Endangered planet: what went down in 2021
The Pandemic sure hit us when we least expected it, but did you know that our lifestyle is affecting the planet just as much? Maybe more?
Paper waste for instance, accounts for approximately 26% of the total waste in the landfills around the globe. From 2001 to 2021, a total of 386 million hectares of forest were lost globally (in all forest types combined). This loss represents an almost 10% decrease in tree cover since 2000. Paper wastage didn’t only cost us the world’s forests, but also compromised our water resources, especially in recent years. 10 liters of water is needed to make one piece of A4 paper, can we imagine how much water has gone into making one notebook?
2021, the darkest year so far for mother nature, saw a loss of trees due to manmade fires, raw material uses, and more. At the UN’s big November climate conference in Glasgow, more than 100 global leaders vowed to end deforestation by 2030 — a commitment that governments and private companies backed with $19 billion. In April, a number of countries, including the US and Norway, also launched a coalition that will pay countries that help in preventing deforestation.
Coming towards ocean pollution, in 2021 it was announced that if we continue to abuse the earth’s resources and throw the waste in the sea bed, the plastic contents in our prized water bodies will account for 30% which is bad news not just for us but also the water life that lives within. As of 2022, 5.25 trillion macro and micro pieces of plastic in our ocean & 46,000 pieces in every square mile of ocean, weighing up to 269,000 tonnes. Every day around 8 million pieces of plastic make their way into our oceans. As of 2021, there are at least 363,762,732,605 pounds of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans.
If this doesn’t compromise our future, we don’t know what will. It’s high time we take steps towards sustainability and start living less lavish, wasteful lifestyles to protect the earth and our future generations.
Remember, there’s no Planet B. We’ve got to take initiatives towards growing more trees, keeping the older one alive and minimizing our daily waste.