 |  |
| |
| During the short period of time that I have
been living on this planet, a great deal of creatures have disappeared from
the face of the Earth. Many more thousands of species are bound to become
extinct before I die. |
| Mostly due to religious impediments -and beliefs
that are generally inconsistent with any sociological common sense- the population of this planet
is reaching alarming thresholds. With:
 | (1) population growth out of control
in most of the developing world, |
| (2) the risks that are implicit in
the development of nuclear energy, |
| (3) the few -adequate- alternative
energy sources available to humanity, and |
| (4) the oil fields marching fast on the road
to depletion... |
|
...I do not like what I can foresee from my knowledge
standpoint.
I do not want to be a messenger of bad news. But,
if I am honest with you all, what I
see coming is ugly !!! .... and
that is an understatement!
| It is imperative that the civilized world
starts doing something soon to promote the control of our population-growth, especially in
underdeveloped countries. Religious barriers that limit women freedom
to have family planning must be overcome somehow, and soon. And
-unfortunately- that is not going to be easy. |
| If our specie is luckier than many other species
of beings that did not make it, human beings might be still living on
this planet -let's say- one million or ten million years from now. At
least, we should assume that is going to be the case.
| I know the year 1,002,002 A.C. sounds too far
away. But, unless we destroy this planet, somebody will
probably be here then. |
| And not just one million years from now, but
-at least theoretically- a billion years from now as well. |
|
The former -hopeful- statement (1 million
years) is a
real long shot, but it might very well be correct. I would not bet on the
latter though (1 billion years). Does not have much statistically significant chance of
attaining realization.
| What's the point with these absurd
statements? The point is that when
we do something that may cause damage to the environment (being it adding
heavy-metal pollutants to the oceans, destroying rain forests, decimation of
species, ... or whatever) we should not just look to what deterioration has been done to our
children's generation, but rather what has been done to the quality of life
of futuristic human societies that will inhabit Earth many years from today. |
|
 |
In other words, instead of multiplying the
"yearly-rate of damage" by 40 or 50 years (to see what flora and
fauna would be
left to our immediate descendants), we should have the discipline and
responsibility to measure our acts, and look at the long term implications of our
often senseless industrial development. I propose we multiply by
1,000,000 years, and not by 50. That would really help us visualize the depth of the
damage being done. And we will -hopefully- become more concerned with the rights of those
many billions of
humans who would probably be living in our soil long after we are gone. |
|
| We have been so irresponsible and
careless with our planet that I would have to guess that, if the factoring to be used on
our analysis were a billion
years (instead of 50 , or even a million) we would have to stall our modern society to
a full stop, to avoid further
irreparable damage to the environment. The way we did things, and the
way we still do things in the 21st century is totally irresponsible.
| (a) Think about the condominiums being built
right here in Florida just a few feet away from the beach. Due
to our irresponsible building codes, beach erosion will be a problem not just
a million year from now, but it is a problem today. Many beaches have been
encroached. They are not allowed to move or grow, they are only allowed to deplete little
by little. |
| (b) And while on the topic of encroaching,
think about those human populations surrounding habitats of wild animals
in Africa. Due to uncontrollable population growth, they have
reached a point were those wild animals can not move any longer
without causing trouble to people, and therefore becoming a
nuisance to African tribes. How long is it going to take for these
growing populations to get rid of these animals? It was not easy
to do that with arrows and spears, but it is quite easy to do with
high-power rifles (as they have already done to large herds of elephants
in Burundi). Do you see my point now? |
| How responsible is to bring industries
that release pollutants into the middle of our neighborhoods? And
to add insult to injury, often the selected neighborhoods are populated
with low-income families, as if they were lesser humans? |
| |
|
|
| When you look at those maps
showing toxins buried all over our geography you
start to wonder if the Americans of the 1920's and 1930's thought that
they year 2000 was too far away? That it was OK to pollute the
country? It was perhaps they thought the
population of America was never going to increase beyond 50 million,
and therefore those landfills will never be reclaimed?
Now we have to spend hundreds of
millions of dollars in clean up efforts (Super Fund), and yet, the
ground will never get rid -totally- of those cancer causing
pollutants.
Shortsightedness
!! |
 |
|
|
| A couple of billion years ago,
our atmosphere was non breathable. Only bacteria and plants
could survive. There was too much carbon dioxide on the air,
what was good news for plants and trees, some species of which evolved
into huge "skyscrapers". Throughout a slow process
lasting millions of years plants extracted the carbon from the
atmosphere, and as the plants died, with their roots buried deep, the
carbon was effectively transferred from the air to the ground.
As the percent of oxygen in the air increased (and today oxygen is
about 21%, and carbon dioxide is less than 1% of the air we breath)
Zoology has a slow birth.
But it is only going to
take 300 years or less, for our modern society to revert this process.
In just 120 years we have depleted 70% of the worlds known oil
reserves, and we are also burning fossil coal at higher and higher
rates. |
George Bush, our "intellectually
non-curious" President! |
|
So, So, let's just go for 1
million years! (for that factor we need to plug to our formula,
above)
 |
 |
| On this picture published on the
January 1940 issue of National Geographic could be read: WHALES SERVE AS
FENDERS BETWEEN TWO SHIPS. |
A day of commerce in Brooklyn,
NY (circa 1920's).
"A child
born in the industrial world adds more to consumption and pollution over
his/her lifetime than do 40 children born in developing countries."
-Source: UNDP, 1998
|
Oh!
You can count, that there is a lot more to come on the "Environment"
issue.
For now, let me recommend you to
visit the "Bering Tunnel" page
(<-clicking the link). You will
see why I ask you to do that!
 |
Proofreader |
|
Fax:(561)
210-1370, Email:
