If you consider the entire planet as a single organism, the way Earth functions is similar to the human body, Earth takes in energy from the sun, and distribute that energy to its various body parts, these body parts then utilizes this energy to perform a specific function. For example, Earth takes in energy, give it to plants, plants utilizes that energy, and store it in the form of sugar, just like stomach takes in energy, give it to the liver, and liver store it in the form of glycogen. Then, animals need that energy, and consume plants to get the energy to perform a task, such as running and eating. Just like our muscles need that energy, so it takes in the glycogen, and use this energy to contract and expand, and allows the movement of the organism. Now, everything is in perfect balance, Earth is taking in enough nutrients or energy to supply Earth’s body parts with energy. Then something happened, the industrial revolution, human population increased exponentially. For the past 5000 years, human population is on a very slow and steady increase, until the industrial revolution that is.

With the increasing demand from humans, Earth is losing its reserve energy (oil and coal), and not taking in enough energy to sustain the human population growth. Parallel to that can be found in cancerous cells, a tumor may stay dormant for many years, then a environmental trigger forces its population to boom, to increase in size dramatically, and the tumor will waste all of the host’s energy to reproduce endlessly. What happens when the host ran out of energy? The host dies, after that, the tumor dies. We are on a self-destructive path, we are killing the host or Earth, we take in energy endlessly to reproduce, truly, what are we doing to Earth? We get up and learn, get a job, make money, to live better, to get a wife/husband, and then reproduce, doesn’t it sound stunning similar to a tumour? They learn to bypass body’s immune system, take in so much nutrients so these tumour cells won’t be starved of nutrients, then reproduce through mitosis. Eventually, we’ll kill Earth, and thereby kill ourselves.

But don’t give up yet. What separates us from a deadly cancerous cell is that we humans, are self learning, that we think ahead, we are self repairing. A tumour will grow until the host dies, we humans, with your help, will not kill Earth, but coexist with it. I should emphasize that it is with your help. Before too much damage is done, please help the environment, a step at a time. Walk if it is not too far, take a bus if it is not terribly inconvenient to you, bike if you are not going anywhere important, turn off your monitor if you are not using the computer for a while. Every step you take towards reducing wasted energy, not matter how small, it is definitely a step in the right direction.

Maybe you think that the problem is not as serious, you can worry about it later. Let me tell you a story. Imagine one bacteria in a test tube, every minute it multiplies by 2. At time 0:00, there is 1 bacteria in the test tube, at time 0:01 there is 2 bacteria in the test tube. We know that at time 6:00 the test tube is full of bacteria, so at 5:59 the test tube is half full, at 5:56 the test tube is 1/16 full, at 5:55 the test tube is 1/32 full, at 5:50 the test tube is 0.9% full. So 10 minutes before the bacteria fully occupies the test tube, the test tube is only 0.9% full, and for 5 hours and 50 minutes, there is no problem at all. So if you think the whole environmental problem is not too serious, think again. You may say that we can find a new planet, and settle there. Well, lets say at 6:00 three new test tubes is added, how long will it last till the bacteria fills up all 4 test tubes? At 6:01 2 test tubes will be occupied, at 6:02 all four test tubes will be occupied. If we bring another 4 test tube, it will only last us one more minute when all 8 test tubes are filled. No problem is too small, especially when it relates to the environment. Change the world with your two hands, NOW.