Guest guest Posted November 20, 2006 Report Share Posted November 20, 2006 At 06:37 PM 11/19/06, you wrote: >Rachel's Democracy & Health News, Nov. 15, 2006 >[Printer-friendly version] > >THE WORLD IS NEW > >By Peter Montague > >We are living in a world that is essentially new. Almost everything >has changed in the past 50 years. Perhaps we are trying to understand >this new world using habits of thought from the old world. Maybe that >is why things seem so confusing. Let's consider some of the ways the >world has changed since 1950. > >In the largest sense, here is the big change of the past 50 years: For >aeons, there was a shortage of people and an abundance of nature. We >set up all our institutions (churches, corporations, governments, >laws, courts, media, schools) to encourage population growth and >economic growth (the accumulation of capital assets -- farms, >factories, highways, ports, power plants, and so on). Now we find >ourselves with a shortage of nature, a superabundance of people, and a >glut of capital assets -- more than we know what to do with, really. >Because of this fundamental shift, almost everything is different now >than it was 50 years ago. But our institutions, our language, and our >mental tools have not changed. As a result, we are stubbornly pursuing >a course that is wrecking the future. > >Let's review some features of our new world: > >Trends in the Destruction of Nature > >1. More Humans > >During the last 50 years, global human population more than doubled, >from 2.8 billion people to 6.5 billion (in round numbers). The U.S. >Bureau of the Census estimates that global population will reach 9.4 >billion by 2050, a 44% increase in 45 years. It might even grow faster >than that, doubling in 35 years to 12 billion, but even 9 billion >would surely stress the planet's already-stressed ecosystems mightily. > >Where will we put 44% more farms (with their fertilizers and >pesticides and demand for fresh water), 44% more mines, more roads, >highways, parking lots, airports, cars, trucks, buses, ships, trains, >planes), more cities, hospitals, prisons, ports? And of course more >wastes at every step. > >All this will require at least 44% more power plants, which produce >their own unique wastes (among them toxic or radioactive sludges, >solid residues, and global warming gases). > >We're already at a point where we've had to acknowledge there's no >place left to throw things " away " -- there is no " away " -- the planet >has been thoroughly doused with toxicants. Fog, rain and snow >now contain measurable levels of toxic waste. > >2. Global warming is upon us. Fifty years ago this seemed a remote >theoretical possibility. Today it is a widely-acknowledged problem, >looming ever larger the more we learn about it. > >The likely consequences of global warming are more intense and more >frequent hurricanes, tornadoes and typhoons, more severe and frequent >droughts, floods, wild fires, and heat waves; rising sea levels with >coastal inundation; more human disease (malaria, yellow fever, dengue >fever) and other negative impacts on human health. > >The main human contributions to global warming are emissions from >automobiles and electric power plants burning fossil fuels. In its >authoritative report, World Energy Outlook, the OECD (Organization for >Economic Cooperation and Development) projects a 55% annual increase >in global carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 unless national policies >change pretty quickly. So far, nations have shown little inclination >to make the needed changes, least of all the biggest emitter, the U.S. > >3. Destruction of ocean productivity. Fifty years ago the oceans >seemed unimaginably vast, so huge that humans could not possibly >affect them. Yet today we know that humans have managed to... > >(a) contaminate every part of the world's oceans with industrial >poisons; > >(b) pollute vast near-shore ecosystems with excessive nutrients >(mainly nitrogen), giving rise to large " dead zones, " enormous algae >blooms (red and brown tides), contaminated groundwater and massive >fish kills; > >© progressively destroy many of the world's coral reefs; and > >(d) exhaust many of the world's fisheries. In November, 2006, a study >published in Science magazine predicted the collapse of all ocean >fisheries by 2048 unless major changes occur in fishing practices. > >4. Fresh water > >Water pollution is reducing the useable supply of fresh water in most >countries, even as the demand for fresh water is rising. At least 80 >countries holding 40% of global population were facing water shortages >in 2000. According to the United Nations, by 2025, 2/3rds of the >global population is expected to be living in water-stressed regions. >In addition, in 2000, 2.4 billion people (40% of the global >population) were living without basic sanitation. > >Because surface water sources have been depleted or polluted, many >countries have started pumping their underground supplies, but nature >generally replenishes underground sources only very slowly. >Furthermore, underground water supplies are now becoming polluted. In >its authoritative report, Environmental Outlook, the OECD said, > " Available evidence suggests that there is a trend towards a worsening >of aquifer water quality in OECD regions. Once groundwater sources are >contaminated, they can be very difficult to clean up because the rate >of flow is usually very slow and purification measures are often >costly, " the OECD says. (pg. 103) Worse, growing water scarcity is >already giving rise to conflicts within and between countries -- >water wars -- that are likely to increase as time goes on. > >5. Forests > >Within OECD countries, original " old growth " forests are being cut and >replaced by secondary growth and by simple monoculture tree farms, >which require artificial