As a young child, whenever I was asked to draw a picture, my first instinct was to crayon a picture consisting of lush, green grass, trees adorned with flowers and fruit and animals roaming free, content with the quality of life. Every picture plastered on our fridge was devoid of manmade structures, clear of the emotionless gray brick buildings that hound everyday life. In the real world, however, it was only the latter I could detect. As a race, we have come a long way and had innumerable achievements but as we move forward in time, our main issue is that we have forgotten what made this all possible and who we have to thank for all this. Mother Nature. While my proposal is not that we tear down all traces of humanity to go back to the original fur cloaks and grass skirts, it also isn’t that we should continue with our wasteful and lackadaisical ways. We should care more about the environment because not only is it the source of our survival, but one day, when we need it, it will be gone, having been squandered beyond belief.

Given the fact the nature is the base of our survival, one would expect us to take care better care of it. Sustainable Materials Management: The Road Ahead noted as of 2009 half the world’s tropical and temperate forests are now gone and 75% of marine fisheries are now overfished or fished to capacity. You might think, they were only forests and fish, it isn’t like they were that important but if that’s what you believe, you would be wrong. Many scientists believe that tropical paradise held the key to cures for diseases like cancer. Overfishing is also a pressing issue as if this practice continues, some fish species might go extinct and will destroy the marine ecosystem. Because more than a billion people rely on fish as their source of protein, the extinction of certain species of fish would jeopardise the food security of over a billion people.

Furthermore, it isn’t just fish we are wasting; it’s all our resources. Sustainable Materials Management: The Road Ahead said as of 2009 also claimed that in the past 50 years, humans have consumed more resources than in all previous history. While it may seem that Earth is still big enough to keep up with all our needs, this next report might change your mind. World Wildlife Fund released a report saying by the year 2050, two extra planets (the size of Earth) will be required if we keep exhausting resources at the current rate and a third of the natural world has already been destroyed in the last three decades. It would be a tragedy if all our progress was halted simply because we didn’t take good enough care and conserve nature.

While all of this may seem to be signals to the end of the world and an eco-apocalypse, it isn’t. There is still hope for us. Instead of relying so heavily on coal and oil, there are the sustainable alternatives of solar, wind and hydroelectric energy. Taking showers instead of baths or taking shorter showers could be the key to avoiding droughts in the future. Alternatively, consider riding a bike or walking somewhere that isn’t too far away as opposed to taking a car there. If that isn’t an option, take a bus or maybe carpool. All these options might not result in immediate change, but if we partake in these habits, the world as we know it might not end by 2050.

In the words of Henri Matisse, “There are always flowers for those who want to see them.” Similarly, if we want to see a better world and more bountiful nature, we have to want to see it. I want to be able to draw the trees adorned with fruits and flowers, lush, green grass and animals roaming free knowing that that is real life.