Save Humans as Well as the Earth

I believe we need to change our language around climate change. It seems to me that our current words don’t speak the full truth. “Saving the Earth” is not what we need to set our sights on, the Earth will exist long after we humans become extinct. If we want to pay attention to humans saving something we should talk about saving our species.

I am not a scientist and I don’t need to be one to realize that we are living through a time of human-induced and unchecked climate change. When we frame our conversation around this pressing matter ‘light’ and ‘mindful living’ on the earth has the wrong connotations of sacrifice to it, when it is really about protecting and salvaging whats left. If we shifted our conversations to tie into comparison with other extinctions maybe we could unarguably begin to understand the self-defeating weight of our own errors. Some current articles do speak to one extinction leading to another.

I have always believed that when you craft words carefully you can create a more compelling picture. So instead of save the earth how about we make it personal – Save The Humans, save ourselves. If we want to save ourselves and future generations we need to prevent our home, the Earth, from becoming humanly uninhabitable. In this self-preservation attempt it seems paramount to keep the land masses above sea level and enveloped in oxygen rich air.

When nonbelievers say that their is no such thing as climate change we can just stick to the facts, if the conditions of our planet shift and make it impossible for some insects and animals to exist humans will have no immunity. The only alternative is to continue on ignorantly talking about reducing our footprint while we continue running towards the biological limits of no return. Hopefully if we humans become extinct the Earth will heal and rebalance itself.