Is 2011 the environmental breakdown year?

Its only been some 15 days and we’ve already seen a good 600 killed by natural disasters, and billions of dollars worth of damage done to the environment. The question now is, when the hell will the world take this issue seriously?

The worst floods of Pakistan’s history gave us a reinforcement of the fact that the environment, like a typical boyfriend, can just not take the emotional blackmail and the ignorance we show it- something which was reimbursed into our minds by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Haiti, which not only killed millions and built mass-graves but now has left the country in the midst of a political and economic crisis.

We all already know how well Pakistan is doing. A great budget deficit was put only in more loom when our major primary industry of agriculture was put to the test by it’s very replenished- water. Yes, the flood killed two thousand, but has also infiltrated a good 50 percent of all the agricultural land available to us.

But this argument is not just about Pakistan. It’s about the whole world collapsing to environmental damage, and catastrophic issues becoming a world wide problem. The extent of this problem is such that the thought runs in the minds of super powers, ‘Oh, this one killed just twenty, the one before took five hundred lives- so there’s really no point helping.’ One of the most underestimated, surely corrupt, but highly potential economies- that of the South-American giant Brazil was victim to it’s worst natural disaster in history, and nations stood looking on at the pictures from BBC instead of trying that one small bit to make the difference.

At this point, it is important that people stop forgetting what they’ve been learning from their geography text books since they were 8, because global warming HAS raised the water levels in the oceans that surround us, temperatures HAVE become more extreme, ice HAS melted, and glaciers HAVE finished. It’s not happening now, it’s already happened,and we’re just seeing the start of the after effects. It gets more and more surprising every single day, especially since I learned yesterday that the north pole is no longer the north pole and even if it is, it’s actually moving 1.5 foot every year.

It may seem that some of us are hyper ventilating, but to the world, floods in Pakistan and also in Queensland recently, both unexpected, both uncontrollable, both devastating, along with the worst mudslide Brazil has seen in ages comes as a bit of a concern- to say the least.

Global conferences, seminars, all geologists, environmentalists need to stop talking and start doing. Before we have to start all over again. At the same time, we must respect the countries who helped us in our hour of extreme need, and provide support, even morally if not monetarily. Unity is the one thing that can not be washed away by waters, if we choose to stand up for each other.