“We have forgotten how to be good guests, how to walk lightly on the earth as other creatures do,” said British economist and writer Barbara Ward (1914–1981).

What a magnificent expression, isn’t it? Walking lightly on the earth… Not with arrogance, crushing, destroying… but lightly…

Humanity, especially over the past fifty years, has not walked lightly on the earth at all. According to the findings of one study, even though our population makes up only one ten-thousandth of all life forms on Earth — meaning our existence is “negligible” — our impact is anything but.

For example, it is estimated that humans have so far wiped out 83% of wild mammal species and half of all plant species. We have also consumed 30% of known resources.

Uncontrolled and rapid industrialization, combined with the pursuit of profit as the primary goal, has increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide have caused global warming and climate change. As a result, we now face impacts such as extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and the general destabilization of the climate.

If we try to quantify the effects of climate change, we are faced with a frightening picture. According to the WMO’s 2021 report, in the last 50 years the number of disasters has increased fivefold. Disasters cause the deaths of 115 people every day and create $202 million USD in daily damages.

According to AON’s 2023 weather, climate, and disaster outlook report, the total impact of extreme weather events reached $329 billion USD.

Swiss Re’s 2021 assessment suggests that the future will be no brighter. Losses caused by climate change, whose effects are increasing every day, are projected to reach $23 trillion USD annually by 2050.

Yet, if humanity could learn to “walk lightly” on these beautiful lands that feed us, give us water, and relieve our stress, we might live to see better days.
But wait — haven’t we already seen those days?

Think back to the early days of the pandemic. People shut themselves in their homes, streets and squares emptied, restaurants and similar venues closed their doors, industrial facilities halted production, transportation was temporarily suspended, and supply chains were disrupted.

And then what happened?

From all over the world came videos showing wild animals — goats, deer, pumas, monkeys — filling the empty streets and squares.

In the absence of vehicle and industrial emissions, the sky cleared and air quality improved. We even noticed that Uludağ could be seen from Istanbul.

At the time, I was still working in professional life, in a sector where we couldn’t stop operations, so I was in the office. In an area where thousands of people normally worked, there was absolute silence. One moment, feeling tired, I turned to look out the back window toward the company’s garden — and I couldn’t believe my eyes. Just a few steps away, a stork had landed and was happily feeding on the bugs in the grass. In my 11 years at that workplace, I had never seen such a sight.

Perhaps, at the time, those periods of confinement seemed long to us. But they were certainly limited to just a few months — not that long at all.

Even in that short time, our “beginning to walk lightly” had changed many things, and nature had started to heal itself.

I remember murmuring to myself then: “I think if we let it, nature can recover very quickly. Who knows, maybe we could even reverse climate change.”

You may find this thought optimistic. But I truly am optimistic.

A recent news story I came across refreshed my hopes on this matter.

It went like this: Scientists from Pennsylvania State University discovered something surprising in a new study. The loss of sea ice in Antarctica is causing increased snowfall on ice sheets, which in turn limits global sea level rise. Nature is still working hard to repair what we have so rapidly damaged.

What do you say — shouldn’t we support this effort? By walking lightly, not with arrogance, crushing, and destroying, couldn’t we make a difference that might just reverse everything?

Until the next article, stay healthy…

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