©http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/. Unauthorized duplication of this blog's material is prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full credit and link is given to Otters and Science News Blogspot. Link to this post: http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2015/12/its-not-climate-but-human.html - Thank you for visiting my blog.
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From 200,000 years ago until 1804 the human population rose to ONE billion.
Between 1804 to 1927 it rose to TWO billion.
By 1960 we were THREE billion.
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Every new human will need food, water, housing, furniture, the farming of cattle and other animals for food, which in turn will have to be fed while they produce enormous amounts of waste.
Paying other countries to switch from fossil fuels to green energy won't do it. Paying them to restrain their demographic growth while taking care of seniors will.
Although Europe had managed to reach an actual slowdown in population growth, the EU elites decided that this was not good for the economy and have thrown their doors wide open to an influx of millions of migrants from the Middle East and other parts of the world where human reproduction is out of control.
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Migrants flooding Slovenia on their way to
Germany, Sweden, and other EU countries |
Instead of helping other countries (such as Muslim nations, Mexico, and others) to slow down their population growth, the EU and the US are taking the pressure off those places by letting in millions of people who otherwise would be demanding jobs and services from their own governments.
Opening the doors to migrants is not a compassionate act in the long term. It is downright detrimental to the future of the planet.
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Elephants massacred
for their ivory |
No regard for the larger ecological picture. The prospects for many key animal, vegetal, and microscopic species are dismal. It's not only charismatic species such as tigers and elephants dying from poaching and destruction of habitat that we need to worry about. There is also the cutting down of world forests, and the destruction of whole ecosystems.
Most of the life on this planet is of microscopic size. We don't really know how human pollution and overconsumption of resources are affecting those creatures - most of whom are crucial for the existence of larger species like us.
Keep in mind that 90% of the cells in a mammal like us is bacterial. We look human because our cells are larger, that's all. But our gut, our skin, and just about every single part of us, are colonized by good bacteria that help keep us healthy and alive.
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| Brazilian forest's jaguar |
And so is the case with the entire planet, its soils, air and water. There is a microscopic living web that keeps all other life thriving.
While we routinely highlight big animals as victims of human depredations, they are not the most important part of life on this planet: microbial life is.
And we have no idea how we humans - with our own parasitic lifestyle of devouring living things, and polluting everything in sight - will affect those invisible species that keep us alive.
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While we tend to see plants and animals in a tropical forest, but the most important creatures in the web of life are invisible to the human eye.
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So if you think that humankind can survive quite well in spite of the extinction of elephants, tigers and other megafauna, think again. We just don't know how we are modifying bacterial life.
Super bacteria immune to antibiotics make the headlines, but the whole planet is in fact a world filled with microscopic life. However, with out-of-control human population growth and severe technological modifications of nature, we may reach a fatal environmental tipping point sometime in the current century.
This picture is our present. Air pollution is so bad in China, that big cities such as Shenyang (shown here) and Peking are now almost unlivable.
But to illustrate the effects of human greed and cruelty, let's look at the most iconic animal species now on the verge of extinction.
The following article appeared on this blog on September 29, 2014:
THE BIG EXTINCTION - HALF OF THE WORLD'S WILD ANIMALS HAVE DISAPPEARED IN THE LAST 40 YEARS due to human destruction of habitat, poaching, and other practices - Overpopulation has turned humans into a parasitic outbreak that is destroying life on Earth, say scientists
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| Murdered to make medicine for the Chinese |
Mankind's need for land and resources, combined with hunting and poaching, are causing our wild animals to die out
Wildlife populations around the globe have declined by 52 per cent on average since 1970, a new report has found
The likes of forest elephants, African lions and tigers are under threat, as well as British harbour seals and birds
- Lion numbers dropped 90 per cent in 40 years, tigers by 97 per cent in 100 years and elephants 60 per cent since 2002
Continue reading
This is the moment wounded Ben, the elephant, pleaded with humans for help after it was shot by poachers.
This picture is our present. Air pollution is so bad in China, that big cities such as Shenyang (shown here) and Peking are now almost unlivable.
©http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/. Unauthorized duplication of this blog's material is prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full credit and link is given to Otters and Science News Blogspot. Link to this post: http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2015/03/mother-elephant-spends-eleven-hours.html - Thank you for visiting my blog.
©http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/. Unauthorized duplication of this blog's material is prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full credit and link is given to Otters and Science News BlogSpot. 
When Raju was rescued, he had sores all over his hide and was close to starvation. He was in almost constant pain after chains and spikes wrapped around his legs left him with chronic wounds and arthritis. 