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The earth has six billion people. Six billion people spread through out six continents; that?s six billion people that need food, water, homes and natural energy. While we might think that we are not eating enough as college students, living off top ramen and insta-mac, many people in this world are living on less than a dollar a day. The effects of over population on humans have been great, but the effect it has had on the environment has been far greater.
As the number of people on this planet, increase the rate at which we are losing other species has greatly increased. It is estimated that if no drastic action is taken, 1/3 to 2/3 of our species will be extinct by the middle of the 21st century. Currently, it is estimated that 27,000 species become extinct each year.
The reason that so many of our friends from the animal kingdom are going extinct is because we are taking over their habitat. We are robbing them of their homes and source of food. We use this land to a create: Living space for humans and grazing area for our animals
There are other ways we are damaging their habitats and they include
the use of chemicals such as insecticides which can harm them indirectly (chemicals get in water, which gets in the fish, which the bird eats and everyone gets harmed),even our garbage can cause problems for them. As a child, I remember seeing commercials which warned of the dangers of not cutting the little plastic thing that held six packs of soda together. Fish would get tangled in this and die.
With the little land that is left, the animals must fight for what is left of the resources. We also hunt and trade many animals for fur, oil, tusks and recreation and because of this, animals such as the tiger have been threatened
Across the earth, a great deal of our wetland areas that are being destroyed by humans. These wetlands have great diversity and productivity. We do not have much wetland left so it is imperative to the many creatures that call that area a home that we save as much of these areas as we can. Much of these wetlands are used for oil and gas production.
As one can see, the need for living space, natural resources to help power our blow dryers and computers are taking the lives of our anima friends. Now if we have more people, it doesn?t take a UW college professor to realize that the demand for energy, food and land will increase.
If we were to look at everything around us, we would notice that everything comes from the earth. The TV in front of me is made of plastic, which needs petroleum, the coffee table I?m typing this on is made of wood, the left over pizza I had for breakfast comes from cows which need grass, you get the idea. Basically we use the earth?s resources to enhance our lives. The problem arises when our luxuries damage our earth and environment. When a country?s resources become depleted, it not only becomes an environmental problem, it becomes a economic burden because now, they must import their resources from other countries.
One of the major problems we have today is deforestation.
Leading causes of deforestation includes:
Loggers taking down trees for commercial use,clearing forests for ranching,clearing forests to provide land for other crops such as bananas
and clearing space to create roads for cars to move
Some common problems associated with deforestation are when people cut down trees to provide space for growing other crops, they deteriorate the quality of the soil. After a few growing seasons, the soil which, to begin with already had low nutrients becomes even worse therefore limiting the possibility of future growth.When we loose trees, we will not have anything to change carbon dioxide into oxygen and the possibility of finding new cures to diseases is lost. The forest contains a great deal of plants that are used to make medicine (Anyone see the movie Medicine Man, I never did but I?m guessing that?s what it was about.). We may not know it, but the forest could contain the cures for AIDS, Cancer and many of the other diseases that we face.
As the number of people increase, we will need more energy to support them. Energy requires the burning of fossil fuels. The burning of fuel results in an increase in global temperature, (and sometimes, we have to destroy the environment to get it), which in turn melts the icebergs, which then increases the sea level. When he sea level increase, we have flooding; this is not good thing. More than 50 percent of the medicine we find in the environment is found in the rainforests
India?s Ganges River is a good example of what happens when ?overpopulation goes wild?. Because of the overuse of the river by the millions of people in the area, the water contains toxins, dead carcasses and other harmful materials which have caused the following diseases: hepatitis, amoebic dysentery, typhoid, cholera and cancer.
In all, we are to atleast question the future of life atleast human lifes co-existamce with the earth.,The world undergoes changes all the time, well forget our understanding of time..lol.We could easily be wiped out by huge changes like todays, but in bigger scales.
Migration is a fundamental survival task for many species. Weve migrated many many years to attain this point.And now we ask ourselves is space exploration one of humanities new migrational quests? Atleat it sums that the world would be seen as a whole.
Im convinced we can co-existe here if many are too realise our rightfull paths.This scientific way we reach to the stars is relative to many cultures that were astrolgical : Mayans , Egyptians and many more. And now we hold many tools.
We better get our land in shape before we assume we could leave it to science. Never let us forget our essences. Theirs a time for everything,
and now its to heal our world!!!!
Cheers WhiteShadow
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Thanks for this reminder ws.
I remeber reading years ago how 1 westerner uses the resources of 60 people in the third world and it struck me how greedy we seemed.
I try to use as little as as possible ... when i go shopping its for what i need only, its a bit sad to see all the mountains of stuff we are offered so much of which is disposable crap or is built to be obsolete in 2 years time.
I recently saw a documentary from the bbc on some village in China which dismatles all the old computers and other electronics to get some miserably small amount of re-usable material. The poor people who do the work become very ill from the fumes released when they heat the circuitry to dismantle it.
There are a few things we can do in our individual lives to be more respectful of life.
Re-cycle everything! .. our city picks up paper, glass and some plastics.
Most everything else gets composted for the garden or fed to the birds.
I grow my own food and adhere to organic practices and permacultural principles as much as i can.
Buy second hand goods wherever possible.
If one must have a car one should use it wisely
There is a lot to be concerned about with the levels of pollution we live in and i think when people are made aware they will start to clean up their acts ... toolate for all the species already extinct but lets hope for a return to caring for what we have left.
:P Thanks Cassie
Recycling is a very important yet so easy thing to do indeed.
I use a box i made of right dimensions , to put all organic materials.
Composting is a great way, and is good for the garden or any plant earth components. Products we buy are important too . Our DNA is being altered by the day, with the things they put in and that we innoncentty put in our mouths...The source , the way its robbed and the money we spend.. The Forests are our lungs ...
Cheers WhiteShadow of the damp lands
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