Humans- formed about 200,000 years ago: dominates out of the 5 million species of our planet

Reason: Overpopulation, by no predators as compared to insects and longer life span

Many advancements gone through; health, industrial, agricultural revolutions; Life expectancy reduced, Infant Mortality rate reduced and Income levels increased

Overpopulation leads to demand of basic resources; food, water and shelter

Food- expected to double by the end of 2050; yet production expected to decline over the years

Enough food not produced to meet the requirement of 1 meal per day of the present population

Water- Only 1% is consumable, rest is salt water; yet we waste and pollute it by various ways

Average water consumed by a person in household is 100 litres

Hidden water- water consumed in manufacturing everyday commodities; Ex: Cup of coffee contains about 100 litres of water, Jeans pant contains 7000 litres and etc

Plastic water bottle requires 4 litres of water- Irony

Land- to occupy the growing population; Forests cleared to expand cities

People are shifting from rural to urban areas for better earnings

Accumulation of population in urban areas leading to shortage of resources

Overconsumption- with resources in proximity for a certain group of individuals

Not just done by those who have more money, is also done by every commoner

For ex: Bucket and Shower comparison

Climate change- Caused by various human activities such as deforestation, vehicle emissions and factory emissions etc.

A silly cause; Livestocks contribute for 18% in the total greenhouse gases emitted

Reason: More CO2 produced by digestion and Methane gas also released by the cow dung; livestock also require more croplands for their food and more water than an normal individual

If one person stops eating beef in the US for one year; 90% reduction in the croplands, 94% reduction in the greenhouse gases emitted by livestocks and 93% reduction in the nitrogen fertiliser used.

Effects: Melting of ice caps, formation of tropical cyclones, global warming, ozone depletion, nitrogen cycle disruption, acid raining, etc.

Acidification of ocean fastened up due to increase in CO2 levels in the atmosphere

Prediction- Amazon forest, which supplies upto 20% of the oxygen demand of the planet, also called the lungs of the Earth, may turn into a desert or a savannah in the years to come

Waste production- Byproducts produced by the human activities which is unusable is referred to as waste

Research: A human produces more waste than his/her own mass every week, which means we are producing on an average 480 billion kgs of waste every week all around the world, most of which is non-biodegradable, that is they don’t decompose or rot down.

The waste which is present on the planet is already more than the mass of all the living beings combined, that means more space is occupied just to accomodate the waste

Vehicles- required for transport of people and resources

Already about 1.4 billion cars are on the planet, meaning one in every 8 person has a car

Causes air and noise pollution, also space gets used up in the form of traffic

Even fuel based cars replaced with electric cars, materials for their production would be required, traffic not subjected to change much and electricity is obtained from thermal power plants, thus pollution would still remain

Materials- Fossil fuels are liable to deplete soon; Coal has another 130 years, petroleum and natural gas have another 50 years

Other metals like copper, tin, silver and especially iron and aluminium are also about to get depleted soon

Competition- resources are confined to specific areas, for ex: Oil is especially found in the Arab region

Conflict theory, given by Karl Marx, says that people would compete with each other for limited availability of resources

Already evident from the case of wars, like the one going between Russia and the world.

Self damage- People affect their own bodies by smoking, drinking, drugs etc

Promoted by films though an insignificant warning is given

So, now can our planet be saved?

I think our planet has gone well beyond the level to be saved and are already lead us to our extinction

Only thing we can do is delay the extinction by working together for the saving of our environment

Everyone can make minor contributions for a major change in the future,

Thank you.

The event was well organized and perfectly managed by the school. It was a very good opportunity for myself to improve my speaking skills and also to lower my stage fear. Many children of all classes had performed well, which was nice to see and hear. The event was informative for both the parents and the students, who had prepared for the event. The opportunity to present a speech before a TED talker was absolutely rare and awesome, and has given me high hopes for my future.