Losing a planet is easier than it sounds. Do a few dumb things again and again and the planet slowly becomes less livable. The key is steady short-term thinking. Losing a planet is like trying to microwave a soufflé in a garbage fire — loud, messy, and guaranteed to end badly. If climate change had a dating profile, “hot and needy” would be in the first line.
1. Burn it all
Keep digging and burning fossil fuels as if the thermostat is fictional. Build new plants and block clean alternatives. More CO2 means more heat. That makes storms worse. It also triggers feedback loops — think melting permafrost and less ice to reflect sunlight. In short: keep burning, and the planet’s heating bill explodes.
2. Strip the forests
Cut down forests for quick profits. Remove trees that hold carbon and make rain. When forests vanish, landscapes dry out and species disappear. Losing forests is like removing the planet’s air filters. It speeds warming and reduces our ability to recover.
3. Turn soil into dust
Treat soil like background scenery. Plant the same crop forever, till the life out of the ground, and pour on chemicals. Soil loses structure and microbes. Then the wind and rain take it away. Food becomes harder to grow. That is a fast track to hunger and instability.
4. Drain the seas
Overfish the good parts, let plastic pile up, and watch the oceans acidify. Coral reefs bleach. Fish stocks collapse. The sea stops doing its job as a climate buffer and a food source. Coastal communities suffer first, but the whole food web feels the shock.
5. Pollute like it’s disposable
Dump toxins into rivers, let runoff choke lakes, and act like microplastics are an invisible problem. Pollution kills wildlife and harms people. It also clogs up the natural systems we rely on. Messy, expensive cleanup follows — if we bother to clean at all.
6. Suck aquifers dry
Pump groundwater faster than rain can refill it. Build cities and farms that need more water than the land can supply. When water runs out, crops fail and people move. Drought and migration are not distant risks. They’re already happening.
7. Kill the helpers (biodiversity collapse)
Ignore species until they vanish. Lose pollinators, predators, and soil microbes, and ecosystems stop working. Biodiversity is not nice-to-have. It is the plumbing that keeps food and clean water flowing.
8. Lock in dirty infrastructure
Invest in long-lived fossil projects and then act surprised when their emissions last for decades. Roads, pipelines, and plants built for short-term profit become long-term problems. Infrastructure choices today shape the climate for generations.
9. Ignore the warnings
Misinformation and delay are grease on the planet-loss machine. Scientists warn. Politicians stall. The longer we wait, the worse and costlier the fixes become. Ignoring advice turns small problems into disasters.
10. Put profit before survival
Make decisions aimed only at quarterly gains. Subsidize harmful activities. Reward externalities. When money stories beat survival stories, collective risk rises. That’s how systems unravel.
Take-away
None of the ten moves are inevitable. They are choices. That means we can choose differently. Pick one small thing: support long-term policies, eat less meat, back local restoration, or call your representative. Small choices add up. Aren’t we due for slightly less catastrophe? Let’s try.
