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Environmental Destruction

 

“A great change in stewardship of the Earth and the life on it is required, if vast human misery is to be avoided and our global home on this planet is not to be irretrievably mutilated… Fundamental changes are urgent if we are to avoid the collision our present course will bring about.”

- “Warning to Humanity” by over 1,600 scientists and the majority
of living Nobel Prize winners-

“The provision of food, fresh water, energy, and materials to growing populations has come at considerable cost to the complex systems of plants, animals, and biological processes that make the planet habitable.  As human demands increase in coming decades, these systems will face even greater pressures—and the risk of further weakening the natural infrastructure on which all societies depend....At the heart of this assessment is a stark warning.  Human activity is putting such strain on the natural functions of the Earth that the ability of the planet’s ecosystem to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted.”

-U.N. Millennium Ecosystems Assessment-

 

For many of us, we do not need to see the statistics to know that we are destroying the Earth.  We need only to look around us to see the destruction everywhere—it is the constant sight of plastic bottles, cigarette butts, and fast food wrappers on the roadsides, it is the taste of smog in our lungs, it is the fields where the buffalo used to, but no longer, graze, it is the caner-like growth of suburban America, it is the garbage on television that pollutes our minds, it is the oil slicks from our cars that shine like rainbows in the light, it is the five-gallon flush toilet that pollutes our extremely crucial fresh water supply.  We don’t need to see the facts to know that the state of the environment is becoming worse every year, every month and every day.  We see it all around us. 

Some facts may be helpful, however, to understanding just how severe our situation is.  In this chapter we will quickly examine some of the most serious threats to global ecosystems and to life itself. Among them are destruction of the soils, reduction of biodiversity, and overuse and pollution of freshwater systems.

DESTRUCTION OF SOILS

Perhaps the greatest but least-publicized form of environmental destruction is happening right under our feet.  Topsoil—the basis for all life on Earth—takes anywhere between 200 to 1000 years to accumulate one inch.  Yet current industrial agricultural is depleting this precious resource at phenomenally irresponsible rates.  Wes Jackson describes industrial agriculture as, “heavy fossil-fuels chemotherapy which has given us all a false sense of the health of the agricultural system, even as it is being poisoned and further depleted.  At the movement, we are poisoning the North American continent with pesticides and fertilizers, salting millions of acres through irrigation, and promoting erosion, through our methods of cultivating, of tens of millions of acres of top cropland.”

 

The GLASOD estimate of global land degradation: note that this includes all forms of soil degradation, not just erosion. (From <http://soilerosion.net>)

 

In  “Plan B: Rescuing a Planet under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble,” Lester Brown writes that, “The thin layer of topsoil that covers much of the earth’s land surface is the foundation of civilization" (1).

Today perhaps a third or more of that foundation, the world’s cropland, is losing topsoil through erosion faster than new soil is forming, thereby reducing the land’s inherent productivity.  Where losses are heavy, productive land turns into wasteland or desert.

Over long periods of geological time, new soil formation exceeded soil erosion, forming a fertile layer of topsoil over much of the earth.  But in recent decades, soil erosion has accelerated, often outpacing the creation of new soil.  This loss of soil can be seen in the dust bowls that form as wind erosion soars out of control.  Among those that stand out are the U.S. Dust Bowl in the Great Plains during the 1930s, the Soviet dust bowl in the Virgin Lands in the 1960s, the huge dust bowl that is forming in northwest China, and the dust storms that come out of Africa, crossing the Atlantic with the prevailing winds.  Each of these is associated with a well-developed pattern of agricultural expansion onto marginal land followed by retrenchment as the soil begins to disappear.

 

REDUCTION OF BIODIVERSITY

Industrial civilization is leading to the wholesale reduction of biodiversity.  Ecosystem, species, population, and genetic diversity are all on decline the world over.  The U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity has concluded that, “Biodiversity is in decline at all levels and geographical scales" (2).   Industrial civilization has led to the greatest extinction in 65 million years since the dinosaurs went extinct.  James Howard Kunstler writes that,

“Of the earth’s estimated 10 million species, 300,000 have vanished in the past fifty years.  Each year, 3,000 to 30,000 species become extinct, an all-time high for the last 65 million years.  Within one hundred years, between one-third and two-thirds of all birds, animals, plants, and other species will be lost.  Nearly 25 percent of the 4,630 known mammal species are now threatened with extinction, along with 34 percent of fish, 25 percent of amphibians, 20 percent of reptiles, and 11 percent of birds.  Even more species are having population decline.  Environmental scientists speak of an “omega point” at which the vast interconnected networks of Earth’s ecologies are so weakened that human existence is no longer possible.”

These rates of extinction are 1,000 to 10,000 times the expected “normal” rates scientists predict. Edward O. Wilson has called this the “Sixth Major Extinction” which is the first recorded mass extinction that was caused not by physical events (such as a comet, volcanic activity, or natural climate change) but by a biotic one—namely, humans.  The U.N.’s Second Global Biodiversity Outlook held in March of 2006 made the following observations:

• The loss of primary forest since 2000 has been estimated at 6 million hectares annually. 
• In the Caribbean, average hard coral cover declined from about 50% to 10% in the last three decades. 
• Some 35% of mangroves have been lost in the last two decades, in countries for which adequate data are available
• Trends of some 3,000 wild populations of species show a consistent decline in average species abundance of about 40%  between 1970 and 2000; inland water species declined by 50%, while marine and terrestrial species both declined by around 30%.
• The intensification of fishing has led to the decline in large high-value fishes, such as tuna, cod, sea bass and swordfish, which are high up in the food chain.  In the North Atlantic, the number of large fish has declined by two-thirds in the last 50 years.

