What’s New in our Crazy World !
Posted on 05:10, January 12th, 2008 by pablo
There are about 6.6 billion human beings on this planet. We have evolved to a point where most of our actions have great repercussions on our environment. Through the years, green coalitions and various ecological organizations have emerged in all continents. Relentlessly they keep demonstrating the cataclysms to come if we were not modifying our ways of living. Yet most of us do not really change our behaviors since living in cities hides the truth of what’s happening out on the rest of the planet. In the movie “The Matrix”, people live in a dream world. In 2008, we don’t have time to think by ourselves, we don’t have time to enjoy life the way we deeply want. The society surrounding us is constantly trying to grab our mind on trivial topics, thus not letting us having the energy to imagine and think by ourselves. A sad fact is that a lot of people think we can repair or find solutions to save our race with our mighty evolved technology. The dinosaurs stayed around 160 million years on earth, we have been here for about 2 million years and yet we are already facing extinction. How intelligent are we?
We were given water in its three elements,
We have depleted most of the biomass contained in our oceans which took millenniums to grow. Think about these huge vessels capturing tons of fish, whatever the size, in a matter of hours. How long before we can only observe whales and sharks in aquatic parks? On the other hand, we are using our oceans like big dumps instead of thinking of practical ways for recycling these materials *. We have to stop poisoning our oceans. How many mangrove paradises have we destroyed for tourism development?
We had a perfect atmosphere
The gaseous constituents are Nitrogen: 78.09%, Oxygen: 20.9%, Argon: 0.93% and Carbon Dioxide: 0.03%.
The atmosphere is generally of a uniform composition, except for a high concentration of ozone between the altitudes of 20-50 km, known as the ozone layer. In the past years, we have managed to deplete part of it. One of the results is that kids have grown up with the habit of putting sun screen creams before going to play outside…
March 14th 2006, an incredible meteorological event happened over North America. Two huge vertical currents made the ozone layer curve into itself, the air in the stratosphere and ozone literally fell to the ground, it took around eight hours to get back to normal.
From recent studies, our planet is warming up because of the rise of the Carbon Dioxide in our atmosphere. The consequences of the warming are daily recalled in the news. Rise of the ocean level which affects low topographic countries like Bangladesh, rise in temperature which brings desertification in many parts of the world. A good example of the consequences of climatic changes is shown in Darfur region located in the western part of Sudan. There is an ongoing ethnical conflict happening in this part of Africa. The rise of only 1 degree in that region had for effect to change their ways of reaching for food and water. Nomads had to move to survive, but there was no place to go other than into Sudanese government properties or in the neighboring country Chad, which brought a bloody respond by the Sudanese government and a situation of war between Sudan and Chad. It is just an example in the many catastrophic events that are actually occurring and of the ones foreseen in the near future.
With the rise of temperature, both ends of the earth are melting at an unconceivable speed. Numerous scientific studies confirm that the melting of the glaciers has gone off the charts. There are actually some islander’s governments searching for new islands to buy because theirs will soon get flooded.
Oceans waters are constantly on the move. How they move influences climate and living conditions for plants and fauna on the planet. Oceanic Current flows follow complex patterns and we do not understand all the elements involved in the equation. Among these are the temperature of the water and the concentration in salt. With the ongoing melting of glaciers, we are dealing with unknown elements of the equation.
We were given Eden like lands and forests, what have we done with these treasures?
For cupidity reasons, man is cutting forests at a disgusting rate, with the consequence that animals and botanical species are daily disappearing. Man will never be able to re-create a jungle’s ecosystem, that perfect equilibrium between meat eaters and plant eaters can only be created by God…or by millions of years of evolution processes.
Jurassic Park was just a movie! In reality, it is not that easy, if not impossible to bring back extinct species to life. Some recent theories explain the origin of some deadly virus for humans associated with deforestation.
Man does not show any respect for any living elements on this planet, including himself! Man is the only living creature that will kill for pleasure or for primitive phantasms such as exotic furs and animal skins, personal collections, etc…
Desertification is eating up fertile land every year because of human activity. What is our mighty technology doing to solve that question? Not much so far if we consider that there are 1 Billion people on this planet with no access to safe drinking water. The next wars will probably be about the quest for water.
