Environmental abuse
is inexcusable – it is the proverbial
biting the hand that feeds us. Abuse occurs when the abuser violates the
personal boundaries of their victims. The motivation for doing so is to gain
control and power over the abused.
According to a
report in Nature written by Johann Rockstrom,
and 27 other environmental
scientists of the Stockholm Environment Institute, the
Earth has nine biophysical boundaries and violating these boundaries could hold
catastrophic results for the Earth and mankind as reported in an article on Yale 360.
Crossing the Boundaries
The fact that we have
violated the boundaries of three of
these nine thresholds is proof that mankind is guilty of gross abuse of the
Earth. Rockstrom helped organize a workshop in Stockholm in April 2008 where environmental
scientists talked about the other possible thresholds that might exist on a
global scale.
They concluded that there was good evidence for nine kinds of
thresholds: climate change, ocean acidity, the ozone layer, freshwater use, the
movement of nitrogen and phosphorus, the amount of land used for crops,
aerosols (haze and other particles), biodiversity, and chemical pollution.
The boundaries that the scientists identified having been violated are: The movement of Nitrogen, Loss of
Biodiversity and Climate Change.
Loss of Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the variation of life forms
within ecosystems and is often used as the yardstick to measure the health of
biological systems on Earth.
In 2001 the Millennium Ecosystem
Assessment (MA) was launched with support from the United Nations. This
program ’s function is to research the changes to ecosystems over the course of
decades and to project these changes into the future.
In 2005 the MA released its first four-year
report and warned that across the board the world is degrading its natural
resources and that the harmful consequences of this degradation could get
significantly worse over the next 50 years.
Contributing Factors
The findings in the report further stated
that the rate of change to the ecosystems in the past 50 years was the most
extensive and most rapid in human history.
The main contributing factors were the growing demand for food, fuel,
fresh water, timber and fibre which have resulted in extensive and mostly
irreversible loss of diversity of life on Earth.
Currently between 10-30% of the mammal,
bird and amphibian species on Earth are threatened with extinction, all due to human actions.
Overpopulation, pollution (air- water- and
soil contamination) , deforestation and global warming are human-driven
contributing factors to loss of biodiversity. The MA warns that human actions
are depleting Earths natural resources which will influence the planet ’s ecosystem ’s
ability to sustain future generations.
Society ’s Industrial
and organic waste has polluted our rivers, oceans and seas as the earth ’s
waterways have become their rubbish bins. Global warming, for which man is the
culprit, will cause the extinction of many plant and animal species that will
not be able to evolve quickly enough to keep up with the climate change.
Man
has drastically reduced the population of some fish species and destroyed
entire forests and their ecosystems. Whales were hunted to the verge of
extinction. Invasive species of plants and animals have been moved to habitats
where they may flourish and prey on the local species. Agriculture, housing and industry are destroying the
habitats of many plants, animals and microbes.
Massive extinctions caused by human
activities has caused the rate at which species are becoming extinct to extend
far beyond a safe boundary, according to the scientists. Although species have
become extinct since the beginning of
life, this has previously been happening
at a regular and much slower pace. According to the paper by Johan Rockstrom et al the extinction rate should not
rise above 10 times the long-term background rate.
Just How Far Have We Crossed This Boundary?
Currently the extinction rate is
approaching 1,000 times the background rate. If current trends
continue as much as two thirds of all species of plants, animals, and other
organisms would be lost during the second half of the next century.
In summarizing the reasons for the
unacceptably high loss of biodiversity
all fingers are pointing at humanity for crossing the planetary boundaries and
tipping the scales.
Climate Change
Until recently
the Earth’s average global temperatures and concentrations of carbon dioxide
have remained reasonably constant, although fluctuations have occurred on a
cycle of hundreds of thousands of years. These fluctuations were the cause of
the ice ages that came and went.
There have been other natural factors that
have influenced global temperatures such as volcanic eruptions and the El Nino
cycle. These however only have short and predictable cycles and therefore do
not have any long-term effect on global temperatures.
Greenhouse
gases (GHG) have been emitted into the atmosphere for thousands of years but
these were balanced out by greenhouse gases that were naturally absorbed. This
allowed human civilization to develop within a constant climate.
What Has Changed?
Since the
Industrial Revolution the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has
increased by more than a third as a result of human activities on Earth.
Historically changes of this magnitude would have taken thousands of years. Now
it is taking decades. Green House Gas (GHG) emissions and the burning of fossil
fuels are increasing the greenhouse effect and warming the Earth.
As a result
sea levels are rising, glaciers are melting , cloud forests are drying and
wildlife are having a tough time trying to survive and adapt to the climate
changes. The greenhouse gases that humans are releasing as we power our modern
lives has caused the levels of GHG in the atmosphere to be the highest it has
been in the last 650,000 years.
The resultant
changes in the Earth ’s climate is known as global warming as the increased GHG
cause the Earth ’s long-term weather patterns to change. The rain patterns and
snowfalls are influenced by the increase in the Earth ’s temperatures as winds
and oceans move the heat around the globe cooling some areas down and warming
others.
The end result is that the rhythms of climate are changing and some
living things may not be able to adapt to the changes as quickly as they occur.
The heat is not only melting glaciers and sea ice, it ’s also shifting rainfall
patterns and forcing animals to move to new areas in order to survive..
The following changes have already occurred as a result of climate change:Sea levels
have risen faster over the last century.Ice is
melting worldwide, especially at the Earth ’s poles. This includes mountain
glaciers, ice sheets covering West Antarctica and Greenland,
and Arctic sea ice.On average
rain and snowfalls have increased across the globeThe Adélie
penguins on Antarctica have fallen in
numbers in the past 30 years from 32,000 breeding pairs to 11,000.Some foxes,
butterflies, and alpine plants have moved to cooler places farther north
or higher.Following 20
warm summers Spruce Bark Beetles have flourished and have destroyed 4 million acres of
spruce trees.
How Far Have We Crossed This Boundary?
The
findings of Johann
Rockstrom, and 27 other environmental scientists are that we have already put too
much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
These levels should be no higher than
350 parts per million. Prior to the Industrial Revolution the concentration was
at approximately 280 parts per million but we have crossed the boundary of 350
and are currently up to 387 parts per million
Are These The Only Boundaries That Could Endanger Life as We Know It?
There are six more identified boundaries that we may not have crossed. Some may have been crossed already as they have not been
measured . Worse yet, are there any unidentified boundaries that we may
inadvertently have crossed or are on our way to cross? We never knew about
these nine boundaries until very recently. How do we know for sure that there
are no other areas where we are biting the hand that feeds us?
Warning – Read this before you watch the Video
I found this short but extremely powerful video on youtube.com. I had second thoughts about adding it to the Hub because I felt that viewers that are offended by the use of the F word may be offended. If you are one of them – don’t watch the video but I am warning you that if you miss the Video you may miss a very special message.
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