It’s Time to Heal our Abused Planet

by Richard Wildermann, supporter of the SI Green Space Conservancy

There are places on Earth that are inhospitable.  But for millennia humans have, with considerable ingenuity, acclimated to a wide range of environmental conditions that have allowed us to successfully populate even remote regions of the planet. Our adaptability has its limits, however, and our present condition is especially precarious because the world population continues to grow while the habitable areas of Earth are shrinking due to the effects of global warming.

Countries and resources are already under pressure from people relocating for a host of reasons.  Adding to the instability are climatic disasters that show no signs of abating. 

For example, an adequate supply of fresh water is essential for our survival, and yet the amount of accessible fresh water on and below Earth’s surface has been declining significantly due to overpopulation, overuse, and - more recently - climate change.  According to the UN, more than two billion people worldwide did not have access to safe drinking water in 2022.

The severity, duration, and spatial extent of droughts have been increasing because global warming is raising air and soil temperatures and altering atmospheric circulation and precipitation patterns. Water is becoming increasingly scarce as these megadroughts shrink lakes and dry up rivers and streams.

In the western U.S. many rivers suffer from large flow reductions and lakes are dangerously depleted mainly because of excessive use and reduced snowpack caused by higher air temperatures.  Seven states are battling over dwindling Colorado River water, which is the primary source for Lakes Powell and Mead, the two biggest reservoirs in the country.  While there has been recent improvement, both lakes are still well below capacity. 

Surface water isn’t the only problem. More than a quarter of the water used for all purposes in the U.S. comes from below ground. Water in deep aquifers can take centuries to replenish, and in many places here and around the world it is being withdrawn faster than the aquifers can be recharged. In areas where surface water supplies are inadequate, people are resorting to groundwater to make up the difference, putting further pressure on an overused resource.

As seas continue to rise, sunny-day flooding will be more common in the Lowcountry and other low-lying regions, and seawater will creep inland above ground and pollute freshwater supplies. Salt water is encroaching below the land surface as well, contaminating groundwater sources.  By some estimates more than 700 million people live in coastal areas with low terrain.  Sea level is predicted to continue rising well past the end of the century, which will force more and more people to retreat inland. 

While we suffer from too little fresh water, too much heat is also destructive.  Heat kills more people than any other extreme weather event.  It should come as no surprise that as global warming intensifies, heat waves - like droughts - are happening more often, are more intense, and last longer. Estimates vary, but according to the World Health Organization, there were almost half a million heat-related deaths worldwide every year between 2000 and 2019, and as conditions worsen the numbers keep growing.  Extreme heat also ravages communities by debilitating ecosystems and contributing to crop failures, loss of livestock, and devastating wildfires.

These climate-related assaults on people and the planet are having alarming consequences. When the supply of fresh water is inadequate, or rising oceans contaminate groundwater and drown coastal communities, or the heat becomes unbearable and adaptation measures no longer suffice, people pack up and leave.   

Although climate refugees crossing borders are not officially recognized as refugees under international law, they compound problems in many western countries already disrupted by desperate people forced to flee their homes for socioeconomic, political, and other reasons.  Climate migrants who remain in their native country tend to move into urban areas, increasing density and straining infrastructure.  The number of people displaced by climate upheaval will increase dramatically in the coming decades.  Crowding more and more people into less space is not sustainable. As extreme weather events become more pervasive, there will be fewer safe havens for people to find refuge. 

Global carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels reached a record high in 2024. Because of our negligence, we have exceeded the carrying capacity of our forgiving and durable planet.  For decades scientists, journalists and others have been patiently but persistently speaking out about the worsening climate crisis.  Now that the situation is dire, they are justifiably frustrated and screaming to be heard.  It’s past time for world leaders to listen and do more than make empty promises.