We eat, breathe, work, shop, drink, cook, dance, plan, travel; live our entire lives around the ecosystem. Therefore when we are unable to do such simple tasks with ease we find ways to modify our surroundings and make the world more accessible to our needs. But such alterations come at a cost. Land transformation represents the primary driving force in loss of biodiversity worldwide. For centuries, humans have reshaped the earth to accommodate their ever changing fast paced schedules. And with the world’s population rate constantly rising, more adjustments must be made to satisfy and benefit the “greater common good.” The trouble with this is in a finite world with limited resources how much change is too much?
Humans are, without a doubt, the number one reason for the rapid decline of biodiversity and natural resources found on earth’s surface; which is quite obvious and requires little explanation. Mans number one concerns is to meet his own basic needs. With the number of people on the planet exponentially increasing each year, hunter-gatherer instincts become greater. The earth no longer has enough resources to sustain its population, and obtaining those basic needs translates to survival of the fittest.
The earth’s ecosystem is broken down into four basic parts the lithosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere; or in Layman’s terms earth’s rock, species, water, and air. All four of these parts work together and are essential in supporting the earth’s existence as well as our own. But through expansion of cities, agriculture, industry, commerce, and food we are depleting our world of goods before it can regenerate them.
There are five major ways in which we directly influence the earth’s decline:
-Deforestation
-Soil Erosion
-Hunting/Fishing/Meat Farming
-Pollution
-Overuse of Natural Resources
With close to 7 billion people occupying the earth and only a limited amount of inhabitable land, deforestation has become our best option for making space but lose of forests means change in climate and weather cycles. Fewer trees mean more carbon dioxide emissions released into the air. An increase in CO2 levels causes the earth’s surface temperature to rise. Rising temperatures create more weather fronts and more precipitation annually. Without tree’s on the ground to absorb the rain soil becomes dispersed. As soil is eroded by wind, water, and overgrazing the earth cannot replenish the mineral and rock quick enough to keep up with human supply and demand. Without the adequate nutrients, the soil cannot support plant growth. Fewer crops equal more hungry people. When the lithosphere can no longer provide humans with the basic nutritional necessities, we find new ways to produce large quantities of food.
Gaming, fishing, and animal farming are three of the biggest industries in the world as they supply us with meat. The biggest concern connected to these two areas is overexploitation. As of 1995, 22% of recognized marine fisheries were overexploited or already depleted (Lubchenco, Melillo, Mooney, and Vitousek, 495). With billions of consumers’ world wide, large quantities of fish, livestock, and pork must be slaughtered daily to feed the masses. In such an industrial based society we have discovered ways to do so in a short and timely manor. But just as we are depleting our land we are depleting our earth’s biodiversity as well. In 1997, 11% of the remaining birds, 18% of the mammals, 5% of the fish, and 8% of plant species on earth were extinct (Lubchenco, Melillo, Mooney, and Vitousek, 498). And while extinction is a natural process, the current rates at which we see the variations in animal and plant populations diminishing continues to rapidly increasing each year.
If it’s not people directly killing these plants and animals, then it’s pollution. Since most of the world’s population can be found in a consumer based society, industrial modernization is the driving force behind many of these issues. No longer is globalization about “bettering the society as a whole”; rather it is about bettering one’s self through wants and desires. Almost every single day a new technological item is released onto the market and as theory states a good consumer spends. With more people to please then resources available; more factories, energy sources, and industrial activity is required. Production creates toxins, and these toxins are released into our atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere essentially destroying all of our finite resources.
In order to survive humans need to work the earth and in exchange expect to get some return from the earth as well. Therefore it is vital that we establish a plan to decrease the amount of natural resources we use and ultimately alter. With food, water, and air being key factors of human existence, the more we abuse the limited resources we have the more we are contributing to human demise. Our major natural resources consist of air, plant and animal life, oil, forestry, soil, and fresh water. With humans polluting the air, eliminating species, leveling forests, and eroding soil; that leaves us with fresh water and oil.
3% of earth’s water is fresh the remaining 97% is salt water and is not suitable to drink. Fresh water comes from precipitation, but only 30% of the earth’s freshwater is in liquid form. The other 70% is icecaps. With such minimal amounts of freshwater at our disposal, it is alarming to think that 70% of our available freshwater is used on agriculture and the rest is divided amongst the population. You would think with such astonishingly small quantities of water at our hands that people would use up their share sparingly. The average person uses 123 gallons of water daily, so clearly this is not the case (Lubchenco, Melillo, Mooney, and Vitousek, 497).
Water must be filtered and heated, factories need power to manufacture goods, machinery must be fueled to operate, and humans must get around through transportation to survive. All of these facets release harmful emissions and all of these elements require oil to function. Oil is found deep within the earth’s crust and was created from the remains of plants and creatures. In order to become crude oil these remains have endured heat and pressure from the weight of the earth over millions of years. As humans, we are unable to reconstruct such pressure and unable to determine how much more oil the earth has left. Our only option is to become less dependent on oil and discover alternative options.
Human environmental interaction is inevitable. As long as we are around and continuing to reproduce we need the earth to supply us with natural resources. The key to understand the interdependence between humans and earth begins with realizing that our world is finite and these basic necessities are limited. The earth will not always be able to meet human needs and in turn some modifications must be made. When adaptations are successful, the relationship between people and the physical environment results in positive growth. When these adjustments are excessive, the process of interaction between humans and the physical environment results in human decline. Understanding is the first step in identifying the opportunities and limitations presented by the earth, and as conscious consumers we need to determine the contexts within which we will modify our own personal usage of resources to ensure that there will be plenty of supplies left to support future generations.
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