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Environment |
| General | Air & Climate | Animal Welfare | Trees & Forests | Water & Oceans |
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| This is a picture of the Earth's operating capacity. Each section represents a major system of our planetary operating system. The green section in the center represents the safe operating zone while the red sections represent current levels, with the dotted lines showing their change since 1950. The image is a snapshot of recent work by an internationally renowed group of scientists in the Earth and life sciences.1 In the April 2010 issue of Scientific American, a host of measures were proposed to redress this alarming picture, but surprisingly, limiting population growth was not among them, even though population growth is a common basis for all these problems. And since the measures offered are insufficient by themselves, the need to focus on the population basis is essential. Fittingly, 2010 was declared the International Year of Biodiversity. Biodiversity is the most out of bounds system. In fact, its loss couldn't even fit entirely into the diagram! We can't let this problem continue to take the back seat to everything else. To do so would be to leave a terrible legacy. Biodiversity is hugely valueable, not only in terms of the myrad ecosystem services it provides, but also in providing esthetic and spiritual value, as well as synergistic and evolutionary ways that have been with us virtually forever. -Rodger |
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Copyright © 2010, Rodger Silvers