Man’s Impact!
What We Do To Our Planet We Do To Ourselves
By Frank Schiavone
|
|
When it comes to the footprint we leave on this ever-shrinking globe, we humans wear some pretty big clodhoppers – size 13, triple wide. From space, man’s impact on our world is clearly visible. Bill Mckibben in his book, The End of Nature, writes that there is nowhere on Earth that man’s reach is unfelt. Even our aerial sea, Earth’s atmosphere, is out of tilt. All around us, wilderness is vanishing as development bleeds into our forests, mountains, deserts, wetlands, and savannas.
The plants and animals that rely on these declining habitats are suffering mightily from our actions. Scientists believe we are experiencing the “sixth wave of extinction,” a species diminution that appears to be the direct handiwork of humankind. Experts estimate that the current extinction rate is somewhere between 100 and 1,000 times higher than historic background rates (others say it is even higher, up to 10,000 times the usual background extinction rate – one species per million per year).
Recently, CNN reported that only 13 Northern White Rhinos remain worldwide. Barring some miracle, their extinction is assured, just one more species cast upon the scrapheap of man’s transformation of his world and his “taming” of nature.
All over the planet, inestimable species and ecosystems are reaching these same tipping points with no hope of return. Fisheries are collapsing; many marine mammal and bird populations are a mere fraction of their historic levels; coral reefs are dying; and drought and parasitic insects are decimating forests. Sadly, this list just goes on and on.
Locally, our impact is evident all around us. Housing developments overflow into wildlands and watersheds. Our impact doesn’t end where our houses do. We poison, shoot, trap, and bludgeon animals of all kinds for daring to enter our yards. Our pets kill countless birds, small mammals and reptiles, doing what they do naturally. We spread non-native plants that out compete the native ones. Offroaders cut new swaths and roads disrupting normal water flows and absorption rates. It doesn’t take much imagination to arrive at a broad array of what biologists refer to as “edge effects”.
We affect more than the lands that surround us. Super-concentrated filth pours into our streets and ultimately to streams, rivers, and the ocean. Parts of our vast oceans are now wastelands or dead zones. The emblematic California Sea Otter is being sickened and killed by disease that generally only affects cats. The culprit is thought to be the improper disposal of good old Johnny Cat and cat feces.
Our insatiable hunger for fossil fuels add gigatons of aerosols (soot), carbon, and other greenhouse gases to our aerial sea. Fresh water is becoming increasingly precious.
We all, every one of us, participate in this constant assault on nature. We argue over nits as Rome burns. Heck, we can’t even agree that there is a problem. Limitless growth, expansion, and consumption have become hard-wired into our psyches.
Many are going to say, “So what? The ‘End Of Nature’ has no bearing on my life.” Yes, in a biologically impoverished (albeit warmer) world there will be winners among us. But be assured there will many more losers and they will be cranky.
Plagues, shortages, and social upheaval will be commonplace and will rock our democratic and civil institutions. Let’s face it; human societies are often not very cohesive so things can degenerate pretty fast. Even the Pentagon recognizes that environmental degradation and global warming is a credible national security risk. Their risk assessment report was shared with Fortune Magazine and published January 26, 2004. Although worst case, it’s still pretty sobering.
Our emotional and spiritual attachment to the natural world aside, our physical well-being is inextricably tied to the health of our planet and its many life-support systems. One does not have to be a lover of songbirds or a wild-eyed environmentalist to see the dangerous path we are on.
We have done a lot of damage to our planet since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, the lion’s share in the last fifty years. In this tiny speck of time, we have put the interests of ourselves over those that are to follow. Much like the prodigal son, we are spending our inheritance with mindless abandon as if there was no tomorrow and no reckoning.
It’s time to view our connection to God’s creation in a new light. If we don’t change our ways, our fate may be that of the Northern White Rhino.