by Yolanda Sung
Writing is something that I carried with me throughout my life. I spent some parts of my childhood reading books from the library and collecting all that information in a giant notebook. Just like how I was as a kid, my reasoning for doing this was to bring awareness into the world about environmental issues and to help other fields understand that you don’t just have to be in the environmental field to make an impact on issues like climate change. I write because it’s important for the world to understand that ultimately, figuring out this issue will benefit humans the most. The planet is flexible and will be able to adapt to the situation on hand, but if humans are not able to adapt at all, we will perish as a species. So, in essence, we are saving humankind from extinction in a way.
Of course, that’s not to say that something like that will happen; this is probably a worst-case scenario. But it’s still daunting to think about because that brings another thought of why are we doing the things that we’re doing if the world might end? All our societal expectations wouldn’t mean a thing. All our technological advances would be meaningless, and all of the things that we’ve created as a civilization would all be for naught.
Although this would seem like extremely negative thinking or even being a bit melodramatic, if we as a society continue to go down this path, we may end up in this type of situation. Now, the question is, is it better for people to have false hope that we could potentially alter our path, or is it better to have no hope at all and not be severely disappointed when we don’t meet our environmental limits and just accept the harsh reality? That is something that I struggle with quite a bit.
I believe that regardless of which belief we have about this topic, we shouldn’t stop trying. We should not give up. We should continue to improve and grow, even though the times ahead will be tough. It is the very existence of our beings that we are fighting for.
