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In 1973 I bought a book called "The Limits to
Growth" by The Club of Rome. The book, written by an
international group of world scientists, economists, civil
servants and business people, was a well reasoned projection of
Man's continued use of non-renewable natural resources. It used
a complex computer model, developed at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT), to predict the future of
industry, commerce, environment and human population. It
concluded that the Earth's precious reservoirs of minerals would
become exhausted within a hundred years, that the planet's
environment would be spoiled by pollution and that, eventually,
the shear numbers of people on the planet would not be
sustainable. All this, it said, would lead to the inevitable
collapse of civilisation unless there was an immediate halt to
economic/industrial growth, pollution and population
increase. I was so shocked by what I read that it
dramatically changed my perspective on Man's relationship with
the Earth forever.
On 18 November 1992 a warning to Humanity was issued,
signed by more than 1500 leading scientists from around the
globe:
"Human beings and the natural world are on a collision
course. Human activities inflict harsh and often irreversible
damage on the environment and on critical resources. If not
checked, many of our current practices put at serious risk the
future that we wish for human society and the plant and animal
kingdoms, and may so alter the living world that it will be
unable to sustain life in the manner that we know. Fundamental
changes are urgent if we are to avoid the collision our present
course will bring about." Read full
text.
SO, HOW'S OUR LITTLE PLANET DOING THESE DAYS?
I've been attempting to gather the latest information and
updating the pages in this section to reflect an up-to-date
picture on how things are and current thinking on where we are
going. Of course, this is an ongoing adventure and I will be
continually reviewing things, rewriting pages to reflect new
data and harvesting the latest news for inclusion. In the
meantime, please take a look at the following pages:
All of these themes are diversely and intricately
interconnected in their causes and effects. For instance, the
clearing of the rainforests (for mainly agricultural purposes),
besides the obvious adverse effect on biodiversity, exacerbates
the effect of increasing greenhouse gasses by burning fossil
fuels for energy, which is causing global warming and which
will, in turn, cause problems for feeding and watering the
increasing population. Pollution and agricultural usage are
already major contributors to shortages of potable water in many
areas of the World. Forests translocate water from the ground
into the atmosphere and are believed to be significant
contributors to rain-cloud production, so there's another blow
to water supplies.
I could go on and on and fill your computer screen several
times over.
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