This BLOG is for the AP Environmental Science class this year and we will try to discuss variety of topics about ecology.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Human Footprint
Our footprint on this planet is scary. We are using more of the planet that we need. What can we do? Or what can you do to reduce your footprint on Earth? Give ideas, and be creative!!!
The first and foremost problem is population. I think that a good step in the right direction would be population control by use of children limit laws. A maximum of two children, one boy and one girl, could be allowed for each family, and tax breaks could be allowed for those who abstain from having children, and those who have more children, such as twins, could give them up for adoption. Yes, this is a VERY drastic option, but as far as I'm concerned, drastic times call for drastic measures.
We also need to start shifting away from fossil fuels. There is the technology right now for us to live sustainably with clean energy, all it would take is an initiative to promote widespread use of a mixture of Solar, Hydro, and Wind energy in all major World Powers.
I also think that people need to stop putting hedonistic lifestyles ahead of the good of the global, national, and state community. People should put more of an emphasis on bettering the community through doing constructive activities rather than being so concerned with buying, drinking, drugs, sex, and so forth. This type of mentality is counter-productive to the entire human race, as it shirks the responsibility of living responsibly.
Very good! I think it is about time that we start thinking about this planet, becasue if we don't then it will be too late for the human species to react.
I have thought of child limits for a long time now. Didn't China do something of the sort several hundred years ago? I was thinking of a one-child limit, but I suppose two would be more acceptable.
I think what we really need is another plague, only a lot larger than the last time. We can't wait for something like a law against too many children to take effect; we need to decrease the population now. Besides, there is always a very large possibility for someone to not abide by the law. How would we moniter everyone on earth to make sure they only had up to two children?
I do agree with putting the common good first. Good ol' classical republicanism. I think the best way to go about that would be not just a ban on drugs and alcohol (and prostitution, for that matter), but to destroy it completely. We can't have another gansger/mob era. The entire earth's population would have to give up personal desires, and even tribal customs, in order to completely do away with those unecessary things. But how to do away with it, exactly? I say throw it into space. Who cares if the aliens throw it back? It would be like a game of intergalactical catch.
Throwing our trash in the space sounds like a good idea, but when we throw something out we are throwing a part of this planet. We are not recycling the elements but we are selecting some elements to be thrown out. That is going to cause an imbalance in the long run.
I think we should start with small ways first to improve our footprint, like a bigger emphasis on recycling. For example, as I was taking out my trash today, I realized how much of it could be recycled. My family already recycles items such as cans and bottles, but there are so many more things you can recycle!!! Little things such as the blue recycling can could drastically change the anount of items families recycle.
Also, the human population is a big issue, but child limit laws are not necessarily the awnser. I think educating the poorer countries is the key to a smaller population. When you start to involve laws like limiting the amount of children a family can have, the children become endangered. Yes, China did have a limit, but then they started to have a lack of girls, because no one wanted girls. The unwanted girls were shipped off to orphanages, were many died and all were poorly treated. I think it is important to try to lower the human population, or at least keep it from growing, but we still need to remember a human's rights in the process.
A very inciteful post Dana. I think the idea of educating the poor people is a great idea. As for as a girl frenzy is concerned, China is not the only country, India is the worst in that social vice.
Dana, you make some very great points. I do think that educating these less-developed countries would help immensely. However, to me, it seems unfeasible to do this, as it would cause extreme strain on the global economy (paying for it, etc.), and the people of these countries would often have something to do, such as work or tending to things? (I'm not sure, really...)
I think that the girl biased in China and India is horrendous, but for some reason, I don't see that happening in the US, Britain, etc. I think that these countries are a little farther along in terms of sexism and equality for sexes, and that girls and boys would be equally as valuable.
I believe that having children is a beautiful gift from God.I don't think that they should have child limit laws.What if a woman gets pregnant? Would she have to get an abortion? NO! That would be murder. What they should do is have people travel around the world and educate people on how not to get pregnant.They should hand out free birth control pills, condoms ect..Especially to sexually-active people. If there are people under the age of 18 they should have the permission of an adult. Another option would be to operate on the man to somehow to prevent him from producing sperm. If a woman chooses, she can get operated to prevent herself from getting pregnant.
