Lack of respect for Earth spells trouble ahead
- By Li Xinran
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E-mail Shanghai Daily, August 19, 2015
For evidence of the dire state of our planet, look no further than the Bohai Bay. This area is already labeled by some a “sea without life.” It is estimated that nearly 2.8 billion tons of sewage and 700,000 tons of solid waste spew into Bohai Bay through 57 rivers and creeks every year, according to the Economic Information Daily.
In the East China Sea, fishery resources have been nearly exhausted by local fisherman. Despite the recent end of the moratorium, it’s said that many fishing boats are still lingering in ports since there is nothing left to catch.
Such tragedies are increasingly commonplace these days, as a result of the greed and avarice that runs through human society.
In the future, resources will surely become much scarcer as the population continues to swell. There are some 7.3 billion people on Earth today, but this figure is growing so fast that the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization has suggested the inclusion of insects into human diets.
Extreme weather events also point to our increasingly tenuous existence on Earth. For instance, Typhoon Soudelor swept through east China early this month, leaving 17 people dead and five missing.
Ironically, during the storm a stone tablet inscribed with the phrase “man can conquer nature” was reportedly destroyed by angry waves during the storm. The tablet was erected along a stretch of the Hualien-Taitung Coastal Highway in Taiwan, near where the storm made landfall. This literal sign of man’s hubris toward the environment points to dangerous times ahead.
