People Are Using The 10-Year Challenge To Show What Is Happening To Earth

Feb 05, 2019 by apost team

If you haven't heard of the ten-year challenge, it is a hashtag event on social media using the tag #10YearChallenge. The idea is you post a current photo next to a photo that is ten years old.

Although most folks are posting selfies to let their friends see how much they have changed in the past decade, some people are digging a little deeper. They have decided to use it as a platform for showcasing evidence of climate change and how it ravages the earth.

All across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, conservationists and other concerned citizens are posting photos of the world. The first typically shows a healthy, lush outdoor area. The second shows the death and destruction being wrought by human activity, including global warming.

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Some people are predicting that 2019 will be a make-or-break year for the world. Either we finally get it and do something about how we are negatively impacting the biosphere, or we run headlong off a metaphorical cliff with no way back.

This prediction is based in part on data for 2018, which proved to be the warmest year on record for our oceans. Not only that, but evidence suggests things are warming up much faster than previously believed, by about 40 percent. This is a shocking figure.

The warming oceans are also significantly impacting the Arctic Ice Sheet. It is being lost at an unprecedented rater, nearly six times faster than the rate of loss recorded during the 1980s.

Most people seem to go about their day-to-day lives without realizing the seriousness and magnitude of the environmental problems we are facing.

The hope is that riding the coattails of the popular #10yearchallenge will get evidence in front of eyes that wouldn't normally read up on and thereby foment positive change with meaningful impact.

On Instagram, Greenpeace posted a shocking photo set of photos documenting deforestation in the Amazon Rain Forest. Lush greenery in 2009 is contrasted with a landscape of death and destruction. It appears to be the exact same plot of land in both photos.

Another Instagram account called theplanetlovelife posted a vibrant 2009 photo of the Great Barrier Reef. It is vibrant in both sense of the word, both colorful and very much alive. Next to it, a current photo of the dead, brown reef.

Coral reefs are dying at a shocking rate. The Great Barrier Reef is a poster child for the issue. It is the longest and largest coral reef on the planet, stretching 1,400 miles. Reports indicate that about half of it has been lost since 2016, a mere three years ago.

Actor and activist Leonardo DiCaprio also got in on the action. He retweeted a piece by Greenpeace concerning the Arctic and shared photos of the Arctic Ice Sheet then and now.

He emphasized how very urgent the issue has become. We can just no longer afford to wait and see. We really need to act on this problem in the here and now.

In the spirit of that challenge, take a few minutes right now to think about what you can do starting today to reduce your carbon footprint. If you have no idea what that is, then step one is to start educating yourself.

Please don't wait. The world simply can't afford any more excuses. Let us know in the comments and pass this article along to your friends and family to warn them about what's happening to the earth.