They should make recycling mandatory and have people fined for not doing it. And use that money for the environment.
I agree with Adriana about the recycling. I was actually very surprised that the school hadn't made recycling mandatory for all teachers. The money from the recycling could be used not only for environmental protection, but also to help stimulate the economy. I believe that our economy plays a key role in protecting the environment in the US, and we need a strong economy to be able to handle all the problems we have just within our territory.
The handing out of birth control is a good idea, as well. We will never be able to force abstinance on the world's population, I'm afraid. But surgeries like that can get very expensive, and free health clinics are out of the question, so I believe that free birth control pills (FDA approved, of course) is the right way to go about controlling the population.
Adriana you make some great points. If we are brave enough to look at the ethical part of aborting babies or not giving them a good life, we should be also able to comprehend the future in which we will be forced to see billions of human beings dying like animals. Are we ready for that kind of human closure on this planet?
Here is aweb site about some numbers! It is lot of data but some things just jump at you.
Recycling is a great point! I have recycling bins in my room!!! Maybe Amy can start this recycling club in the school, and she will have my full support!!!!
These so-called "environmental issues" have been denounced by many highly recognized scientists and are more often than not extreme exaggerations. The United Nations and our own EPA have taken great measures to curb pollution and environmental destruction. We have installed reforestation programs, cleaned up numerous Superfund sites, moved away from chloroflourocarbons, and developed new technologies that are cleaner and safer, and the process of researching potential energy sources is not about to end soon. Currently, solar panels and hybrid vehicles don't even pay for themselves and wind and hydro power are available only in certain locations(rivers, mountains).
Population is a problem, but we have no real solution to that. Educated persons have less children, and developed nations do not reproduce as much. We have no way to go tell India and Indonesia and African nations to stop reproducing (the main cause of population problems). China has had legislation regulating reproduction for at least 30 years now.
In the United States we are already seeing the consequences of less kids- the baby boom generation is collapsing the social programs liberals insist on keeping around even though they are way past moribund. Social security requires a pyramid of population to sustain itself, resulting in the government freely allowing immigrants, legal or otherwise.
The truth is that us humans are almost better than nature- our medicine capabilities can cure or treat almost anything, we haven't had a large war since the 1940s and even then, what seemed like a lot of deaths back then wouldn't even make a dent now. We have turned our back on Darwin's theories of survival of the fittest, providing welfare to those who can not or will not feed themselves (at least in Western nations, and we provide plentiful aid to other nations).
I personally recycle everything that can be recycled. I think that recycling is a great way to limit waste and save space and landfills. efficiency is a key element of capitalism as well as democracy. The Kyoto protocol was a very, very, very poor attempt at fixing pollution problems, ignoring our biggest polluters (developing countries), meaning that we will allow some pollution, but not from certain countries. It is a good thing we and Australia are not participating.
There will always be a looming crisis, whether it is the dioxins of the 70s, CFCs in the 80s, acid rain in the 90s, global warming or cooling (both are being predicted) of today. What we need to do is physically research what is actually going instead of what MSNBC tells us is going on. I think many of the previous posters have some scary and potentially dangerous ideas and definitely need to think things over some more.
I agree with the idea of population control it would be a great to lower the global population for there is too many people in the world each causing their own share of trouble, but with the issue on religious and freedom violations it would be rather difficult to pass such a law in America. Just look what happen to India
trevor is right in saying that the root of the whole problem is population. but now that we're all here, so to speak...=] what can be done now is putting our highest emphasis on EDUCATING everyone on birth control methods and the population problem itself. so as far as the root of the problem i think that this is the first step that needs to be taken. and quite honestly the rest is just little things. like walking that five minutes to the store instead of driving, turning off a light when you leave a room, and military showers could go a long way in saving gas, water, energy...one thing that i think american parents need to stop doing is buying their newly licensed teenagers cars. i don't have a car right now, and probably wont until next year. this means that i end up carpooling or riding my bike to and from school every day, and might drive myself once or twice a week. i think if all high school students did this we'd be helping three problems: pollution, obesity and TRAFFIC. yay. riding your bike or walking aren't really that bad, and like i said...it's killing two birds with one stone: pollution and obesity.
