|
On Saturday, over a hundred artists and some 2 billion people will participate in the Live Earth concerts to highlight global warming. It will be the largest mass musical event in history: a day-long multimedia extravaganza at eight primary venues on all seven continents.
And while public attention is focused on climate change, things elsewhere will continue much as always. During the 24 hours of Live Earth, 214,000 acres of tropical forest will disappear forever. Two billion gallons of human sewage will be dumped into the world's oceans. 10,800 children will die from drought or the lack of clean drinking water. And we'll be 85 million barrels closer to the end of the Petroleum Age.
Granted, climate change is a significant issue. We needn't agree on its causes to realize its potential impact: a shifting climate means the shifting availability of things like fresh water and viable farmland. While natural resources follow wind and tide, human populations do not. The resulting stresses are likely to produce regional instabilities at a very fragile moment in history.
But the effects of global warming, whatever they are, will be measured on a scale of decades or centuries. In the meantime, beyond the unblinking stare of MTV -- far from the well-heeled audiences of London, Hamburg, and Giants Stadium -- away from the celebrity and speechmaking, humanity's collective lack of environmental wisdom is already grinding nature underfoot. While some propose spending billions of dollars to combat the uncertain foe of climate change, more pressing matters already threaten to upend our everyday lives.
At Lighter Footstep, we've rounded up five of these issues for your consideration. As you watch the nonstop coverage of Live Earth on Saturday, think about the things which will still be important on July 8th. Then ask yourself what you can do about it.
The End of Cheap Oil
 When we think about progress -- economic expansion, advances in food production, and the creature comforts of modern living -- what we are really thinking about is cheap petroleum.
We're living at a unique time in human history. Throughout our lives, we've taken for granted the availability of plentiful, relatively inexpensive petroleum. This will not be the case for our children, or the generations which follow.
Bring up peak oil at a dinner party, and you're likely to receive the sort of stares reserved for UFO enthusiasts and those who insist the moon landings were all a fake. But peak oil is being discussed today in places such as the boardrooms of Exxon, if not in public.
Peak oil is the point at which conventional petroleum production tops out. There have been few major discoveries of conventional oil in the past decade, and existing fields command a finite supply. Beyond peak oil is a long and irreversible decline in the amount of petroleum which can be brought to market -- and this slide will coincide with a worldwide demand which accelerates from year to year.
It's not just the energy. Look around you right now and think about all the petroleum products that touch your life every day, from plastics to the pesticides which make modern agriculture possible. Conservation may help, but all these things will eventually go away -- and we have no replacement for them. Unless solutions are found before oil becomes unaffordable, our lives will change radically on the backside of the peak.
And when will peak oil happen? Some people think we may already be there. The so-called Early Peak theorists point to 2010. More conservative analysts say anywhere from 2015 to 2030. Soon enough, in any case. Long before the poles melt. If sea levels rise, they will inundate cities already emptied by the collapse of the economies which make them possible.
The Collapse of Ocean Ecosystems
 We are turning our seas into sewers, and fishing marine populations to the brink of extinction.
In the Pacific and elsewhere, massive whirlpools of plastic waste turn slowly in the currents, a source of deadly and inedible food for hundred of marine species. It's not just a question of aesthetics: pollution on this scale disrupts the food chain -- a chain which reaches to your local grocery store.
Look at satellite imagery of our coastal areas and you'll see the telltale smudge of massive algae blooms which choke oxygen from the sea and reduce oceans to lifeless underwater deserts. These blooms are the direct result of unchecked agricultural runoff -- the dumping of manure and fertilizers into watersheds which eventually find their way to the world's oceans.
Meanwhile, researchers have determined that up to 29% of marine species have been overfished or so effected by human mismanagement that they are on the brink of collapse. In some cases, species face 100% collapse no later than mid-century. These trends are still thought to be reversible, but each year that goes by makes the ultimate recovery of the oceans less and less likely.
It's difficult to calculate the impact of such widespread change to marine environments, but humanity has always been heavily dependent on the ocean for food and commerce. The problems seem more dire when expanding worldwide population is taken into consideration. There is certainly a link between climate change and stress on marine environments. But the factors over which we have more direct control are the ones doing the most damage, and the window of opportunity for addressing them is rapidly closing.
The Coming Water Crisis
 From the oceans we turn our attention to an even rarer resource: fresh water.
