Today is the final post for this blog site. We back up to take a broader view of the situation with an article entitled, “Earth at Risk: An Urgent Call to End the Age of Destruction and Forge a Just and Sustainable Future,” that was published in 2024 on PNAS Nexus. It was written by a variety of authors. It is an admittedly biased article, but it brings up some very important points for the world as a whole.
Some good videos to reference that are relevant to today’s topic:
We Just Crossed Our FIRST Tipping Point… And It’s NOT What You Think
What Earth in 2050 could look like – Shannon Odell
Living in Florida’s Changing Climate | Good Natured
The article goes through several different topics to discuss the impact that a changing climate has on the world. The sections go through politics and economics, ocean effects, fossil fuel use, heating of the globe, food and water availability over time, influenza risks, global security, and the nature of the relationship between humans and the environment. Since it is an especially long article, we will focus on the topics that relate to what concerns Florida.
As brought up in the videos above, there is a global agreement between governing bodies of the world to keep global heating below 1.5 degrees Celsius, however the article explicitly states that there isn’t one country who is on track to do so. Excessive global heating combined with the progression of human development through alterations of the land for the purpose of supporting an ever-growing human population is quickly leading to excessive temperatures in certain areas of the world at unlivable levels. Natural disasters are on the rise as well, including an increasing likelihood of droughts in some parts of the world and flooding in other parts of the world. Accompanying excessive heating is the possibility of disease being spread more easily. For example, already, in 2023 there were seven confirmed cases of malaria, six in Florida and one in Texas, which is the first incidence in 20 years. These cases were locally derived, not caused by travel, and are a cause of climate hazards in those areas.
Besides global heating, other concerns involve the way humans interact with nature. Excessive use of fossil fuels and excessive waste of non-natural materials has led to an issue of pollution within the air, Earth and water. In water particularly, microplastics have become a concern that many should be worried about because it affects everyone. Excessive waste has led to plastic being integrated into the food system. Fish and other animals consume plant or ocean matter infected with pollutants, or they directly consume the plastic itself, and humans consume those organisms. Oceans, rivers, streams, and lakes are slowly being more polluted. Besides the possible health risks, plastics are killing off beneficial bacteria in bodies of water. All these factors contaminate resources and can lead to food and water scarcity.
Relating back to the last blog post, all of these factors especially affect communities that already struggle. Impoverished communities will reap the consequences first due to a lack of available resources, especially if their current ones run out due to ecological changes.
Is it all hopeless? The answer is no, but it requires a great deal of change on behalf of how society functions in order to fix what is quickly becoming irreversible. The biggest hurdle is to reduce carbon emissions to meet that 1.5 degree Celsius goal. This would mean entirely reworking how we use and receive energy. Switching from fossil fuels to clean energy sources would be priority number one. We also need to address population. Overpopulation isn’t the term that is being focused on, but rather how resources are used and distributed across the Earth. Overconsumption is the real issue, as it leaves millions in food insecurity and often destroys areas in which food or resources are cultivated.
In order to do this, we would need to reframe how we view nature. Nature cannot be viewed as a commodity, but rather as an entity in which humans co-exist with. The article looks to Indigenous communities in the United States. There is an understanding within those communities that the relationship between humans and nature is one of reciprocity. The idea is to regenerate the Earth rather than to extract from it, to take care of the world that we are residing in so that it will take care of us.
For a deeper look into how practices and culture need to change and why, the article, provided below, gives a detailed list to read through:
Save the Green: Deforestation in Florida 
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