14 comments:
The first and foremost problem is population. I think that a good step in the right direction would be population control by use of children limit laws. A maximum of two children, one boy and one girl, could be allowed for each family, and tax breaks could be allowed for those who abstain from having children, and those who have more children, such as twins, could give them up for adoption. Yes, this is a VERY drastic option, but as far as I'm concerned, drastic times call for drastic measures.
We also need to start shifting away from fossil fuels. There is the technology right now for us to live sustainably with clean energy, all it would take is an initiative to promote widespread use of a mixture of Solar, Hydro, and Wind energy in all major World Powers.
I also think that people need to stop putting hedonistic lifestyles ahead of the good of the global, national, and state community. People should put more of an emphasis on bettering the community through doing constructive activities rather than being so concerned with buying, drinking, drugs, sex, and so forth. This type of mentality is counter-productive to the entire human race, as it shirks the responsibility of living responsibly.
Very good! I think it is about time that we start thinking about this planet, becasue if we don't then it will be too late for the human species to react.
I have thought of child limits for a long time now. Didn't China do something of the sort several hundred years ago? I was thinking of a one-child limit, but I suppose two would be more acceptable.
I think what we really need is another plague, only a lot larger than the last time. We can't wait for something like a law against too many children to take effect; we need to decrease the population now. Besides, there is always a very large possibility for someone to not abide by the law. How would we moniter everyone on earth to make sure they only had up to two children?
I do agree with putting the common good first. Good ol' classical republicanism. I think the best way to go about that would be not just a ban on drugs and alcohol (and prostitution, for that matter), but to destroy it completely. We can't have another gansger/mob era. The entire earth's population would have to give up personal desires, and even tribal customs, in order to completely do away with those unecessary things. But how to do away with it, exactly? I say throw it into space. Who cares if the aliens throw it back? It would be like a game of intergalactical catch.
Throwing our trash in the space sounds like a good idea, but when we throw something out we are throwing a part of this planet. We are not recycling the elements but we are selecting some elements to be thrown out. That is going to cause an imbalance in the long run.
I think we should start with small ways first to improve our footprint, like a bigger emphasis on recycling. For example, as I was taking out my trash today, I realized how much of it could be recycled. My family already recycles items such as cans and bottles, but there are so many more things you can recycle!!! Little things such as the blue recycling can could drastically change the anount of items families recycle.
Also, the human population is a big issue, but child limit laws are not necessarily the awnser. I think educating the poorer countries is the key to a smaller population. When you start to involve laws like limiting the amount of children a family can have, the children become endangered. Yes, China did have a limit, but then they started to have a lack of girls, because no one wanted girls. The unwanted girls were shipped off to orphanages, were many died and all were poorly treated. I think it is important to try to lower the human population, or at least keep it from growing, but we still need to remember a human's rights in the process.
A very inciteful post Dana. I think the idea of educating the poor people is a great idea. As for as a girl frenzy is concerned, China is not the only country, India is the worst in that social vice.
Dana, you make some very great points. I do think that educating these less-developed countries would help immensely. However, to me, it seems unfeasible to do this, as it would cause extreme strain on the global economy (paying for it, etc.), and the people of these countries would often have something to do, such as work or tending to things? (I'm not sure, really...)
I think that the girl biased in China and India is horrendous, but for some reason, I don't see that happening in the US, Britain, etc. I think that these countries are a little farther along in terms of sexism and equality for sexes, and that girls and boys would be equally as valuable.
I believe that having children is a beautiful gift from God.I don't think that they should have child limit laws.What if a woman gets pregnant? Would she have to get an abortion? NO! That would be murder. What they should do is have people travel around the world and educate people on how not to get pregnant.They should hand out free birth control pills, condoms ect..Especially to sexually-active people. If there are people under the age of 18 they should have the permission of an adult. Another option would be to operate on the man to somehow to prevent him from producing sperm. If a woman chooses, she can get operated to prevent herself from getting pregnant.
They should make recycling mandatory and have people fined for not doing it. And use that money for the environment.