fertilizers and pesticides to survive. Thus, >although the total area of forests is holding steady in OECD regions, >the quality of forested lands, measured by natural habitat and >biodiversity, is steadily declining. Some trees may grow quickly but >forests take centuries to mature. The prospect for tropical forests is >worse. With 37 million acres being cut down each year, " Tropical >deforestation is expected to continue at alarming rates over the next >few decades, " says the OECD. (pg. 125) In the blink of an eye, >between 2000 and 2020, the world is expected to lose almost 6% of its >total remaining forested land, the OECD says. (pg. 136) > >6. Acid Rain > >Acid rain, snow and fog, caused by emissions of sulphur and nitrogen >oxides, damage forests, soils and fresh water ecosystems. Acid rain > " has been identified as an important factor in forest demise, " says >the OECD (pg. 127), and " Current acid deposition levels in Northern >Europe and parts of North America are at least twice as high as >critical levels. " (pg. 190) In Europe the situation is expected to >improve in the next 10 years but elsewhere in the world, it is >expected to worsen. Outside OECD countries, both sulphur and nitrogen >oxide emissions are expected to increase substantially in the next two >decades: " Thus, acid depositions are likely to continue to contribute >to acidification of surface waters and soils in these areas and reduce >the quality of the most sensitive ecosystems. " (pg. 190) > >7. Loss of Biodiversity > >Humans are relentlessly clearing and plowing up the habitat needed by >other creatures, mostly converting it to farmland. Then many of the >farmlands themselves are being despoiled by poor irrigation practices >(which bring salts up from deep soils and deposit them in the top >layers) and by soil erosion. According to the OECD, two-thirds of the >world's farmlands have already been degraded to some degree and one- >third have been " strongly or very strongly degraded. " (pg. 138) >Furthermore, half the world's wetlands have already been destroyed. >(pg. 136) And the biodiversity of freshwater ecosystems is " under >serious threat " with 20% of the world's fresh water fish extinct, >threatened or endangered. (pg. 138) Half of all primates, and 9% of >all known species of trees are at some risk of extinction, the OECD >says. (The United Nations is even less optimistic about the future >of primates.) Between now and 2020, biodiversity in OECD countries is >likely to degrade further. (pg. 138) The United Nations reports that >24% of all mammals on Earth, and 11% of all bird species, are now >considered globally threatened with extinction. > >Species are now going extinct at a rate somewhere between 100 and 1000 >times as fast as the historical rate of extinction of species. We are >shredding Creation. > >In addition, ecosystems are being scrambled by invasive species and >by the unintentional spread of genetically engineered organisms into >the wild. > >8. Chemicals are Destroying Wildlife > >As global warming melts Arctic ice, polar bears swim toward distant >ice flows, which now no longer exist, and they drown. The demise of >the polar bear is now predicted for later this century. How do we >explain drowning bears to our children? > >Fish in much of the fresh water of the U.S. are having their gender >changed by exposure to biologically-active chemicals -- including the >residues of pharmaceutical products flushed from households into >sewage treatment plants, then into streams and rivers. Many male fish >are being feminized. > >Frogs are disappearing around the world, for a variety of reasons >ranging from habitat destruction to excessive ultraviolet radiation (a >byproduct of DuPont's destruction of the earth's ozone shield) to >pesticides and other industrial poisons. > >Chemicals are interfering with all the biological systems that allow >wildlife to thrive -- harming their immune systems, their reproductive >systems, giving them cancer and a host of other diseases. Sea turtles >are endangered by mysterious growths appearing on their faces, making >it impossible for them to eat, starving them to death. Killer whales >(Orcas) are disappearing from the Pacific Northwest because of >Monsanto's PCBs wrecking their reproductive systems. This short list >barely scratches the surface. > >All of these problems, and more, were studied by a group of 1360 >scientists from 95 countries during the period 1999-2005. Their study, >called the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, drew three broad >conclusions: > >1) Of 24 ecosystems they studied worldwide, 60% are being degraded by >human activities. " We're undermining our ecological capital all around >the world, " said Robert Watson, chief scientist of the World Bank. > >2) Global degradation is increasing the chances of sudden, drastic >changes in ecosystems, such as the collapse of fisheries or the >emergence of new diseases from fragmented forests. > >3) The pressure on ecosystems is disproportionately harming the poor. >The report says healthy ecosystems are essential for alleviating >poverty. > >In releasing their report, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment >scientific board of directors did not mince words: > > " At the heart of this assessment is a stark warning. Human activity is >putting such strain on the natural functions of Earth that the ability >of the planet's ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer >be taken for granted, " they said. > >============== ****** Kraig and Shirley Carroll ... in the woods of SE Kentucky http://www.thehavens.com/ thehavens 606-376-3363 --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.859 / Virus Database: 585 - Release 2/14/05 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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