Even if you would want to argue that we're not the worst invasive species the world has ever experienced, and if you want to deny that we are responsible for environmental devastation and climate change, you can not deny that we play a significant role. We dump 717,500 to 1,242,500 tons of trash into landfills each day. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an area of ocean between California and Hawaii that is filled with mostly plastic garbage is now 600,000 square miles and still growing. That is twice the size of the state of Texas. The US alone emitted 5.14 billion tons of CO2 in 2017. In 2009 the EPA reported that Chromium-6 is prevalent in at least 35 US cities' drinking water. In 2017 it was found in the drinking water of over 200 million Americans. Need I continue?
We do know that mass extinction is cyclical. What we are doing is bringing about the next extinction at a staggering rate.
But let's say, for the sake of argument, that humans aren't making as big an impact as we think. Would it really hurt us to stop filling our world with garbage? Would it really hurt to stop being the cause of the extinction of thousands of species of life each year? Would it hurt us to stop making our air unbreathable? Would it hurt us to stop polluting our water and killing our land? Would it hurt us to leave our children and grandchildren a world that is as clean and beautiful as the one we inherited?
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