Pamela Klassen Student # 6852497
Blog 1
Selection 42 Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Jared Diamond describes a collapse as a drastic decrease in human population size over an extended period of time possibly due to political, economic, and/or social complications. Today many tourist attractions are abandoned cities such as the Maya cities, but the question is what caused these historical sites to become abandoned? Diamond states that the determinants of a collapse in the past falls into eight categories; deforestation and habitat destruction, soil problems, water management problems, overhunting, overfishing, effects of introduced species on native species, human population growth, and increased per-capita impact of people. The determinants may be interconnected and one determinant can cause the other. For example, population growth causes overhunting, overfishing, extended agricultural production, etc.
The risk of potential collapses today still remains a concern. The same eight determinants continue to be problems. However, Diamond describes new current environmental problems based on a five-point framework. The first factor are the effects the people bring on to the environment. This includes the amount of fishing or how many trees are cut down every year. The second factor is climate change which could produce further depletion. Climate change could also have benefits, but the societies should be careful because when the good decades end the society could find themselves with a larger population than what they can support. The third and fourth factors are hostile neighbours and their decreased support. Many societies depend at least to some extent on their neighbours for imports of essential trade goods or for cultural ties that lend cohesion to the society. Therefore if a society's trade partner becomes weakened their society becomes weakened as well. The last factor is the society’s response to the environmental issues and whether they choose to or try to solve the problems or not. This can include the society’s choice to promote recycling or use environmentally friendly technology. We can learn from the past, but only if we think carefully of its lessons and the causing factors.
Selection 32 Our Stolen Future
Many environmentalists and wildlife biologists believe that humans and animals are connected by our shared evolutionary inheritance and our shared environment. The damage seen through lab experiments and in the wildlife are constantly being overlooked as problems that could appear in the human population in the future. The chemicals from industrial pollution has found its way into human and animal bodies. Some skeptics believe we can’t assume that humans are the same as animals and that humans will share the same effects when exposed to the same chemicals. However, there has been proof that humans have been affected by hormone-disrupting chemicals when abnormalities first seen in animals from laboratory experiments with DES later showed up in children of women who had taken this drug during pregnancy. Most animals mature and reproduce more quickly than humans so we need to become aware of the warnings. Humans are being exposed to chemicals that have affected the wildlife and laboratory animals already. “Unless these chemicals are controlled, we face the danger of widespread disruption in human embryonic development and the prospect of damage that will last a lifetime" (Colborn, Dumanoski, & Myers, 2009 pg. 164).
Selection 36: The Population Explosion: Why We Should Care and What We Should Do About It
The population of people on the Earth has grown about six times the number that it was in 1800. One common problem mentioned resulting from the population explosion is overcrowding leading to traffic jams on the freeways and a strain on the school and health budgets. Paul R. Enrlich and Anne H. Ehrlich state that overpopulation also leads to environmental problems. More people are using the Earth’s resources and therefore resulting in a greater environmental impact. For example high levels of energy are being used by more people such as the manufacture and powering of vehicles and lighting and heating homes. Other examples of environmental impacts from overpopulation include increased deforestation, and urban construction. Water and air pollution are also becoming a larger problem with the excess amount of gases being released into the atmosphere. The Earth’s resources are continuously being diminished and therefore it will get harder to feed and provide humans with all their needs when the population is expanding.
The basic goal to reduce the problems with overpopulation is to bring the society to an optimum population growth rate. To obtain this goal people must have the knowledge and means to control their reproduction. This includes “basic health care and sanitation, education and economic opportunities for both sexes, local control over supporting resources, and fair and responsible government” (Ehrlich & Ehrlich, 2009 pg. 187). In the last few decades this has shown to be successful with the birth rates being continuously low. In addition to working towards stabilizing the earth’s population the authors mention that we still need to reduce consumption and use the most environmentally friendly technologies. Both will take us closer toward sustainable development.
