7 Human Weaknesses Devastating to the Progress of the Planet and Humanity

Human weaknesses and self-destructive processes described below constitute the most subversive group of problems that are slowly destroying the planet and forcing humanity to constantly spin in a vicious circle.

Although there are actually many more, in this article, we deal with the following:

A woman at a protest carries a poster that reads, "We are better than this."

Many protests have yielded results fighting for the progress of the planet and humanity.
Image by StockSnap from Pixabay 

1. Urban sprawl

Let’s be honest – no one will ban or stop the growth of cities. That is a pure reality – urban areas are flourishing, while villages are dying. Like always, problems lie in question: how are we solving environmental, health, social, and economic problems that are emerging incontinently during this process?

The worst consequences of the expansion of cities are the occupation of fertile land, the rise of various pollutants, the increasingly difficult organization of life within metropolitan areas, the increment in the number of modern diseases, and, consequently, the complication of the delay of long-term solutions.

Only constructive and widely accepted answers embodied in progressive and proactive actions can help us. But that’s the story for another – What If!

A street in the city is littered with garbage with pictures of random people inserted.
Enormous waste generation is one of the biggest problems in cities – Image by Ulrich B. from Pixabay

2. Public health losses

I would have to say too much about public health topics because nothing is more important than health. All environmental problems and their multiple interactions pose a huge risk to the health of humans and the whole planet.

The Newspaper – Image by PDPics from Pixabay

Poor air quality in cities, pollution of aquatic ecosystems, consequences of climate change, arguable food quality, lack of quality food, famine in many parts of the world, disease-carrying organisms (pathogens), wars for resources and territories, hectic life, and stress are the biggest causes of various illnesses and deaths. All these issues cost each country enormous amounts of money that can be redirected to prevention measures. 

An Illness – Image by Hasty Words from Pixabay

3. Genetic engineering

Roughly said, within this process engineers take sequences (portions) of the DNA of one species and “incorporate” them into the genome of another species in order to make that target species have the desired traits. These ventures can have good and bad sides.

A Thing – Image by adege from Pixabay

Traditionally, humans have manipulated genomes indirectly by controlling breeding and selecting offspring with desired traits. Genetic technologies are changing the way we produce food, increasing crop yield, and preventing catastrophic losses from droughts, floods, and pests. They are also offering new solutions for fighting cancer and many hereditary diseases, improving quality of life and life expectancy.

The Life – Image by truthseeker08 from Pixabay

On the other hand, the release of genetically modified organisms into the environment can increase the number of human diseases, endanger wildlife, and lead to environmental disasters, because any violent change of processes in ecosystems can have unforeseeable consequences.

As we can see, this recombinant DNA technology meant to alter the genetic makeup of organisms has got good and bad sides, but one warning still rings: we are not completely aware of the consequences yet.

4. Wastefulness

One of the first definitions of wastefulness I have found is: “Systemic and avoidable practices in the consumer economy that diminish our ability to make people better off.”

Excessive consumption, laziness, greed, selfishness, and fear of death are mostly destructive and lethal, but in everyday life, we are not completely aware of these drawbacks. 

A Teardrop In The Center – Image by photosforyou from Pixabay

Every single part of our never-repeating lives can be wasteful or within “normal” modest ways of living. It depends on us. Overspending any kind of commodity or service with all its consequences leads to overwhelming of waste materials, generating of thousands of types of pollutants, lack of food and clean air and water, millions of forms of diseases and causes of deaths, toxic relations, tears in rain, and so on, and so on… But it is not time to die!

Tears In Grey Sculpture – Image by joseph_Berardi from Pixabay

The primary goal of this (construction) site is to accelerate the process of changing this mindset with constructive proposals, ideas, and solutions, giving a contribution to improving the lives of our and future generations.

5. Greed – A cohort of human weaknesses that has never been defeated

Yes, we need money – for bills, for food, for water, for transportation, for gifts, for fun…for a decent life. But, the question is: how we can perform earning enough without destroying anybody’s destiny or even life? Without trampling corpses? There are solutions for that too. 

Greed is at the root of all human self-destructive processes.
But, We Need Money – Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay

Someone would say – just greed – this word tells quite enough by itself, without the need for a specific and exhausting explanation. At the same time, it is the most informative and the strongest of all the loneliest words in the world.

6. Famine

Decade after a decade we are witnessing destinies of people who are starving and dying in misery, hungry and ill, wondering consistently is there anybody to help them. The sad truth is that, although the planet produces enough food for everyone, one part of humanity is still starving, while the other is throwing away large amounts of “surplus” food.

A Boy – Image by CESAR AUGUSTO RAMIREZ VALLEJO from Pixabay

This creates a lot of questions, but we actually need answers. If we cannot count on institutions and services that have precise job descriptions within these fields of working practices (social, health, and human care), what God we should invite to help us?  

A Human – Image by Kasun Chamara from Pixabay

One thing is certain – only satiated, healthy, and satisfied people have enough will to change things for the better. It is true that politicians are satiated, but they are not satisfied, they have money but not happiness, at least not most of them (you can, also, read the following subheading). That is why there are people like us who can influence both politicians and those who do not think much about these topics – by offering solutions from which everyone can benefit.

If millions of people are still starving or even dying from hunger, that means we can not afford ourselves thousands of years to move things from a deadlock. Yes, some viruses are dangerous, many bacteria are deadly, but the crucial problems of humanity lie in greed, wastefulness, non-cooperation, misunderstanding, and conflicts. This is a huge area of challenges where there are enough jobs for everyone.

As for me – I have chosen my way.

7. Bad governance – Poor politics

What is the main purpose of politics? What is the precise job description of politics? What do people expect from politicians? Why do they vote for them? What this, why that? There are a lot of questions, but the answer is only one – their purpose within their job is to create and maintain well-being and prosperity for all people without exceptions. There is no room for excuses and apologies here.

Although the current and long-term results of (their) political actions within the world-well-being-building-structure are still poor (I would repeat in general – globally), their salaries are not poor at all. They are well-paid without creating a well-being environment. With some exceptions, of course, which I will definitely focus on.

If someone had enough time to read all of my articles concerning environmental problems (I had only scratched a surface!), we could conclude that (almost) all of them are products of bad, shortsighted, inefficient, and (basically) destructive local as well as global politics.

As we clearly know, there is a huge area of human rights, but they all start with the right to healthy living on a healthy planet with a healthy environment.

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