We have to feed so many heads that most of what we are actually eating has been genetically modified. How many people know how grows a cashew nut or even a simple papaya? Do we really need to eat fresh imported vegetables in winter? They call it globalization.
In 1949, a law was voted in Chicago in order to a reduce tax on kerosene to encourage aerial traffic. Nowadays, Airlines companies are not penalized for their negative impact on our environment. Same pattern for cars and houses. In industrialized countries, about 50% of the Carbon Dioxide produced come from these. A Carbon Tax should address the use of gasoline. Private houses and buildings should be better insulated.
I was lucky to be born in North America; some unlucky men saw the sky in less fortunate countries. It is sad to see how we evolved over the years. Our history books are filled with wars occurring all over the globe. Most off the countries spend tons of money each year in military purposes. Most countries, especially the powerful ones, remain politically correct as long as they have what they want (land, oil, water)…Far too many countries already have nuclear armament, the potential of these weapons has nothing to do with the ones used at the end of the second world war in august 1945. Listen to Carl Sagan; he does a great job explaining this topic. Is fear of snakes in our nature or a product of our nurture? Three month before one is born he possesses more brain cells that he will ever have again. Once we are born, we become learning machines but growing up, we form our brain from the experiences and events encountered. What is the percentage of students and workers in scientific fields that have not seen most of the science-fiction movies? In most of these movies, the sunlight doesn’t reach the surface because of the omnipresent dark clouds…I wonder how we are going to deal with this problem if we are still here to face it.
I probably missed important topics in my text on our human stupidity (electromagnetic waves). I would be grateful to have some feedbacks and ideas on what we spoiled. One important topic is overpopulation but I am not too worried about it since our planet will surely find a way to solve this problem if we don’t destroy ourselves before. The answer could be sharing our resources…
We are damaging every living matter on earth because of our behavior. We do not have any other choice but to change our actual behavior, if we don’t want our children to see the extinction of man on the planet. This ecological crisis is a beautiful opportunity to use our technological knowledge. Let us try to combine economical and ecological issues and resolve them.
Ant’s easily outlasted the dinosaurs. Will they also outlast humanity should we stumble?
* A note on practical ways of recycling or getting rid of our trash. First of all, we have to reduce the amount of trash we generate. Our governments could help on that matter by banning unnecessary plastic bags and packaging. We need to organize trash: anything biological should be recycled. Anything that can be recycled should be really recycled, our actual recycling efficiency is very low. For especially dangerous and hazardous materials, we should think of the best way to get rid, maybe by using deep old mine sites.
Here is a beautiful example that shows our respect for life.
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Comments
Très bon article.
Je ne crois pas que la technologie soit la solution au problème du réchauffement climatique de notre planète. Je crois surtout qu’elle en est en partie ”la cause”. Elle a permit à l’Homme d’explorer de nouveaux horizons et dans le domaine de la santé de sauver des vies. Mais elle a aussi servi à la création de la société de surconsommation en permettant la création en chaine de milliard d’objet non recyclabe mais très profitable.
Le recyclage est lui aussi un des domaines dans lequel nos gouvernement devrait mettre plus d’argent et devrais obliger par la mise en place de nouvelles lois environnementales l’interdiction de certains produits.
Nous ne sommes capable de recycler qu’un tiers des plastiques qui jonchent la surface du globe. Les thermoplastiques, de part leur structure moléculaire modifiée chimiquement, ne sont pas recyclabe car l’on émet beaucoup trop d’énergie pour les brûler, alors pourquoi continuons nous l’utlisation de ses plastiques.
De peur d’effrayer le consommateur en modifiant son mode de vie, peu de grandes companies ne font des efforts afin de réduire leur émissions de C02. Mais certaines commencent à démontrer un certain intérêt en l’environnement, nous ammenant à espérer à un futur plus vert, malgré que le contarebour est déjà en marche.
L’Homme peut et va changer son mode de vie, non pas parce que l’Homme l’a décidé, mais bien parce que l’Homme va y être obligé.
