Attempting to make this world a healthier and safer place is a lot like finding a giant gaping hole in the bottom of your boat, then attempting to dump the water out with your cupped hands. You may not have noticed the leak early on or figured it was just a little bit of water and ignored it. Regardless, now the ship is sinking — and if you don’t do anything about it, you’ll be swimming with the fishes.
This is a silly metaphor, sure, but it accurately conveys the feeling of urgency many of us have when reflecting on how long we, as a society, have allowed things like pollution to get to such dire levels. And now, with the problem getting worse, it has increased to the point that we’re in panic mode. We now know it’s best to take care of this trouble now rather than put it off.