”The power to heal and to rebuild” – read this!

If we were to vanish

In the light of what has been happening to our planet Earth in the past decades – including this ongoing one – I would like to lead you to a story of a world free of humans. For just a short moment, see the world in all its glory without people polluting its very existence.

As the human race holds no significant purpose in the food chain, simply wiping our species away wouldn’t cause any harm whatsoever to the planet. Human beings have no natural enemies, but we are the worst enemy of every creature there is.

So if some unimaginable force of nature – or an extraterrestrial being, or maybe a disease of some kind – wiped us all away, what would the Earth end up being like?

My guess is, our planet would just grab the opportunity and heal itself. Nature would conquer back what used to be a part of it; cities would collapse under its forces. The skies would be clear once again, and maybe in a millennium or two the oceans would become bright blue again and the coral reefs would dazzle in their old glory.

So if this would be the future without us, and us having little to no meaning in the food chain whilst all the other species hold interconnectedness with one another, why are we here? Why does it sometimes feel like we are wired to destroy everything that is beautiful and gracious?

I state that we are here to learn. We are to be taught an important lesson on what is right and what is wrong. And I state it’s not too late for us to rebuild a world where we can live in coexistence with every living being. I am in such sure belief that we as humans also have the power to heal and to rebuild.

Jenni Leppänen, 4. vuoden opiskelija (teksti kirjoitettu englannin kurssilla)