Of all the water on earth, less than 3% is fresh. Of this, some 70% is locked in glaciers and polar ice. Our survival depends on the tiny bit which is left.
Over a billion people already lack access to a safe supply of adequate drinking water. These numbers will increase with world population. Here, again, is a clear link to climate change: as rainfall patters shift, so does the availability of fresh water.
But the real crisis is this: right now, our largest cities depend heavily on groundwater. Beijing, Buenos Aires, Mexico City -- and perhaps your own community -- draws its water from underground aquifers. These aquifers take centuries to replenish, so it's unlikely their use on this scale is sustainable.
The recent corporatization of drinking water is no accident: investors recognize the trends of shrinking supply and increasing demand. This is the reason multinational companies are snapping up neglected municipal water infrastructures and throwing themselves into the bottled water business. Water is the Blue Gold of the 21st century.
How will we replace shrinking fresh water supplies? Desalinization of sea water is an obvious answer, but desalinization is expensive energy intensive. It would require the development of a distribution system that dwarfs the one by which we currently bring petroleum to market.
We will have to seek out new ways to reprocess wastewater and reduce our current demand on groundwater supplies. While changes will necessarily trickle down to the household level and will be neither cheap nor convenient, they are unavoidable if we wish to sustain our current rate of population growth.
There are no equivalents to carbon credits when it comes to water: you can't pay someone not to consume water on your behalf. When it comes to dwindling fresh water supplies, there can be no smoke and mirrors. Stop drinking for a day, and you'll realize the pressing nature of thirst. The recent drought in the American Southwest and the threat of water rationing in places like Los Angeles are a preview of things to come.
Deforestation
 We depend on Earth's forests for the quality of human life. Over half of all known species live in tropical rainforests.
Every second, 2.4 acres of old-growth rainforest disappears, never to return. That's about 78 million acres a year: the area of a medium-sized country. The pyres from the illegal harvest of irreplaceable Amazon jungle are clearly visible from space, and the effects of large scale clear cutting reverberate across the entire planet.
While you might not care or even be aware of the destruction of some exotic tropical species, the reduction of Earth's biodiversity has very real economic and environmental impact on humans. Trees cool our climate and regulate the amount of carbon dioxide in the air. Much of our medicine is derived from plants located exclusively in the world's most threatened ecosystems.
The future is complex, and the sum of many actions. But such widespread abuse of non-renewable resources bodes ill for the planet's long-term sustainability.
Nuclear Weapons
 Out of sight, out of mind: we like to think the end of the Cold War stuffed the nuclear genie back into the bottle.
But as Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent threat to re-target European cities demonstrates, the idea that the risk of a nuclear war has abated is largely an illusion. It's not really necessary to recount the horrors of a potential nuclear exchange, other than to remind ourselves that a nuclear winter would be the ultimate environmental disaster, and humanity's last insult to the planet.
There remain approximately 20,000 active nuclear weapons, slumbering away in the missile silos, bunkers, and submarines we hide around the world. They're a miscalculation or a sharp political crisis away from being called to duty -- a sword that's been hanging above us so long that we've come to mistake it for the sky.
If the political resolve being marshaled to combat global warming could be channeled into achieving the complete destruction of these awful weapons, it would go a long way toward the safeguarding of our survival as a species.
The Future
We could have easily added a half dozen other issues to this list: pandemics like AIDS and antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis; the enormous economic disparities between the northern and southern hemispheres; and the pervasiveness of industrial toxins in our food and air.
As the old saying goes, the future is unwritten. Humanity is a versatile species, capable of great resourcefulness in the face of challenge. All is not doom and gloom. We have more than sufficient capacity to address the changes of the new century.
The attention focused on global warming has renewed a moribund environmental movement. More importantly, it has people thinking -- for the first time in many years -- about the larger issues of sustainability and the kind of future we'd like to provide ourselves and our children.
So enjoy Live Earth. Remember, though, that the real job is ahead, as is the task of setting priorities to address it.