Ainsi, c’est aux gouvernements et à la population de décider le plus rapidement possible du sort qu’ils réservent à l’hummanité en modifiant le mode de vie de la société occidentale et en arrêtant d’être avare .
DIP
J’ai oublié les fourmies ne sont peut etre pas plus intelligentes que les hommes, mais en tout cas elles sont plus structurées dans leurs sociétés et ont une expérience de plusieurs centaine de millions d’années, donc elles sont surment mieux préparées que nous
Very Interesting read, i’m afraid we’ll never know the answers to all of these questions during our lifetime.
We all know that the state of the earth and the environment is a pretty hot and trendy issue right now ( with all the books and movies being made ).
One could say that things are changing and people are waking up, but you can also argue that certain individuals are publicing these issues for personal agendas ( ie politicians, companies ).
Time will only tell the impact man will leave on this planet, if we will adapt or not ….
It’s self reassuring to see people realize and try to educate others on such trivial topics.
One thing to notice about nature. There is no overweight animals on this planet (if we don’t account hibernation reasons and uneducated pet owners) except for human beings.
though most of these issues which were mentioned in this article are true, its now time at this very moment, to react to what we ve been doing wrong for so many years. No longer should it be an option that some places dont have the resources to be able to recycle. In my opinion, everything should be recyclable and nothing should be going to waste. Reclycling should not be a priviledge, it should be mandatory. We have the capabilities to make non polluting cars, but goverments choose not to bring them in, thus the money lost and the relations they will lose with the countries over Oil. Its a shame what we are doing to this beautiful planet. Earth has probably been around for more than 4 billion years, and its been threw Earthquakes, hurricanes, Ice Ages, etc..etc. So we know the planet is able to continue on. But the question is are we??? In the last hundred years man with its new found technologies has done such ireversable dammages to the planet that we should not have the right to live on it.
Nice article , should be featured in the next National Geographic.
Si un elephant saute d’une falaise et perd la vie , est-il stupid ? ..oui.
C’est la meme chose avec les humains ….. la seul differences c’est que les humains le font a long terme et encore pire ils incluent tout les autres nations avec eux.
In the words of Allah, “There is not an animal in
the earth, nor a creature flying on two wings, but
they are nations like you.” (6:38)
Take care.
Anonymous Says:
January 15th, 2008 at 1:42 p
That was me :-/
I forgot to put my info , very difficult to drive a Hummer v8 and posting a comment while trowing my garbage outside in the street.
Joke !
I’m so green , I still ride a bike during the winter !
Beautifully written! You couldn’t have summed up the reality of our planet any better!
It’s amazing how aware you are of our surroundings, you obviously took a lot of time to research these facts!
Pablo, how many individuals do you think know about 1 or 2 of the facts you’ve mentioned above?
Our society teaches us to think positive-would thinking about world desctruction be a component of positivity!?-I think not!
Consider this; out of the 6.6 billion individuals who occupy our planet, how many of those have access to libraries, computers, radios, television!?-I’d be curious to know! How many individuals actually care enough to spend more than 1 hour reading these type of articles!?
The reason I ask is, the only way we can put an end to our own destruction is education, thus awareness! How do we spread our knowledge? Obviously; more and more are using internet. Therefore, if an individual requires tools to become more aware, then that means every less fortunate individual remains out of the loop!
And, If every less fortunate person is given a computer; do you honestly think that they will research animals on the verge of extinction, war, starvation, deforestation etc? Instead, I they’ll most likely watch videos on youtube!
There’s the problem! Our attention is turned to unimportant things! We are too pre-occupied with our very own entertainment, why in the world would we read scientific articles on our spare time!?
Remember the quote; Live each day like it’s your last”-well thats exactly what the human population is doing! Why else would they be emptying out our oceans, cutting down our trees!?
Instead, it shoud say; “Live each day like it’s your last”, but treat your planet like it can be gone forever!”
Thanks!
This article made me realise many things about our speacies and the way we re living and destroying our planet. Really nice written too!
Crazy video about ants
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQERRbU23bU
hy, Give something to help the hungry people from Africa and India,
I added this blog about them:
in http://tinyurl.com/65dptv
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