Earlier, when there were less people, the resources were plentiful and our actions were within the carrying capacity of the Earth. But along with increasing population, the demand for food, water, space and energy increased resulting in more stress to the planet. The Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries changed the way people farmed and produced goods. The use of new technology, machineries, and chemical additives did increase the productivity resulting in profit but there was a cost to that – environmental degradation.
The negative impacts of anthropogenic activities were already visible in 19th century. But it took us a while to accept that the polluted water bodies, depleted forests, diminishing wildlife, acid rain, smog were all the result of our own activities. It was only during 1970 when some like-minded people decided to bring the environmental problems to fore that we started celebrating Earth Day the world over. April 22, 1970 also marks the beginning of a new era of environmental movement.
POPULATION EXPLOSION & GROWING CITIES
Scientists and experts attribute population growth as the direct or indirect cause of environmental degradation. According to the International Data Base of the US Census Bureau, the global population doubled from 3 billion in 1959 to 6 billion in 1999. It projects that by 2040, there will be about 9 billion people in this planet. It is common sense that the increased number of people results in increased consumption and anything we consume comes directly or indirectly from nature. Furthermore, statistics show that most of the population growth is taking place in developing countries or least developed countries. But it is surprising that 80 percent of the world resources are consumed by 20 percent of the people living in the developed countries.
I took a quiz to calculate the number of planets we need based upon our lifestyles. I took one emulating an average American and the result was five planets.
But one doesn’t have to be in a developed country to consume like the citizen of a developed country. Because of rapid rate of urbanization, many areas around the world that were once considered rural have now transformed into urban areas. Statistics show that more than half of the global population now lives in cities. The population of cities – because of better job and economic opportunities, better infrastructure and services and other similar reasons – is increasing at an alarming rate. According to UN figures, the number of mega-cities – cities with more than 10 million inhabitants – increased from two – New York and Tokyo – in 1950 to 20 in 2005. By 2015, it is projected that there will be a total of 22 mega-cities all around the world and the interesting thing is that 17 of these mega-cities will be in developing countries. The world’s fastest growing cities are predominantly found in Asia and Africa. Of the world’s 324 fastest growing cities between 2000 and 2010, 84 are in China. Our own Kathmandu’s population has now almost tripled from 671,846 in 2001.
LIVING AN AMERICAN LIFESTYLE
Another fact is that because of the consumption pattern and lifestyle, an average city dweller consumes far more energy than somebody from the suburb or rural area. Most of the people – as Thomas L. Friedman, recipient of three Pulitzer Prizes and author of The World is Flat and Hot, Flat and Crowded puts it – not only dream of living an American lifestyle, they actually live one.
As more and more people live the way Americans do, the Earth pays the price by annually losing more than 10,000 square miles of rainforest and losing species 1,000 times more than the natural rate. It pays the price in the form of disappearing wetlands and biodiversity and accepting ever increasing levels of toxic pollutants in air, soil and water bodies. And lately it has been paying the price by the increased global temperature as a result of increased amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Studies show that the amount of carbondioxide – one of the major greenhouse gases – has increased from 315 ppm in 1959 to 387 ppm in 2009. If the current population growth and consumption pattern continues unabated then the computer models show that not only the amount of carbondioxide and other pollutants will increase, we will continue to lose rainforest and species diversity.
Speaking of computer models, I took a quiz to calculate the number of planets we need based upon our lifestyles. I took one emulating an average American and the result was five planets. Even with a conservative estimate of one small car, a house, occasionally eating packaged food and with average electricity consumption, that lifestyle would need five planets. May be, this explains why governments in developed countries are spending more on space exploration projects to find other habitable planets.
I am a little skeptical about this folks as it will take at least a couple of centuries before we can mass migrate to another place, that too if there exists such a place and if we find it. Until then, how about changing our lifestyles and consumption patterns to reduce our negative impacts to our only home – The Earth?
kc.shandip@yahoo.com
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Happy Earth Day!
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