Humans: The Thing That's Wrong With The World

Gravit Tayal

A plague and an infection. In my opinion, we as humans are infecting the earth with pollution, litter, murder, theft, and the list could go on. We infect our young children with these horrible acts, and they learn from them and repeat them. This is the perfect definition of a plague.

We are causing major deforestation, pollution of seas, and habitat loss all over the planet. We are destroying natural ecosystems and making it hard for plants and animals to survive. 40 000. This is the number of species that have become extinct for the sake of the "intelligent" virus that calls itself "humanity". The sad thing is that more and more species are going to be driven to the verge of extinction unless and until someone or something comes up with a solution for this. The next 20-30 years will surely witness the loss of more species such as the Panda and the Tiger.

But of course! Mankind isn't responsible for any of this!

Human thinking inherently separates, divides and then seeks to protect. If one simply looks at the word humanity itself. We have divided the species up in so many ways that when someone walks through the door of a public place we no longer see human being. We have a thousand names for what just walked through that door and that enables us to separate ourselves from others. In addition, it is our thinking that has told us we are more important, more valuable than all the other species we share the planet with.

In particular, religious thoughts have become horribly aadivisive. How much property has been destroyed and how many people killed in the name of "love thy neighbor". Given all the thousands of years of admonitions like ‘thou shall not kill and thou shall not steal’, it seems apparent that not a thing has been impacted. Indeed, this is what has perhaps amplified our problems. Our thinking, it seems, has provided so much but it may very well be the thing that takes it all away.

We destroy everything. The Earth. The forest. The creatures. Even the ground we walk on. Our societies have become corrupt, our governments broken. It is too late to fix these problems. Even if we move to another planet, we will destroy it - in exactly the same way as we have this one. We fight for everything. Land. Money. Fame. But is it worth it when the resulting outcome is destruction?

The increase in disease is a message from the Earth itself. It's telling us that our time is up. We have built our dynasty high, and it will come crashing down upon us. Even in China, where its history is filled with beauty, interesting dynasties, and the evolution of potent medicines from earth, the human population has taken on the form of a plague. I saw a grown human man repeatedly hitting a baby cow. We are the only species that has ever created hell on earth through torturous maneuvers. For the baby cow, death would be better. We are just too disconnected from nature, now.

No other creature which has ever existed on earth is more self-centered, shallow, deadly, resource hogging, sly, diseased, or judgmental as a human. Shave one side of your hair, go to work, and see what happens. It's literally, just hair. Yet you'll be judged as if your ethics and morals have changed. Go to the supermarket, everything is calm, people are polite. Just wait for an emergency, people will instantly turn, push you down, grab the last bottle of water, and leave you for dead.

Sir David Attenborough, a patron of the Population Matters, has spoken out before about the “frightening explosion in human numbers” and the need for investment in sex education and other voluntary means of limiting population in developing countries.

“We keep putting on programmes about famine in Ethiopia; that’s what’s happening. Too many people there. They can't support themselves — and it's not an inhuman thing to say. It's the case. Until humanity manages to sort itself out and get a coordinated view of the planet it's going to get worse and worse." He also said "We are a plague on the Earth. It's coming home to roost over the next 50 years or so. It’s not just climate change; it’s sheer space, places to grow food for this enormous horde. Either we limit our population growth or the natural world will do it for us, and the natural world is doing it for us right now.”

But, human creativity and imagination exist in unlimited quantities and if we unleash them, we can solve most of our problems. Barrack Obama was right when he said: "this is the best time in human history to be born for you are more likely than ever before to be literate, to be healthy, and to be free to pursue your dreams". No matter where you are from, "you can hold more information in your hands than the world's greatest libraries. Together, we have learned how to cure disease, and harness the power of the wind and sun".