lost in the last 25 years

The study shows that an estimated 3.3 million km2 of wilderness has been lost since the early 1990s, 30% in the Amazon and 14% in Central Africa.

Additionally, three of Earth's 14 terrestrial biomes now no longer have globally significant wilderness areas. An additional five biomes now have less than 10% wilderness remaining.

If current trends continue, there could be no significant wild areas left in the world in less than a century.

The sixth mass extinction

Human activities have ushered in what some scientists call the Anthropocene, which refers to the period when human activities began to have a significant global impact on Earth's geology and ecosystems.

The Anthropocene could culminate in an irreversible mass extinction that would be catastrophic for life on Earth, scientists warn.

alt="Human activity could trigger sixth mass extinction, scientists say">DreamtimeHuman activity could trigger sixth mass extinction, scientists say

The sixth mass extinction is different from the five previous mass extinctions because it was caused by human activity.

The causes include: the global spread of non-native species; human dominance over the world's primary production; human actions in directing evolution; and modern society's insatiable appetite for road construction (despite their destructive impact on nature) and new technologies (despite their toxic impact on the environment).

Rising temperatures

Last year was the hottest since records began in 1880.

Earth's average surface temperature has increased by 1.1°C (2°F) since the late 19th century. Most of the warming has occurred in the last 35 years, with 16 of the 17 warmest years occurring since 2001.

Not only was 2016 the warmest year on record, but eight of the 12 months that make up the year - from January to September, excluding June - were the warmest on record for those respective months. October, November and December 2016 were the second warmest of these months on record - in all three cases behind the 2015 records.

That same year, Outside Online published an obituary for the Great Barrier Reef. It begins:

“The Great Barrier Reef in Australia died in 2016 after a long illness. It was 25 million years old.

For most of its life, the reef was the largest living structure in the world and the only one visible from space. It was 1,400 miles long, with 2,900 individual reefs and 1,050 islands. Overall, it was larger than the United Kingdom and contained more biodiversity than all of Europe combined. It was home to 1,625 species of fish, 3,000 species of molluscs, 450 species of coral, 220 species of birds and 30 species of whales and dolphins. Among many other achievements, the reef was home to one of the world’s largest populations of manatees and the largest breeding site of green sea turtles.”

The article is undoubtedly alarming, but perhaps stunts like this are necessary to draw the world's attention to important but unsexy environmental issues. After all, glaciers are melting at a glacial pace and no one has such long attention spans. Perhaps bold stunts can succeed where statistics and studies fail.

Need for action

Widespread apathy, coupled with political cowardice, has put us on the path to environmental catastrophe - and it's getting worse.

The new President of the United States, Donald Trump, thinks climate change is a hoax and his cabinet is full of skeptics and deniers. Additionally, references to climate change were removed from the U.S. government website following Trump's inauguration. It's clear that things are poised to get much, much worse.

alt=”The US National Park Service was reportedly banned from tweeting after its anti-Trump retweets”>DreamtimeThe US National Park Service has reportedly been banned from tweeting following its anti-Trump retweets

At a time when even the guardians of our most treasured places are being asked to remain apolitical, we must all do more on an individual level.

Humanity's darkest acts - genocide, colonization, slavery - usually occur over the course of decades, hidden under the cloak of normality. There are no flashing danger signs or blood-red warning flags, but rather a gradual conquest of popular opinion. Climate change is happening on an even longer time frame and we are clearly having a hard time wrapping our minds around the next century.

There are seven billion people on earth. Human life is dear to us – and it is expensive – but the planet and its preservation are more important. Biodiversity is greater than us and we have an obligation to preserve reference points of pre-human environments.

Basic education, literacy, democracy and vaccinations may all be improving, and for humans this could be the best of times, but for everything else it could well be the worst.

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