What we do NOW, counts!
We need better technologies and better supply systems. We need to cut demand by controlling over population. Earth is a finite space, its resources are finite - like cancer cells, we can't multiply forever without killing our own host! With 140% consumption today, it's obvious we need to do better in our farming, aquaculture, general harvesting, etc. We're already eating up above the supply system, and eventually it will collapse. Each of us carries this 'population responsibility', we can start by limiting our family size. Or, do what famous celebrities do - adopt a child!
We direly need to change our lifestyle and mindset, and cut our carbon footprint by more than 50% EACH, now! The goal is to go for carbon-neutral living. We may not wait for a futuristic technology to transform our atmosphere (and reduce GHG) or wait for government and institutions to ban Coal, Petrol other fossil fuels in energy production. We just need to act individually, TODAY!
To save energy every way we can... every single day!
Go for zero-waste. 1. Eliminate or reduce the need/consumption, 2. re-use when possible, 3. then recycle when possible, compost biodegradables (or at least segragate them), etc.
Eliminate the need for disposable plastics / non-biodegradables! We know what to do, what's lacking is the will...
Preserve, conserve or rehabilitate the remaining eco-systems and species. One missing link in the chain could produce devastating results for us. Wildlife and habitat conservation campaigns are all around us. We're simply not listening. Still slurping that shark's fin soup? Still buying that 100yr-old-wood furniture? Proud of your rare leather-skin branded goods? Entertained by those caged rare & threatened animals? Do we still use the alibi of 'not knowing what is wrong?' - we already have internet & google to learn just about anything! Are we really that innocent, think again...
Value change >> Lifestyle change. Mass action could lead to positive results. And may extend our time in this planet... :)
posted by Garduch @ 10:30 PM
1 Comments:
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/crowded-earth-many-too-many-023009322.html
Crowded Earth: how many is too many?
..Already straining to host seven billion souls, Earth is set to teem with billions more, and only a revolution in the use of resources can avert an environmental crunch, experts say.
As early as 1798, Thomas Malthus gloomily forecast that our ability to reproduce would quickly outstrip our ability to produce food, leading to mass starvation and a culling of the species.
But an industrial revolution and its impact on agriculture proved Malthus and later doomsayers wrong, even as our numbers doubled and redoubled with accelerating frequency.
"Despite alarmist predictions, historical increases in population have not been economically catastrophic," notes David Bloom, a professor in the Department of Global Health and Population at Harvard.
Today, though, it seems reasonable to ask if Malthus wasn't simply a couple of centuries ahead of the curve.
On October 31, the world's population is officially scheduled to hit seven billion -- a rise of two billion in less than a quarter century.
Over six decades, the global fertility rate has roughly halved, and amounts to a statistical 2.5 children per woman today.
But this varies greatly from country to country. And whether the planet's population eventually stabilises at nine, 10 or 15 billion depends on what happens in developing countries, mostly in Africa, with the fastest growth.
As our species has expanded, so has its devouring of the planet's bounty, from fresh water and soil richness to forests and fisheries.
At its current pace, humankind will need, by 2030, a second planet to satisfy its appetites and absorb its waste, the Global Footprint Network (GFN) calculated last month.
And through the coal, oil and gas that drive prosperity, we are also emitting greenhouse gases that alter the climate, potentially maiming the ecosystems which feed us.
"From soaring food prices to the crippling effects of climate change, our economies are now confronting the reality of years of spending beyond our means," GFN's president, Mathis Wackernagel, said.
French diplomat Brice Lalonde, one of two coordinators for next June's UN Conference on Sustainable Development, dubbed "Rio+20," said Earth's population rise poses a fundamental challenge to how we use resources.
"In 2030 there will be at least another billion people on the planet," Lalonde said.
"The question is, how do we boost food security and provide essential services to the billion poorest people but without using more water, land or energy?"
This is why, he said, Rio+20 will focus on practical things such as increasing cleaner sources in the world energy mix, smarter use of fresh water, building cities that are environmentally friendlier and raising farm yields without dousing the soil with chemicals.
But such options dwell far more on the impact of population growth than on the problem itself.
Braking fertility rates would help the human tally stabilise at eight billion and haul poor countries out of poverty, ease the strain on natural resources and reduce climate vulnerability, say advocates.
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