It’s a bumpy ride to the end of the world

Wildfires, earthquakes, impeachment, oh my! The new year is here and so seems to be the end of the world. The discombobulating feeling of chaos and fear about the state of America, Earth and all of humanity is back to wake everyone up from their holiday slumber with a suffocating, anxiety-inducing grab of the shoulders.

Events which add to the overwhelming levels of chaotic energy include but are not limited to:

• the wildfires in Australia, which have destroyed 17.9 million acres of land, affected half a billion animals and killed 28 people
• the ongoing string of earthquakes—the highest of which received a magnitude of 6.4—that have left the country devastated physically, economically and emotionally
•  the killing of Iranian general Qarem Soleimani and the country’s response—firing missiles at U.S. troops in Iraq—which have escalated the shadow war between Iran and the U.S. of December into direct conflict

All before the first month of the new year has concluded! Although the earthquakes and wildfires weren’t caused by human activity, the worsening human-induced climate change will ensure that they continue burning for much longer.

The world is obviously not ending anytime soon. Any and every planet has a lifespan. We won’t have the Earth forever. We as humans are continuing on a destructive path that will inevitably end mankind or the habitable conditions of the planet sooner rather than later.

Our generation is already predicted to witness the effects of climate change in our lifetime. Events like the Australian wildfires, the burning of the Amazon, the melting of the ice caps, etc. have and will release tremendous amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. That, along with the daily carbon emissions our very-human and very-excessive levels of consumerism are constantly adding to the atmosphere can and will destroy us all in itself.

The effects of climate change, such as rising sea levels and global temperatures, also have an effect on the intensity and increasing occurrences of natural disasters, which inevitably will destroy the Earth as they happen, as well.

A potential nuclear war will destroy lives, landscapes and cities. War, regardless of nuclear weaponry, will do all the same.

The ways in which the world is slowly but surely being destroyed, whether by us or natural cycles, is never-ending. However, there are ways in which we can make our time on Earth less detrimental for future generations. All of us here have a limited time to exist in the universe; attempting to make it a better place during that time is the least we can do.

There’s no self-help book on saving the world—but it starts with a mindset change and the implementation of empathy in every aspect of your life you can squeeze it into, which is all easier said than done. All of the advice about kindness and change we’ve heard and learned and reverberated our whole lives is worth listening to. Our time on Earth is already limited, let’s not make the ride to the end any rougher than it needs to be.