 

Locations of endangered species around the world.

The Second Global Biodiversity Outlook reports that “the global demand for resources now exceeds the biological capacity of the Earth to renew these resources by some 20%,” though even this figure may be conservative.  “The direct causes of biodiversity loss—habitat change, over-exploitation, the introduction of invasive alien species, nutrient loading and climate change—with no sign of abating,” the report says.

                                                        

Species Extinction Since 1800.
(From <http://www.hoopandtree.org/sustai4.jpg>)

 

WATER SCARCITY

Although it appears that there is an infinite amount of water (especially to those in the “modern” developed countries), the available fresh water supply accounts for less than one-half of one percent of the total amount of water on earth.  This small endowment of water, however, is being severely threatened.  The exploding world population, urbanization, per capita increases in water consumption, rapidly growing industrialization, massive and often subsidized irrigation for industrial agricultural practices, widespread pollution of surface water, large dams, and the destruction of wetlands, marshes and other aquatic ecosystems are all leading to an incredible and growing threat to humanity.   

Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke, co-authors of “Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World’s Water,” surmise the threat saying that, “The hard news is this: humanity is depleting, diverting, and polluting the planet’s fresh water resources so quickly and relentlessly that every species on earth—including our own—is in mortal danger” (3).

Though some countries and regions are affected more than others by water scarcity, the phenomenon is widespread in every continent with people on it.  Quoting statistics from the United Nations, Barlow and Clarke write that, “31 countries in the world are currently facing water stress and scarcity.  Over one billion people have no access to clean drinking water and almost three billion have no access to sanitation services.  By the year 2025, the world will contain 2.6 billion more people than it holds today, but as many as two-thirds of those people will be living in conditions of serious water shortage, and one-third will be living with absolute water scarcity.  Demand for water will exceed availability by 56 percent.”

If this statistic isn’t shocking, it should be.  Much of humanity is already facing severe water shortages, and an insane exponential growth in population only works to exacerbate the problem to catastrophic proportions.  Indeed, many conflicts in the future may be fought over water.  “Now, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, conflict over critical water supplies is an ever-present danger,” Michael Klare, director of the Five College Program in Peace and World Security Studies at Hampshire College and author of “Resource Wars: The new Landscape of Global Conflict,” writes (4).  He goes on to say,

“In a vast area stretching from North Africa to the Near East and South Asia, the demand for water is rapidly overtaking the existing supply.  Because many key sources of water in this area are shared by two or more countries and because the states involved have rarely agreed on procedures for dividing up the available supply, disputes over access to contest resources will become increasingly heated and contentious.  This danger is particularly acute in areas where rainfall is scant and several countries depend on a single major source for water—the Nile River, the Jordan, the Euphrates, and so on—for their basic needs.  Unless ways are found to reduce states’ per capita use of the available supply, any increase in utilization by one country in the system will result in less water being available to others—a situation that could lead to the outbreak of war.”

Having a seemingly infinite supply of water available at the turn of a spigot, it is easy for Americans to believe that water scarcity is only a problem for the Third World.  The reality, however, is that America is already facing serious water problems similar to the rest of the world.  Barlow and Clarke point out the following facts about America’s precarious water situation:

• The Colorado River no longer flows to the sea, and in 2001 the Rio Grande for the first time didn’t make it to the sea. 

• 21 percent of water for irrigation comes from underground aquifers that are being pumped faster than they can be replenished.

• 40 percent of streams and rivers in the United States are too dangerous for fishing, swimming, or drinking, and fish and other water-dwelling wildlife have become living toxic-waste carriers.  Thirty-seven percent of fresh water fish are at risk of extinction, 64 percent of fresh water mussels are extinct or vulnerable to extinction.

• The Ogallala aquifer, containing nearly 4 trillion tons of water, is being ruthlessly pumped (mainly for irrigation purposes) resulting in a depletion rate 14 times greater than it can be replenished. 

• Overuse of underground water supplies in the Central Valley [of California] has also resulted in a loss of over 40 percent of the combined storage capacity of all human-made surface reservoirs in the state.  California’s Department of Water Resources predicts that, by 2020, if more supplies are not found, the state will face a shortfall of fresh water nearly as great as the amount that all of its towns and cities together are consuming today.

• In El Paso, Texas, all current sources of water are expected to be gone by 2030.

• In Kentucky, more than half the state’s 120 counties ran short of water during the summer of 2001.

 

All of these statistics speak of a larger story and reality. The Earth and its ecosystems are in serious trouble.  Industrial civilization, population pressure, and an economics of greed have had a devastating effect on the planet.  The ability of the Earth’s ecosystems to support life—including human—is being put into serious jeopardy as we greedily continue to ravage and rape the world. 

While this information can be overwhelming and even daunting, don't be discouraged! There is much you and your community can do to prepare for this possibly very serious crisis. To learn more about opportunities to act now, visit our SOLUTIONS and OPOA ACTION! pages.

Also, find out how you can join and support a movement that is counteracting the harmful effects humanity is having on the earth. Learn about how Earth Ethics can help solve these problems.

 

 

WE NEED YOU!

Here at OPOA we are trying to transform crisis into opportunity. If you think that the mission and material that OPOA provides is useful and much needed during this coming time of crisis, we ask that you give what you can to support a truly grassroots movement to protect and defend the Earth and humanity during the coming times.  With two full-time staff members, practically all funds are used exclusively to further our mission to help prepare the Ohio area for the coming times and to distribute free information about how individuals and communities can prepare for the coming times.  Without your kind donations we wouldn’t be able to survive!  To donate or find out more about how you can get involved please follow this link. Voice your opinions and suggestions at www.RelocalizationWiki.org.