Reality Reflection: What if we can’t do anything?

The other day I saw part of an interview talking about the possibility that we can’t fix our mistakes or change our trajectory when it comes to saving our planet. It’s a scary thought to think that someday way sooner rather than later our planet may not be here or won’t be anything like what we know it to be, especially since we know there’s something wrong and scientists don’t think we’re at the point that we can’t fix it. I’m not a glass-half-full person, I recognize how many issues and problems we have in our world. But at the same time I have seen that when people really care and when they choose to work together great things can happen, so I also have hope that something can be done if we choose to try.

Yes, it’s a sobering thought that maybe we can’t fix what we’ve done, maybe there isn’t a way to undue the damage that’s been done, but I don’t think we should let that be a statement to give up or to stop trying. Because maybe we can’t save the planet so that it’s around for another 6,000 years or more, but knowing how much we’ve accomplished and learned in the last 100 years alone says to me that the more time that we can give ourselves, the more likely we’ll either be able to come up with a solution or have explored space enough to find somewhere else to live and do better with what we’ve learned about how we lived on this planet.

Sometimes you can’t do anything to change the future, but I don’t think that means we should just give up. I think we should keep fighting for a solution to cancers and other terminal illnesses, I think we should keep fighting for our planet. I think we should keep working to figure out how to better navigate natural disasters and the resources we have on this planet. I definitely don’t think we should waste the time we have not trying or not being considerate of ourselves or others or this planet we share because it means that things will be bad and hard much sooner. I also don’t think that we should stop living because things look so dire. So how do you balance living and working towards a better future?