The 11th hour

The 11th hour

    Us humans just sit and watch the news about all the natural disasters that are happening in the world today. We tend to think they are just an isolated major event that will get better after a while. The natural disasters including flood, hurricanes and drought are in fact all linked by how humans treat the environment. We need to have more global understanding and be aware of the consequences of our action. Greatest survival strategy of human is to navigate our behaviour to what is best for the future.

    After 200 years of industrial revolution, we are so much focused in survival and to maximise comfort and satisfaction of our wants. As a response to rapid increase in population was finding new resources in the earth and using it to create basic need for human. To keep up with the increased population, we over produce whatever human wants and stock for later use as it is considered as convenient. Satisfying human desire is almost impossible and by keep doing this, we use up the earth's resource too fast. As a consequence of focusing on satisfying the human greed, nature is giving us the warning signs. Living in a human created environment and focusing on the economy makes us forget about the early wisdom and respect to the natural environment. We need to remember that we are not separated from the nature and in fact we are the nature. We need to live in harmony with the environment not focusing on politics, economy and success.

Recent years has the highest temperature since the past. We need to realise the significant relation of the temperature increase and what we are doing to the environment. We must quickly reduce the use of fossil fuel to control the increasing temperature as we all know that we are actually committing suicide by polluting the environment. The environmental impact has direct relation to the human health. We are experiencing increasing cases of early childhood cancer, premature babies, asthma, ADHD and diabetes. Food is getting poisoned and waters are becoming dangerous to swim in. All of the increasing gases build up and create global warming and not only as a reality but as a concern for the future as we are continuing what we are doing at a accelerating rate. Extinction crisis that are happening right now is not something that should be naturally occurring. Awareness should be developed before it gets to the stage where nothing can be done. We shouldn't turn our back to natures warning signs. We can help all life survive by being aware and acting to restore the earth's beauty.

Nature has become properties of the wealth as government are not responding to these environmental impacts as they are responding to something more powerful which is the fossil fuel industry. We need to realise that what nature is doing for us can never be replaced with money. Even if we develop new technologies for renewable energy, we need the natural energy to begin with. I think its an irony how we are now putting our heads together how we can use technology to use less of the natural resources. Of course the demand of the market is inevitable due to human nature of endless greed and therefore we should use what we are good at to solve this issue. Greatest challenge of our time as designers will be to design with awareness. As designers we should always be aware of what consequences our designs may lead to and as individuals we should change our behaviour towards the environment before it becomes too late to regret.