SECTION TWO: CORRUPTION

13. POLLUTION AND HUMAN ACTIVITY

Corruption has appeared in the land and sea for that men’s own hands have earned, that Allah may let them taste some part of what they have done, so that they may return to their senses

Qur’an 30: 40

Everything now points to the fact that humankind has neglected its responsibilities as khalifa in the way it is destroying the natural world. Scientists are confirming that our actions have induced global warming and climate change, which is disrupting the very patterning of Allah’s creation that has uniquely endowed planet earth with a climate suited to the propagation and sustenance of life.

14. BURNING FOREST

We keep on cutting down and setting fire to our beautiful forests in the name of human consumption. Trees occupying an area the size of a football pitch are cut down every second. We ignore at our peril their vital role in ensuring the survival of all living things on the earth.

15.
(a) ATMOSPHERIC POLLUTION
(b) ACID RAIN DAMAGE

The high consumption of energy demanded by modern lifestyles produces millions of tons of pollutants each day. Poisons in the air not only constitute a serious health hazard to all who breathe them, but fall as acid rains devastating life in the forests, mountains, lakes and rivers.

16.
(a) EFFLUENT WATER BORNE POLLUTION
(b) EROSION SOIL DAMAGE

Wastewater containing a lethal mixture of viruses, bacteria, chemical, metals and oils is being dumped daily into the seas. This is a serious health hazard to every living thing that comes into contact with it – including ourselves. When forests are cut down the topsoil once held together by tree roots is eroded and carried downstream in rivers, choking aquatic life and degrading the water.

17. DEAD WHALE

The increasingly extravagant life styles and the growth of human population are bringing a whole range of our fellow species to near or total extinction.

18. EXTINCTION CLOCK

If the total period of life on this planet is compared to a single year the human species has existed on it for less than twelve hours on the final day. In the brief time we have spent on this earth we are causing the extinction of species that have lived on this planet far longer than us. It is not far-fetched to say that we are also creating conditions that put the survival of the human species itself at great risk.