Readers have left 30 comments. 1. Mayans
anarchOi!, Guest So, i'm really beginning to believe that the world is going to end in 2012. End as in, move on to a new way of life... it will be our generation who chooses whether that new life is one inwhich we respect our mother earth, or whether it's one inwhich she reminds us how small we really are. Only problem is, is it really our generation's decision in a country run by people old enough to be our grandparents? Hi-Ho America is always 50 years behind. One last thing, imagine if all the money wasted on endeavors in the middle east had been invested into space exploration and colonization.. 2. Little steps
Guest, Guest There are so many challenges....here is my little step http://www.ripple.org 3. most of these things are related to global warming
Guest, Guest Most of these things are related to global warming, so the title is very misleading. 4. stupid
Guest, Guest "..a day-long multimedia extravaganza at eight primary venues on all seven continents" that will use hundreds of plastic cups, use a ton of energy, and suck down millions of gallons of oil. f'n deadbeats 5. Blogengeezer
Guest, Guest 'Malthus' will be 'field tested' about in the year 2050. Population of Earth at start of Industrial Revolution, (1850) about 1 billion +, today is at about 6.6 Billion. Hang on, it's going to be a wild ride for a lot of people. 'daflikkers over on blogpot' 6. Paging Mr. Malthus ...
Chris Baskind, Super Administrator > 'Malthus' will be 'field tested' about in the year 2050.
I hope you're wrong, but I could not be more concerned about our lack of preparation for what will happen when we no longer have the luxury of expensing 10 calories of petroleum energy for each 1 calorie of food production -- which is pretty close to our current situation. 7. sigh
anarchOi!, Guest Of course Malthus will be field tested, the only thing wrong is the date. Our oil will run out much sooner than 2050. Am i the only one who takes into account the war in the middle east? Am i the only one who realizes how much more oil must be used to fuel such a war? Seriously, am i the only one who feels their future, and their existence is threatened by some stupid fight over religion? I have no religion, and my chance to grow old and live happily has been taken away by a bunch of cross-bearing idiots fighting over which non-existent being is the right one to worship.
Live Earth kicked ass btw, what i saw of it. 8. Yes, these concerns are all valid,
Guest, Guest Throughout the majority of history, the human race has been under constant circumstance - some self imposed, some not - capable of bringing an end to the world. Doom sayers have been around forever, and so have people who just won't give a **** until the inconveniences caused by an effort of six billion people to throw up on the earth every in way imaginable finally one day inconveniences them as an individual. It's my opinion that if the ignorance of people and nations towards the planet continues, we're pretty much boned, but I doubt we'll give a **** in time to reverse the damage. 9. Pffft
Measlymonkey, Guest You do realize that the majority of issues you have listed coincide with global climate change, yes?
Maybe you should go back and re-read your article.... 10. the sixth worst thing
Guest, Guest The sixth worst thing is religion where it preceeds humanity. religion should be a private thing and not turned into a weapon to hurt humanity 11. Is throwing big parties the answer?
Guest, Guest So Live Earth was staged to increase awareness? I heard some interviews with attendees and they didn't know who Al Gore was. They went to see Madonna. Do they really think they accomplished anything except consuming vast resources like private jet fuel? No one is giving up their nukes so the author can forget that plea. The rainforest is of critical concern. We know for sure this is a manmade problem. The difference is I love trees and understand their undeniable importance to our ecosystem, but I despise affluent, eletist, large scale polluters telling us regular, very small scale polluters how to live. And I don't buy their carbon credit nonsense. The super rich like Gore and his minions use this to appease their conscience. It's a very affordable write off for them and it's the epitome of phoniness. 12. The Real Problem
Nol, Guest
Some of you missing the point. All of these "problems" result from one inescapable fact: There are too many people on the planet.
There is a concept called "sustainable yield" It applies to many things - businesses, water systems, agriculture, anything that is based on renewable resources. When you exceed sustainable yield, sooner or later you pay for the act.
In the case of humanity, the price will be high indeed. Growing populations are converting the human based systems into a "monoculture", where genetic diversity is reduced to a very small number of variants, and susceptible to attack by disease. Not only are we reducing the genetic variety in our crops, we are also reducing cultural variety in our people, while simultaneously increasing the speed for the spread of diseases in plants, animals and people. If you want to look for a real example, that warns of this possible future, look to the Irish Potato Famine of the 19th century, where population declined from 8.3 million to 6.5 million. The current population of Ireland, including Northern Ireland is 5,700,000.
The result will be disasters - worldwide pandemics, and the solution to all the problems listed:
With far fewer people, the rain forests will re-grow. With fewer people the fish stocks will recover. With fewer people oil will last much much longer.