I agree with Adriana about the recycling. I was actually very surprised that the school hadn't made recycling mandatory for all teachers. The money from the recycling could be used not only for environmental protection, but also to help stimulate the economy. I believe that our economy plays a key role in protecting the environment in the US, and we need a strong economy to be able to handle all the problems we have just within our territory.
The handing out of birth control is a good idea, as well. We will never be able to force abstinance on the world's population, I'm afraid. But surgeries like that can get very expensive, and free health clinics are out of the question, so I believe that free birth control pills (FDA approved, of course) is the right way to go about controlling the population.
Adriana you make some great points. If we are brave enough to look at the ethical part of aborting babies or not giving them a good life, we should be also able to comprehend the future in which we will be forced to see billions of human beings dying like animals. Are we ready for that kind of human closure on this planet?
Here is aweb site about some numbers! It is lot of data but some things just jump at you.
http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Facts.asp
Recycling is a great point! I have recycling bins in my room!!! Maybe Amy can start this recycling club in the school, and she will have my full support!!!!
These so-called "environmental issues" have been denounced by many highly recognized scientists and are more often than not extreme exaggerations. The United Nations and our own EPA have taken great measures to curb pollution and environmental destruction. We have installed reforestation programs, cleaned up numerous Superfund sites, moved away from chloroflourocarbons, and developed new technologies that are cleaner and safer, and the process of researching potential energy sources is not about to end soon. Currently, solar panels and hybrid vehicles don't even pay for themselves and wind and hydro power are available only in certain locations(rivers, mountains).
Population is a problem, but we have no real solution to that. Educated persons have less children, and developed nations do not reproduce as much. We have no way to go tell India and Indonesia and African nations to stop reproducing (the main cause of population problems). China has had legislation regulating reproduction for at least 30 years now.
In the United States we are already seeing the consequences of less kids- the baby boom generation is collapsing the social programs liberals insist on keeping around even though they are way past moribund. Social security requires a pyramid of population to sustain itself, resulting in the government freely allowing immigrants, legal or otherwise.
The truth is that us humans are almost better than nature- our medicine capabilities can cure or treat almost anything, we haven't had a large war since the 1940s and even then, what seemed like a lot of deaths back then wouldn't even make a dent now. We have turned our back on Darwin's theories of survival of the fittest, providing welfare to those who can not or will not feed themselves (at least in Western nations, and we provide plentiful aid to other nations).
I personally recycle everything that can be recycled. I think that recycling is a great way to limit waste and save space and landfills. efficiency is a key element of capitalism as well as democracy. The Kyoto protocol was a very, very, very poor attempt at fixing pollution problems, ignoring our biggest polluters (developing countries), meaning that we will allow some pollution, but not from certain countries. It is a good thing we and Australia are not participating.
There will always be a looming crisis, whether it is the dioxins of the 70s, CFCs in the 80s, acid rain in the 90s, global warming or cooling (both are being predicted) of today. What we need to do is physically research what is actually going instead of what MSNBC tells us is going on. I think many of the previous posters have some scary and potentially dangerous ideas and definitely need to think things over some more.
I agree with the idea of population control it would be a great to lower the global population for there is too many people in the world each causing their own share of trouble, but with the issue on religious and freedom violations it would be rather difficult to pass such a law in America. Just look what happen to India
trevor is right in saying that the root of the whole problem is population. but now that we're all here, so to speak...=] what can be done now is putting our highest emphasis on EDUCATING everyone on birth control methods and the population problem itself. so as far as the root of the problem i think that this is the first step that needs to be taken.
and quite honestly the rest is just little things. like walking that five minutes to the store instead of driving, turning off a light when you leave a room, and military showers could go a long way in saving gas, water, energy...one thing that i think american parents need to stop doing is buying their newly licensed teenagers cars. i don't have a car right now, and probably wont until next year. this means that i end up carpooling or riding my bike to and from school every day, and might drive myself once or twice a week. i think if all high school students did this we'd be helping three problems: pollution, obesity and TRAFFIC. yay.
riding your bike or walking aren't really that bad, and like i said...it's killing two birds with one stone: pollution and obesity.
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