Reflection - Our Connection with the Environment
The environment includes all the living and nonliving things around us with which we interact. The environment provides the society with resources and the resources provide the society with economy (David Suzuki Foundation, 2009). We are all interconnected and connected with the environment. In the video “The Sacred Balance” David Suzuki talks about how we have transformed the world around us with science and technology. Cities are now our principle dwelling place and we have forgotten where the resources initially came from. Suzuki believes we need to reconnect with the Earth. “We are the water we drink, the air we breathe, the soil that feeds us, and the energy that keeps us going” (The Sacred Balance, 2003). Without these resources there would be no life on Earth. We are part of the environment.
Living in an industrialized country, we are used to our affluent lifestyles. People begin to believe we have power over the Earth’s resources and economies are constantly looking for new resources (The Sacred Balance, 2003). But can the Earth keep up with humanity? The Earth’s biocapacity is the amount of resources that is available to meet human needs (World Wide Fund for Nature, 2008). Today the Earth’s biological footprint has exceeded the Earth’s capacity and the amount of resources humanity is using is equal to 1.4 planets. This takes the Earth a total of one year and five months to regenerate what humanity has taken. The Earth has been in overshoot since the late 1980’s. This means we are turning the Earth’s natural resources into waste faster than nature can turn the waste back into resources (Global Footprint Network, 2009 & World Wide Fund for Nature, 2008). Overpopulation is also a threat to our environment. The population of people on the Earth has grown about six times the number that it was in 1800. The article “The Population Explosion: Why We Should Care and What We Should Do About It” mentions that overpopulation is a threat to our environment because there are more people using up the Earth’s resources that we are already using too much of individually (Ehrlich & Ehrlich, 2009).
Sustainable development is the ability to meet our current needs, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Taking action towards sustainable development involves education, institutional development, and law enforcement at the individual and international level (International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2010 & Commission on Environment and Development, 2009). Working towards sustainable development means working together as a society because there is no one solution. We cannot address the environmental problems the same way we created them, but we can still address them. We can work together by promoting sustainable consumption patterns, increasing efficiency, and reusing materials. Organizations can increase opportunities for public participation which, can enhance our understanding and our relationship with the environment. Consuming differently, producing differently, and organizations are three actions that can help lead us toward sustainable development when working together (International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2010).
Working towards sustainable development can lead to some questions involving the precautionary principle. Should measures be taken when they can help improve the environment, but there is no scientific certainty of how it could effect the society? The precautionary principle is not widely used in Canada. Lots of research is taken place before a product is released or scientific measure is taken. I do not necessarily agree with the precautionary principle because I believe we have connections with our environment and I think it is safer for the environment if we know the measures and actions taken place are safe and effective.
We need to remember our connections we have with the environment. Learning our connections helps us develop a sense of what we really need and help us develop limitations (International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2010). The way we look at the Earth determines how we live in it and taking action to promote sustainable development can lead us to a positive future.
References
Colborn T., Dumanoski D. & Peterson Myers, J. (2009) Our stolen future. In T. Easton (Eds.) Environmental studies (3rd ed.) (pp. 162-164). New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies.
Diamond J. (2009) Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed. In T. Easton (Eds.) Environmental studies (3rd ed.) (pp. 213-218). New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies.
Ehrlich, P. R. & Ehrlich, A. H. (2009) The population explosion: Why we should care and what
we should do. In T. Easton (Eds.) Environmental studies (3rd ed.) (pp. 183-188). New
York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies.
Global Footprint Network. (2009). World Footprint. Retrieved January 19, 2010, from
http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/world_footprint/
International Institute for Sustainable Development. (2010) Introduction to Sustainable Development. Retrieved January 20, 2010 from https://angel.cc.umanitoba.ca/section/
default.asp?id=MRG%2D100108%2D135747%2Dfa4d7ca9%2D8f3c %2D48c9%2D9eb0%2D6b8c1babdd3c&goto=
World Commission on Environment and Development. (2009) Towards sustainable development. In T. Easton (Eds.) Environmental studies (3rd ed.) (pp. 198-202). New
York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies.
World Wide Fund for Nature. (2009). Humanity’s Ecological Footprint. Retrieved January 18,
2010, from http://www.panda.org/about_our_earth/all_publications/living_planet_report/
footprint/
