Planet in Crisis

Planet in Crisis: Why should We Care?

Planet in crisis

The planet and its inhabitants are today threatened by a potential global and ecological crisis that is all the more dangerous because of it is insidious, consisting of many separate problems with little immediate effect on daily life. In the future the impact will break upon us, making significant parts of the less productive or inhabitable and because of the time lags involved the crisis will only become apparent when it is too late to avoid much of the damage.

It is already clear to see that Earth has been assaulted by technology and economic growth. In Minamata, Japan, 1959, was one of the first indicators that there were things going wrong. Babies were born paralysed and many people started to lose control of their limbs. Doctors first suspected metal poisoning was to blame but it was later found that the mysterious condition, named 'Minamata disease' was a result of a chemical plant dumping waste into the sea. The fish took in the poisonous mercury and people were poisoned by eating the fresh fish. Many of the fish faced extinction, occurring solely because of people and their wasteful and polluting ways, as well as thousands effected and seventy dead, this is just one example of how our planet is endangered.

Other examples as to how are planet is endangered are as follows, we are wrecking our planet by cutting down forests, for timber and making paper. Already half the world's forests have been cut down. Each year an area forest gets cut or burned down that is larger than Bangladesh; these are homes to many of our animals. We are covering good land in concrete buildings and new roads and over hunting for food and fur. All of these things cause animals and plants to die and become extinct, some examples are the Dodo, the messenger pigeon and the great Auk.

There is also already irreparable damage to the ozone layer, but the worst of the damage to life on the earth's surface from the resulting ultraviolet radiation is yet to come. The threat of global warming from accumulating greenhouse gases, and the accelerating loss of the planet's biological diversity, have led to the adoption at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 of international conventions which has provided a frame work for addressing the problems, even if the political will is not yet there for effective action.

Why should we care?

The consequences of air pollution, such as acid rain, have been addressed, but the problem is growing in size in some of the most populous regions in Asia, it seems that the full extent of the threat from the increasing quantities of highly dangerous and persistent substances, both toxic chemicals and radioactive materials, is far from being understood or appreciated. It is easy to make the prediction that in the future there will be more unpleasant suprises and things will be much worse for the future generations. We are using the absorptive capacity of the ...