Ecology | Climate change

We Deserve To Go Extinct

The Challenged writing prompt of June 5th, 2026

Dry soil — photo by author.

For June 5th, Mary Acton said it’s World Environment Day. The Earth is already speaking to us — through record-breaking temperatures, more intense wildfires, extreme storms and glaciers disappearing before our eyes. What has changed in your country?

As you may know by now, I’m not the biggest fan of “special” days, though the environment is important enough to dedicate a day to. However, every day should be environment day.

That being said, I’d like to start by saying that I’m not a climate change denier. The climate is definitely changing, and we are at least partially responsible for that, but… the climate has always changed. I’m not saying that we’re alright, but it’s the first time mankind has been confronted with this at a conscious level. What I’m getting at is: this is not an exceptional event, merely unfortunate.

To be very honest, we deserve to go extinct. We are a horrible species in pretty much every aspect. We have no respect for our very very very tiny, little — and only — corner of the universe; we don’t respect other life, and we don’t even respect each other. Selfishness is a natural phenomenon, but with our intellect we should transcend that, especially since there is no shortage of anything — yet.

Back to the question at hand: what has changed in my country?

There haven’t been major changes. It doesn’t get much hotter in summer than it did when I was young, five decades ago, give or take. It is hotter for a longer time, though. And weather sometimes gets a bit more extreme, but again, not by much — Belgium has always had a moderate climate. Hot months are hot for a little longer and wet months are wet for a little longer.

The longer hot periods do cause the water level of ponds to drop a bit deeper than usual, but eventually they recover, at least for now.

During our travels, we saw more impact of climate change, but, again, we saw quite a bit of these phenomena 25 years ago too. Especially in Spain, where many river beds are dry most of the year — I reckon they are dry for longer now than they were in the early 2000's.

Wildfires are an issue too, but a lot of these are caused by monoculture plantations of flammable trees. Pine trees in southern France were already a problem back when I was about ten years old — I practically was in a forest fire near Sainte-Maxime. And last year I witnessed dozens of forest fires in northern Spain — some lit, if you can believe it — and the true problem was the over-planting of eucalyptus. Sure, there are more fires, and they are heavier because of the extended periods of heat and drought, but you see these more in sensitive areas with industry-oriented plantations, at least here in Europe.

Wildfires also rarely “just start” — an estimated 80–90% of fires are caused by humans. They are sometimes lit — as mentioned above — but in many cases they are the result of human carelessness, like a “forgotten” glass bottle concentrating sunshine into a hot beam. Or worse: some idiot making a campfire that either gets out of hand or is not properly extinguished.

Again, not denying there is a problem, but pointing out that there’s more to some phenomena than just climate change.

Glaciers are indeed melting more rapidly, and ocean currents are changing, causing extreme weather. These are basically part of a natural cycle, which we are speeding up drastically. What is happening now would probably have happened anyway, albeit not for the next 500 or 1000 years, maybe longer.

Mankind is just a blip on the universe’s radar; a thousand years more or less hardly makes a difference. The climate is changing, and us paying the price is only the result of whatever we did to speed it up.

We try to fix things, but it’s too little too late. Even in our effort to make things right, we still aim for profit and personal gain rather than a collective solution. We really do not deserve to survive this.

[embed]June is Bustin’ Out all Over Writing prompts coming out the yin-yangmedium.com