LinkExchange Member
World Population Clock
(Hit reload a few times- truly frightening!)
"On the eve of Earth Day 1990 - the Bush White House circulated to its policy spokemen a confidential memorandum suggesting the most effective arguments to use in trying to convince people not to support action against global warming. The memo, which was leaked to the press, advised that instead of directly arguing that there is no problem, 'a better approach is to raise the many uncertainties.' So much for Bush's promise to confront the greenhouse effect with the White House effect."
(Earth In The Balance- Al Gore)
Environmentalism is a catch-all term for social movements concerned with the protection of nature, and natural resources.
These movements followed major spurts of industrial expansion and exploitation of resources, and were initially concerned with resource depletion and over-population.
More recently the focus has shifted to pollution, and the preservation of natural environments.
Conservation is the philosophy and policy of managing the environment to assure adequate natural resources for future generations.
The conservation movement began as a response to the unparalleled damage the settlers had inflicted upon these resources.
As pollution increased in the 1950s and 60s, environmentalism was brought to the attention of the public via television.
Among these: The mercury-poisoning of Japan's Minimata Bay (1950s); the Torrey Canyon oil spill in the English Channel (1967); and killer smog episodes in Los Angeles and London in the late 1960s.
Public concerns led to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 being passed unanimously, despite the objections of President Nixon.
Today, conservation is concerned with a small number of global issues; each of which affects the others, and is basic to human survival. Population growth and economics underlie all of them.
Approximately half of the world's forests have been destroyed. The remainder will all but disappear in the next decade or two.
Because these forests provide habitat for half of the world's plant and animal species, provide water and fuel for much of the world, and influence regional and global climates; the time has come when we must value conservation over commercial development.
Corporate agriculture is causing severe and unsustainable rates of erosion soil loss. Overgrazing is ravaging vast areas of arid lands, resulting in the inexorable spread of deserts and desert-like conditions. It is estimated that at the beginning of the next millinium, one-third of the world's arable land will be non-productive.
Environmental benefits cannot be measured in terms of immediate economic gains, thus convation efforts are generally at odds with corporate ideas of progress, and the interests of ranching, logging, and mining companies.
Recreational use of public lands is a more recent environmental danger. Increased numbers of campers, hikers, abd cyclists are overusing many fragile park and wilderness areas. Off-road vehicle pose the greatest immediate threat, because of their impact on wild country ecosystems.
The Environmental Impact of the American Diet
If Americans reduced their meat intake by 10% the savings in grain and soybeans could feed
60 million people each year.
(Coincidentally, roughly 60 million people starve to death, worldwide, annually)
- It takes sixteen pounds of grain and soybeans to produce one pound of beef.
- Livestock production consumes more than half of all the water in the United States.
- Cattle raised for food produce 100 million tons of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.
- 220 million acres of land in the U.S. and 25 million acres in Brazil have been deforested
for livestock production.
- Half the forests in Central America have been cleared for beef production.
- One third of the surface of North America is devoted to grazing.
- Half of all Americans croplands grow livestock feed.
- By cycling our grain through livestock, we waste 96% of its calories, 90% of its protein,
and all of its fiber and carbohydrates.
- A meat-based diet causes hunger for others:
Even though beef production in Costa Rica has quadrupled in the last 20 years,
the populace continues to starve.
The average Costa Rican family consumes meat in amounts comparable
to most American housecats-
while their country's land is turned over to cattle; cattle destined to become
American hamburgers.
WaterPollution
- In the U.S. we consume 450 billion gallons of water every day.
- 97% of the Earth's water is contained in the oceans; 2% is frozen;
All the humans in the world must subsist on the remaining one percent.
- Water available for human use is either from lakes, streams
and rivers or groundwater.
- Groundwater is the naturally pure water that fills the pores and
spaces in sediments and rocks beneath the earth.
- Half of the U.S. population relies on groundwater as their only source.
- Contaminated groundwater has been found in every state in the U.S.
- Gasoline and other harmful liquids have been allowed to leak from
underground storage tanks into the groundwater supply.
Pollutants seep from landfills and septic systems. Groundwater is
polluted by runoff from fertilized fields and industrial areas.
- Individuals contribute to groundwater pollution by dumping household
chemicals down the drain or on the ground; through the use of pesticides;
and by not getting their vehicles serviced at the first sign of a fluid leak.
The Greenhouse Effect and Global Warming
A vehicle driven 11,000 miles per year emits its own weight in carbon dioxide (CO2), a major "greenhouse gas". As we consume more energy, as more vehicles appear on our roads, these "greenhouse gases" are forming a layer of insulation around our atmosphere, trapping heat.
This heat, as we all observed last summer, is now causing changes in global weather patterns and may be leading to "Global Warming." For the people of South Florida, higher temperatures will spell certain disaster-- an increasing number of hurricanes reaching the mainland with increased wind velocity of each storm.
Another consideration to ponder: a small increase in global temperatures will accelerate the melting of the polar ice caps. Over time this will raise the levels of the oceans - an increase of one foot in ocean levels will make most of Florida unfit for human habitation!
What Can Be Done?
Through a process called photosynthesis, plants remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, replacing it with oxygen. Studies by the Electric Power Industry have found that the most efficient way to reduce atmospheric carbon levels is by planting trees on lands devoid of vegetation.
Worldwide, there are millions of acres of such lands. Every year, the world loses more than 40 million acres of forests-- a land area the size of Florida! Most of these lands are in the developing countries of the tropics. Without the protection of trees, these lands quickly become deserts. For the people living there and for the environment which we all share, this matter is of growing and critical concern.
(From Tree For The Future: A non-profit organization)
Air Pollution
- Tens of millions of Americans breathe dirty air.
- 76 million people live in areas where the clean air standard is exceeded.
- Ozone is the main component of smog.
- In the atmosphere, ozone protects the earth from the sun's ultraviolet rays.
When formed at ground level, ozone is deadly.
- Lung damage due to ozone pollution is a risk faced by 3 out of 5 Americans.
- Motor vehicles are one of chief sources of ground level ozone.
- Utilities, oil, and chemical plants account for approximately half the hydrocarbon and nitrogen oxide emissions in the U.S.
- Ozone smog is responsible for extensive damage to pines in California and in the eastern U.S.
~Environmental Links~
|Poetry| |Animal Rights| |Quotes|
|Grimoire| |Environment| |Links|
|Rants| |Philosophy| |Feminist|
|Recipes| |Pagan 101| |Mundane|
|The Bookstore| |The Music Shop|
|The Pagan Activist|