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People sometimes ask, what is the world coming to? My answer to that question is not good. The world is becoming worse and worse by the second, the minute, the hour and the day. Some of the world's most valuable places are at risks including the animals that walk on this earth today.
The Amazon rainforest has been burning for weeks now and nobody has heard much of it because the of lack conversation on this earth.
Officials say the Amazon rainforest is burning at a record rate. Earlier this month, Brazil declared a state of emergency over the rising number of fires in the region. So far this year, almost 73,000 fires have been detected by Brazil's space research centre. That marks an 83 per cent increase from 2018 and the highest number on record since 2013.
You can see the smoke from the fires from space. The fires are largely linked to people clearing out the land for farming or ranching.
People need to do better. We need to do better.
The area's rainforest generates more than 20 per cent of the world's oxygen and 10 per cent of the world's known biodiversity. The Amazon is referred to as the lungs of the planet and plays a major role in regulating the climate.
The world would drastically change if the rainforest were to disappear, impacting everything from farming to the water we drink.
And there is the toll already on animals.
The amount of animals going extinct or being endangered is brutal. There are now 41,415 species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's red list and 16,306 of them are endangered not only from humans killing them but from also stealing things from the animals.
Plastic in an animal's gut can prevent food digestion and can lead to a very slow and painful death. As plastic bags can take up to 1,000 years to break down, once an animal dies and decays after ingesting plastic, the plastic is then freed back into the marine environment to carry on killing other wildlife.
Sea animals are endangered from rubbish to oil dumping or fishing and capturing special kinds and killing them for pride.
People need to stop littering and see what is happening to out world. Imagine not being able to swim in the ocean because it will be too toxic, let alone the animals that cannot live without it.
I fear the Great Barrier Reef is dying die due to human-made climate change. Climate change occurs when changes in Earth's climate system result in new weather patterns that last for at least a few decades, and maybe for millions of years.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, human-caused global warming is driving climate changes impacting both human and natural systems on all continents and across the oceans. Human-caused global warming results from the increased use of fossil fuels in transportation, manufacturing and communications.
Please help me make a difference and save our world from becoming uninhabitable.
You can make a difference by simply going to a beach and picking up rubbish or just picking up rubbish you see and putting it in the bin even by just putting your own rubbish in the bin.
Don't be like people who kill innocent animals and nature.
A simple letter can change the way someone thinks or feels so go ahead and write your heart out
I hope this letter makes a difference in our world.
Yours sincerely,
Jade Spernovasilis
Damascus College
- JADE SPERNOVASILIS writes for The Courier under youth program SHOUT, offering a platform for young people across the region to share their opinions and creative work.