If you’ve been reading my posts for any length of time, you know that one of my interests is wellness and the importance of healthy lifestyles. I wanted to share that I am also vastly interested in sustainability and our environment. I developed this fascination several years ago, and it has continually grown.
We are blessed to have a beautiful planet to call home. It provides us with the resources necessary for survival and inspires us with nature’s miracles. There are times when I leave my home for work in the mornings and stop my car to admire the orange-tinted sky as the sun makes its way above the horizon. Forests, mountains, rivers, and oceans are teeming with an abundance of life, with each of the thousands or millions of individual organisms going about their daily activities without disturbing the overall balance of their ecosystems. Left to its own intelligence, nature will maintain equilibrium across the globe.
Unfortunately, that picture changes when human beings enter the equation. With our superior intellect and reasoning capabilities, we have built civilizations and developed technologies that have allowed us to become the dominant species on Earth. However, in the process, we have disturbed the balance of nature. Please don’t misunderstand me—I am a fan of progress. Over the past decades, advancements have allowed innumerable people to live better lives. More people now have clean water, electricity, mobile phones, and internet access. As a matter of fact, according to Hans Rosling in his book “Factfulness,” over the past 20 years, the proportion of the world population living in extreme poverty has almost halved. These are remarkable achievements, and I am elated that we have come so far.
My hope is that modern societies will learn from nature. We have figured out ways to care for our growing population, which is wonderful. However, we must maintain balance. We are not the only species living on this beautiful blue and green sphere—we share it with trillions of other beings. We have already begun moving in the right direction, as countless dedicated people are working on solutions to the many environmental imbalances that we have created. In the meantime, I know there are so many seemingly small things that I can do to help out. A few things that come to mind are planting a garden, picking up litter, turning off the lights when I leave a room, and not leaving the water running continuously while washing dishes. I have faith, and I look forward to a better and healthier planet in the future.