With fewer people, polluted water sources will clear-up and aquifers will recharge.
We really have only two choices: We can let nature take it's course, or we can actively take steps to reduce the population.
I estimate the probability of a world-wide epidemic severely affecting either crops or humanity itself, in the next 20 years is pretty close to 1.0, with death tolls in the tens of millions, perhaps hundreds of millions. If no action is taken, the crises will worsen until the needed result is obtained.
This is not the end of the world, just the end of the world as we know it.
13. Phallpdx
Guest, Guest So the first four of those had to do with global warming and the sustainability of humans, which is exactly what the people at the concerts were fighting. But other than the fact that you are being a hypocrite I see nothing wrong with what you have said. I agree that these issues are pressing, however I think that by fighting global warming you fight a lot of the issues that you brought up such as dwindling oil, the water crisis, and clear cutting of trees, etc. 14. no more
charlie, Guest The major problem is republicans in America. If they were all aborted like they should have been. These problems would be fix right away without thinking of which lobbiest it would hurt or they would have never even came about. Show repucblicans we want the old conservatives back and don't vote R for the next few elections. The evil ones will go back to the oil companies and get their old jobs and some new good ones may emerge. Rid they world of republicans and these problems will go away oh and church. That is what this Jesus character people speak would do. 15. One more...
Guest, Guest One more catastrophe to add to the list: the intelligent, peaceful and democratic people are forgetting to reproduce, but the god-crazy and the unrulable are. 16. boring
pleitch, Guest To echo the comments of some already made, the title is incredibly misleading as most of the list is global warming related.
But what is really bothering me about so many of the people that rag on Live Earth because itself it is using energy, blah blah is that I don't hear the same people ragging about every other major rock tour and how they're using energy. What, Live Earth was seven or so concerts in one day? Big freakin deal. At least they're doing something, even if some of the people had no idea who Al Gore was I'm sure they didn't make it through the entire concert not learning something.
Can you think of a better way to send a message to that many people in a single day?
Keep things in perspective people. 17. Religion
ReligiousMan, Guest The war is to stop fanatics. Fanatics do not follow religion, they use it as an excuse to do what they want to, which is the destruction of other peoples. Their religion does not tell them to kill other people. For an agnostic/athiest/anarchist or whatever, you're really under read. Learn about what other peoples faiths really are before you deny them.
I'm very afraid that these issues of environment arise from our inability to cooperate. Our world is now driven by competition which has gotten so heated that we've forgotten what competition was for, and now we blindly race to defeat each other and inevitably ourselves. Gad has not left us, we have left God. 18. Differenciate behavior and its consequences
Guest, Guest To go along with what has already been said here, it seems to me that Global Warming is one of the CONSEQUENCES of the irresponsible behaviors that your are criticizing in your article... Eventually we all agree!
Also, I agree with the fact that if the LiveEarth concerts have certainly used a lot of energy and plastic cups etc (like any other concerts do) well at least it is a world-scale attempt to raise public awareness of global warming. Some people in the world don't even now what we are doing to our planet right now. Any action to communicate about our disastrous behaviors is a good initiative in my point of view. Next step is : how to force the change? 19. IDM
Raj Doctor, Registered Five things worse than Global Warming? But there is one thing worse than these 5 things - Cheap oil, Ocean Ecosystem, Water crisis, Deforestation, Nuclear weapons - mentioned here. The greed and ambition of humans! Do what may, address and analyze how much you can - until you won't understand this core cause of all these, no one would be able to improve anything. Instead, people - like this author - would feel fulfilled with their work and life. Even after living a whole life-time working on a particular theory or hypothesis is not going not solve! One can get an award - noble prize for some absurd work. But everyone is forgetting that we are standing on top of million years of layers of human distortions, and talking from that status-quo. Our lives are not even one-millionth of a second in comparison to the history of the world. So please do not think or believe that one has got some great insight into solving world's problems. You have none chance - except perpetuate dreams that lift you through herd of foolish fanatics. No 5 things; No 7 ways; No 10 solutions...would work. Please understand that... 20. Blogger
Guest, Guest "One Millionth of second, human life in time relation to Earths age". Good fact 'Dr Raj'. The big clock in the visitor Center at the Grand Canyon, illustrates this very well. To see what actual Global Warming looks like, see blogengeezer over at Wordpress. Try the links, even pictures for those that do not read due to the 'Mediocrity' based USA public education system, 21. There are many worse things..
