-
-
----------------------------- 2391 - ENVIRONMENT - The Garden of Eden
-
- When Meriwether Lewis and William Clark arrived at the Columbia River, Washington, in 1805 the salmon we so plentiful their daily log recorded “ the number of fish in the river to be inconceivable”. The Indians had only to collect the fish by hand, split them and dry them on scaffolds. The salmon were so plentiful that at times the Indians used the dried salmon for firewood. (I bet that smelled great).
-
- Today, in the North Atlantic 90% of the salmon population is gone. To visit the streams and rivers you can count only handfuls of up-river migrants that are keeping the population alive.
-
- It is not just the fish that is becoming in short supply (higher prices), it is all of Earth’s natural resources. Reports indicate that in the 25 years between 1970 and 1995 30% of Earth’s natural resources were lost, consumed and not replenished.
-
- For example, in 1999 humans used 12 months of natural resources that will take more than 14 months to replace. We are running a 20% deficit each year starting in year 2000.
-
- This is occurring at the same time the world population growth is on the rise. When you have more people with less resources, you have people with less. In the world today 2,000,000,000 people live on less than $3 per day and have no access to commercial energy of any kind.
-
- 80% of Africans still rely on wood for cooking. So much of the land has been stripped of trees that around large cities such as Sahel there is not a single tree within a 60 mile radius in all directions. These trees were not lost for commercial reasons, Africans are destroying their environment in order to survive.
-
- It is different environmental story in Brazil. There they are losing their forests for commercial reasons. There are 7,600 logging companies in Brazil. They can sell a single mahogany tree for $30. In the year 2000 70% of Brazil’s mahogany was shipped to the United States.
-
- However, by the time the tree becomes furniture in the retail store here each tree is worth $130,000. No wonder you have a lot of people wanting to cut them down. Satellite pictures show that Brazil is loosing 7,000 square miles of forest each year (1955 to 2000).
-
- Half of Mexico’s forests have disappeared in the last 50 years. It takes 100 years to replace a hardwood forest. Nature has no chance of keeping up. When the trees go, the top soil goes, the land “ erodes”. Erosion is a continues loss of agriculture.
-
- China is the country with the highest population in the world and now 25% of its landmass is desert. Deserts without water.
-
- Worldwide more than 1,000,000,000 people do not have access to clean drinking water. 90% of Mexico’s diarrhea cases are attributed to contaminated drinking water. 35% of all Mexico’s illnesses are due to environmental factors. Over 8,000,000 Mexicans get their water from wells or open lakes and streams. 25% of the people do not have a sewer.
-
- You go on vacation to the hot sun, beautiful white sands, and blue Sea in Rio, Brazil, but beware, the beaches harbor high levels of fecal coliforms. 50% of Brazil’s sewage goes directly into the rivers and ocean.
-
- Australia has had their soil salinity problem defined since 1917. But, their government knowing the problem can not stop the commercial growth on the land. Agriculture has removed the trees, the salt water tables keep rising, subterranean salt has already removed 6,200,000 acres of their land from agriculture.
-
- Yet, 90% or Australia still uses flood and furrow irrigation for their crops. They are using the same technology the pharaohs used in Egypt over 2,000 years ago. Neither the Australian government, nor the businesses, want badly enough to solve these problems. They seem content to continue to use up the island.
-
- In 1992 the United Nations members signed papers, contracts, and expressed their good intentions yet every major environmental indicator is worse today than it was in 1992. 30 years of good intentions addressing environmental concerns have not made needed improvements.
-
- The reason, these nation’s need for economic growth, driven by customer consumption, requiring business to produce more and cheaper, in turn, using more raw materials and natural resources.
-
- One of these natural resources is fossil fuels that are meeting 90% of the world’s energy demands ( oil 40%, coal 26%, natural gas 24%). Every year each American uses 93,000 kilowatt-hours of power. This is equivalent to 2000 gallons of oil each year. However, half of this US electric power comes from burning coal.
-
- The world consumes 75 million barrels of oil each day. The total world reserve was 2000 billion barrels. To date we have consumed about half that, 900 billion barrels. At present production rates the remaining oil supply will last another 40 years.
-
- Of course, oil supply will not be the problem we face, it will be oil prices. As we get to the back half of the oil reserves production will be more difficult and will not expand. At the same time demand will continue to rise particularly as India, China, and developing countries come on line using modern technologies.
-
- The alternate technologies have their own set of problems and are not coming on as fast. Natural gas, nuclear reactors, windmills, photovoltaic cells, geothermal, hydroelectric , hydrogen fuel cells, all bring challenges to be overcome before we have a substitute for fossil fuel delivered energy.
-
- Visit a park, visit a garden, what would the world be like if every where gardeners spent the energy and hours making nature beautiful and as productive as a garden? Could the entire world look that beautiful?
-
- Visit a landfill and observe the throwaway consumption these natural resources are producing. The consumption is nice, but are we making a better world? You decide!
-
- June 2, 2019 537
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----- Comments appreciated and Pass it on to whomever is interested. ----
--- Some reviews are at: -------------- http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
-- email feedback, corrections, request for copies or Index of all reviews
--- to: ------ jamesdetrick@comcast.net ------ “Jim Detrick” -----------
- https://plus.google.com/u/0/ -- www.facebook.com -- www.twitter.com
--------------------- Sunday, June 2, 2019 ---------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment