Moving Back From Midnight | Working Together to Save Our Planet

Moving Back from Midnight: Working together to Save our Planet

A great deal of environmental destruction has occurred, and more damage is inevitable as the momentum of previous human actions exacts its appalling toll. Yet, while many calamities are unavoidable, there is still a glimmer of hope that we can still mitigate the damage and start to slow and turn back the clock from arriving at that prophetic moment. If we have the will to do so, we can still build an amazing and sustainable future.

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Overview

Previous civilizations have collapsed due to ecological disasters, and we now stand on the brink of a series of global environmental cataclysms that humans have never before experienced. A victim of our own brilliantly reckless ingenuity, we have made a Faustian bargain, trading the modern, yet destructive, technological present for a shattered and dying world filled the toxic remnants of that resourceful hubris. The disturbing truth is that for centuries humans have been altering the environment of the only home they have known, making it less capable of supporting terrestrial life. This de-terraforming has accelerated at a breakneck pace as technology, globalism, and populations have exploded. Greed and rabid consumerism drive a relentless global machine that churns through the planet’s limited resources at an unsustainable pace while enslaving millions to provide products to the more fortunate of the world.

In 1947 the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists created the Doomsday Clock, which symbolizes the likelihood of a civilization-ending human-created global catastrophe. In that year, the clock was set to seven minutes to midnight, and while that forecast has fluctuated over the years, it has never strayed far from the fateful midnight hour. We are now on a trajectory that is almost certain to end with the clock reaching that fatal apocalyptic hour collapsing human civilization and much of the life on the planet along with it. Yet, while many calamities are unavoidable, there is still a glimmer of hope that we can still mitigate the damage and start to slow and turn back the clock from arriving at that prophetic moment. If we have the will to do so, we can still build an amazing and sustainable future.

Authors

Roman Bystrianyk

Roman Bystrianyk co-authored with Suzanne Humphries, Dissolving Illusions: Disease, Vaccines, and the Forgotten History. Roman has an extensive background in health and nutrition, a B.S. in engineering, and an M.S. in computer science

Kathryn Schmutter, Bsc

Kathryn Schmutter has a B.S. in Conservation Biology and Environ-mental Management. Kate owns her own natural medicine clinic where she is a Counsellor and Naturopath with an M.S. in Counselling as well as advanced diplomas in Naturopathy, Nutritional  Medicine, Western Herbal Medicine, and Homeopathy.

Plastic Oceans
At least 8 million metric tons of plastic waste enter the oceans each year. If action is not taken by 2050, there will be more plastic in the sea than fish, weighing 937 million tons or equal to over 550 million cars.
Coral Reef Carnage
The majority of coral reefs worldwide are threatened by human activities, and many show signs of degradation. However, while some coral reefs have not been harmed, less than half of the world’s reefs are regarded as being relatively healthy and not under any immediate threat of destruction.
Exterminate
Livestock, mainly cattle, and pigs, make up 60% of mammals, 36% are humans, with only 4% being wild animals. Farmed poultry, such as chickens, makes up 70% of all birds, with only 30% wild.
Glaciers Going Going Gone
As temperatures increase and mountain glacier ice melts, this essential water supply is threatened with massive impacts on ecology and human livelihoods.
Air Pollution Catch-22
We must do all we can to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere to mitigate long-term warming.
Fished Out
Fisheries experts and ecologists predict that if fishing around the world continues at its current pace, species will vanish, marine ecosystems will unravel, and there will be a global collapse of all species currently fished, possibly as soon as mid-century.
Toxic World
The Earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth. In many parts of the planet, the elderly lament that once beautiful landscapes are now covered with rubbish. – Pope Francis
Flattened Forests
Each year, an estimated 130,000 square kilometers (over 50,000 square miles) of tropical forests are demolished.
Consumerism Gone Mad
Our ever-expanding “throwaway living” is characterized by rampant consumerism and the ever-increasing trend to easily discard things and buy something new.
"We report a massive region-wide decline of corals across the entire Caribbean basin, with the average hard coral cover on reefs being reduced by 80%, from about 50% to 10% cover, in three decades... Although the rate of coral loss has slowed in the past decade compared to the 1980s, significant declines are persisting. The ability of Caribbean coral reefs to cope with future local and global environmental change may be irretrievably compromised."
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In 2020, facemask manufacturing increased to an estimated 52 billion masks, with an estimated 1.56 billion of them ending up in our oceans. Facemasks take as long as 450 years to break down, providing a source of microplastics for centuries.
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According to NASA, the world has lost approximately 400 billion tons of ice from mountain glaciers since 1994, or over the weight of 1,200,000 Empire State Buildings or 265 billion cars.
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"There are clear indications that losing species now in the ‘critically endangered’ category would propel the world to a state of mass extinction that has previously been seen only five times in about 540 million years."
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Altogether pollution of the water, air, and soil are linked to an estimated 9 million deaths globally. This accounts for a staggering 16% or one in six deaths.
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"For the Amazon as a whole, the remaining tropical forest will shrink to about three-quarters of its original area by 2025 and further to about only one-third of its original extension by 2075 as a result of these combined impacts of climate change, deforestation, and fire."
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Turning back

The chapters detail the problems we all face. But with every issue, there are multiple solutions we can all implement. At the end of each chapter, there are actions listed that we can all take on an individual basis to make a difference—to change course and create a sustainable world. And what may be surprising is that many of these changes will lead you to be healthier and happier—something everyone wants.

Small Significant Steps
Although each decision you make daily might seem inconsequential, those small changes grow and magnify when repeated throughout your life. It also sets the tone for how you live your life, which influences others to make similar decisions multiplying those changes further until they are large and significant.
Bigger Steps
Other more extensive actions you can adopt will probably take more time. You may not be able to immediately take some steps because of your personal situation and others you may already be doing. Neverthe-less, all these steps are a positive shift in living and how we interact with the world.
Transformation to a Better World
The hour is late. The clock is ticking. The choice is each of ours. Like it or not, everything is rapidly changing. The result could be the most amazing transformation in history. Or the most horrible future you can imagine.