Guest, Guest I agree that those are bad things, but there are much worse, such as the horrible corruption of the United States Government and the many issues showing their involvement in the 9/11 attacks for the purpose of empire building and war profiteering..
Take a look at this website discussing the many issues of government involvement in the 9/11 attacks. It is among the most comprehensive and fact checked on the internet..
http://www.newsofinterest.tv/911/index.php
22. Peak Oil
Chris E, Guest I've always been of the opinion that we'll never run out of oil. The reason, is that it's not like we'll suddenly just run out, more a situation where as output slowly starts to decline, while demand is high, the price will gradually rise, making it economically viable to extract more difficult sources of oil, and eventually the price will likely rise that more and more alternative fuels will end up usurping oil's use, so at some point much oil will remain in the ground, as it becomes less economically viable to bother paying the cost to extract it. 23. oil
Guest, Guest We won't run out of oil because we will have alternatives that will make up for it. 24. I'm sick of these kind of stories
Guest, Guest Rather than yet another rehash of what is going to face us how about some hope!?!? I know that this is coming to face us and it's so obvious that it's hardly newsworthy. How about some in depth interviews with the very few people out there who are working on solutions not to prevent but to weather this inevitability. Their voices are all to often ignored.
James Merkel of the Global Living Project is one very good example.
Jerome FitzGerald of Seasteading is another. 25. Lighter Foostep is about positive change
Chris Baskind, Super Administrator Rather than yet another rehash of what is going to face us how about some hope!?!? Fair comment. But I think optimism is the entire focus of Lighter Footstep. This particular article was a corrective, written to address a particular issue, and should be read in the context of the whole site. I think even small changes -- footsteps, as they were -- make an enormous difference when practiced collectively. You'll have to cut and paste this, but here's an optimistic article along those lines: http://www.tiny.cc/vSx4H Prowl around -- and thanks for joining us.  26. Carbon credit
Galih, Guest Please check this also http://www.goldteak.com 27. Carbon Is Gold
Adrian Vance, Guest
We have developed systems to make carbon sequestration profitable,
overcoming the main objection to it by creating a new carbon economy
wherein it has value and is not waste. We see sequestration as an
opportunity as well as an imperative for water conservation.
The systems are under Patents Pending. You can read all about it at
our website at: http://www.geocities.com/profadrian/SCAF.html
Adrian Vance
28. Get educated
Blogengeezer, Guest The one thing no one is mentioning. Get an extremely good education in the 'Hard Sciences'. Use that education to get a job with a large 'Multinational'. Use their resources and laboratories, along with other well 'educated' Engineers and Scientists. Discover and create the new technology needed to solve these minor problems for humanity. During your lifetime you will achieve 'wealth'. Enough to afford to live well, like the 'professional Lawyer Politicians'. Only the uneducated will be uncomfortable. That will always be the case. History proves that fact. Sorry to say, very harshly at times. Enjoy life on this very old, wobbling, spinning planet, it's agreat ride. 29. Tomorrow Will Be Different
Guest, Guest Our use of resources for energy and products will ultimately lead to a much different world after just twenty years. The world's reliance on oil and trees has resulted in byproducts that pollute the environment in ways that we might not even be aware of.
Without oil, there would ba a scramble for alternative sources of energy, though the problem with carbon dioxide emissions will have become less of an issue. However, with deforestation, we'd still be pressed to ask if all the carbon dioxide we had released in the "petroleum age" would have anywhere to go. I also believe that manufacturers will soon realize that petroleum products like plastics and styrofoam for packaging are not good for the environment. I see a future when their use is frowned upon or banned, even as oil reserves dry up and CO2 in the atmosphere reaches a maximum level from human activities.
People increasingly unhappy with oil: http://www.thenewsroom.com/details/524422?c_id=wom-bc-ar
- Alvin from TheScienceDesk at TheNewsRoom.com 30. Optimism
Jonathan, Guest So much negativity is what I see. I think it is important to be aware of the issues that we face, I don't deny them, and I see them as real challenges. But if this is all we focus on, then we are simply accepting these things. We must accept that they are challenges but propose solutions and positive attitudes, new ways of life. Not simply endless articles that all they focus on is how much horror is in the world. |
Enter your email address:
