Population Growth: Blessing or Curse?

Population Growth – Babies

This blog post is going to discuss the world’s most significant environmental problem, the population growth and how it is related with the natural resources. In addition, it will present some information concerning the two different perspectives on this issue, the Cornucipians’ and the Cassandras’, and their suggestions and beliefs accordingly.

World’s Population Growth (AD1 – 2000)

To begin with, I would like to state that the world population has reached the number of seven billion people, and this number tend to increase as the years go by. There are several reasons contributing to this amazing growth; the most important reason is the increased high birth and low death rates. In addition, technology and science advantages play an important role on the population growth, since medicine innovations developed so that people stop being infected by dangerous diseases. Moreover, as the world’s population number tend to increase, the resources being used are increasing as well; because of the high urbanization, the more the recourses are used, the less the life of our planet is. (Withgott and Brennan)

Urbanisation

As a consequence, we all think about which the carrying capacity of our planet is. In other words, which is the highest population size of a given species that an area can support without reducing its ability its ability to support the same species in the future. Consequently, there are some supporting that population growth is not such a problem, whereas some others insist that it is the number one environmental problem.

Such categories of people people are the Cornucopians and the Cassandras; those teams tend to have a debate concerning population growth. Cornucopians tend to believe that the increasing number of population in our planet is not such a curse, since science and technology will eventually find ways to solve the problem. In other words, they believe that the resources will never end since people will find out more alternative sources to get what they need from.

Om the other hand, Cassandras insist that the resources will finally end if we keep on exploiting them at this rate, and the end of the world is closer from what we think it is.

Optimism & Pessimism.

My opinion concerning this issue is that even if we already consume and exploit resources at a higher rate than we are allowed to, since the world’s ecological footprint is bigger than what the planet can handle, we will find a way to survive. If the “catastrophe” comes closer to our life, we will change our behavior and will find ways to live in the planet. But we all have to understand our environment, in order to take quick actions before it’s to late.

Paul Enrich, as presented in the video above, is an American biologist and Professor of Population Studies at Stanford University. He wrote the book: “The Population Bomb”, and became famous from that, since he predicted a mass starvation of humans in the 1970’s and the 1980’s, due to overpopulation. Ehrlich suggested that quick action should be taken so that the population growth to be limited.

Paul Ehrlich is also famous for the creation od IPAT equation, which is a formula used to describe the impact of human activity on the environment. Specifically, human impact (I) on the environment equals the product of Population (P), Affluence (A) and the Technology (T). In other words, the equation describes how these 3 factors influence the environment (environmental impact).

IPAT Equation

If we apply this equation to several countries, we will find out that each country has a different environmental impact. For example, if we take a look at US’s IPAT, which is a developed country with a great technology, we will see that the Affluence rates are pretty high. Also, due to the improved technology and science, people’s birth rates tend to continuously increase, and, consequently, we can understand that the US have an extremely big impact on the environment.

If we consider China, we can see that there is a remarkable lower affluence rate than the one of the US’s. This is due to the fact that Chinese tend to use fewer resources that Americans do; it is proven from their low Ecological Footprint score, as we can see from the image below. In addition, Chinese have taken actions for the population decrease; yet, the Population and the Technology is high, so the China’s IPAT result is high as well, but much lower than the US’s one.

Ecological Footprint of several Countries

Greece’s IPAT scores are small when compared to US’s or/and China’s, since we are not that technological developed as a country. In addition, my country is not that over-populated, so the Population score is also low. The only measurement which is slightly high is the Affluence one, since we, as a country, have a high per capita resource use.

Hans Rosling is professor of International Health at the Karolinska Institutet, the medical university in Stockholm, Sweden. He discovered konzo, a formerly unknown paralytic disease caused by malnutrition and intoxication. He has also studied other links between poverty and health in Asia and Latin America and been an adviser regarding vaccination and essential drugs to WHO, UNICEF and Sida. Besides pioneering global health teaching in schools and colleges, training and recently published “GLOBAL HEALTH, an introductory textbook”, he also co-founded Gapminder (www.gapminder.org), a non-profit venture for development of software that unveils the beauty of statistics by converting numbers into moving and interactive graphics. (Rosling)

In this video, we understand that Rosling is definitely an optimistic and ambitious person, since he tries to emphasize that we can still make changes and provide a better future for the next generations. In his lecture he clearly shows the difference between different places  of the world and the evolution among the years. It is rather alarming to see which the expectations used to be and how they transformed through the years. It is also remarkable to mention the change of the death rates and I believe that we should all be disturbed by the picture presented in the 3rd world countries. His graphs are, inevitably, very significant for everyone to consider. Taking as standard his optimism, I truly wish that the future takes the path that Curnocopian Rosling suggests, even if believe that what he says is difficult to be succeeded.

http://www.gapminder.org/

http://www.gapminder.org/

http://www.gapminder.org/

Taking under consideration Gapminder’s charts, we can understand that the life expectancy in the world has increased dramatically over the last century. The story is exactly the same with my country, Greece, where the life expectancy increased as well; this change is due to the science and technology improvement. Specifically, the field of medicines and generally the health section has had incredible innovations, and, as a result, the quality of life has been improved.

To conclude, I do believe that that population growth is, really, the number one environmental problem, since the population has reached the outstanding number of 7 billion. There are both positive and negative predictions, but the future depends upon our own choices. We should take quick, drastic action in order to solve the population growth problem, before the natural resources eventually end. If we do not, we are doomed to suffer the consequences of the catastrophe; that is a real fact, since the world’s ecological footprint is higher than what our planet can support.

Work Cited

     Ecological Footprint of several Countries. Digital image. Geo-mexico.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2013. <http://geo-mexico.com/?p=345&gt;.

     Hans Rosling: Let My Dataset Change Your Mindset. Perf. Hans Rosling. Ted.com, 2009.

     Hussain, Tariq. Population Growth – Babies. Digital image. Http://tariq-feature.blogspot.gr/. N.p., 3 Sept. 2012. Web. 20 May 2013. <http://tariq-feature.blogspot.gr/2012/09/surge-in-population-growth-rate-stir.html&gt;.

     IPAT Equation. Digital image. Our-future.nl. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2013. <http://our-future.nl/introduction/humanities-impact/&gt;.

     Urbanisation. Digital image. Aurecongroup.com/. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2013. <http://www.aurecongroup.com/en/thinking/themes/urbanisation.aspx&gt;.

     Rajesh, Setty. Optimism & Pessimism. Digital image. http://www.rajeshsetty.com/. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2013. <http://www.rajeshsetty.com/2008/09/15/optimists-and-pessimists-the-big-difference-is/&gt;.

     Rosling, Hans – Biography. Hans Rosling – Biography. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2012.<http://www.worldcongress.com/speakerBio.cfm?speakerID=2163&gt;.

     Seven Billion of Us: Paul Ehrlich Speaks to SBS. Perf. Paul Ehrlich. Youtube.com, 2011.

     Withgott, J. & Brennan, S. (2010). Environment: The science behind the stories. 4th Ed. San Francisco: Pearson Education.

     World’s Population Growth (AD1 – 2000). Digital image. Biblehelp.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2013. <http://www.biblehelp.org/mortality.htm&gt;.

     http://www.gapminder.org/

Environmental Racism in Thessaloniki

Environmental Racism

Campbell, Margaret.

 People, nowadays, tend to have a discriminatory behavior to everything that differs from their habits, lifestyles and beliefs. Some are keen on judging people for their color, their gender, their religion, and their culture. An unacceptable type of racist behavior developed in our modern societies is the environmental racism, which is the disproportionate likelihood that people of color and the poor will have greater exposure to pollution and other negative environmental conditions. (Environmental Justice / Environmental Racism.) In my city, Thessaloniki, which is the second biggest and most developed city of Greece, the phenomenon of environmental racism is really identified; even if we don’t have as many diverse people with several colors, religion or cultural habits as countries like US does, we really apply environmental racism to poor or diverse people.

To begin with, let’s divide Thessaloniki in three parts: the eastern (Kalamaria, Panorama, Thermi), the central (Thessaloniki), and the western (Evosmos, Kalochori, Eukarpia, Sindos), as the locals tend to divide.

Map of Thessaloniki

The eastern and the central neighborhoods of Thessaloniki are about to be the more “elegant” areas, since people with proportionally higher income live there. Such places like Panorama, Kalamaria or the center, do not have any factories or industrial areas emitting harmful for the human substances. This is exactly the reason why eastern neighborhoods are populated by wealthy people, since they are only affordable by them. On the other hand, there is the western part of Thessaloniki, which is the part having the industrial zone of the city and plenty of factories. To illustrate, in Sindos is located the industrial area of the city, while in Kalochori are also located plenty of factories. Since those areas are emitting a wide range of pollutants because of the industry, the western Thessaloniki is a “cheap” place to live, and people with low income tend to live in such areas. In addition, places located in the western part (Evosmos, Eykarpia) are much more crowded than places of the other parts of the city. That is, the majority of people unable to afford a place to live in the healthy zone of Thessaloniki are doomed into an unhealthy way of living.

The Urban Landscape of Thessaloniki

This is Sindos – the Industrial area of Thessaloniki, which is located in the Western part of the town.

Environmental Justice

All those arguments about environmental racism are being resolved by the Environmental Justice theory. “Environmental justice involves the fair and equitable treatment of all people with respect to environmental policy and practice, regardless of their income, race, or ethnicity.” (Withgott, Jay, and Scott Brennan)

According to environmental justice policies, some actions have been taken so that the industry reduce their emissions; for instance, all the factories are obligated to filter their emissions in order to be less or not harmful at all, not only for the environment, but also for the human. In addition, through various complaints, citizens ensure a better way of living by protesting and demand for environmental justice.

The Environmental Justice Movement

Sometimes such requests are accepted, but sometimes are being totally ignored.

The following video will help us understand how enviromental racism contributes to the creation of environmental justice.     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSSNWIRO210

“…many people are not given the option. Are judged, discriminated, and forced to live in harmful situations.”

Environmental Ethics and Several Approaches to Environmental Justice

The concept of environmental justice is closely interrelated to the concept of environmental ethics. Since environmental justice emanates from environmental racism, then what is moral or decent for one may be immoral and wrong for another. In other words, what the notion of environmental ethics suggests is the application of ethical standards to relationships between human and non-human entities. (Withgott, Jay, and Scott Brennan)

This image shows the different attitudes of three children; the first things of the environmental affects, the second of the mangroves species while the third things about the fish species. All three children were asked to draw the impacts of the mangroves (type of tree that grow in salt water) pollution.

There are people of various perspectives, such as preservationists, conservationists, environmental justice advocates, neoclassical economists or ecological economists. Each group of people may have a different belief about what is right or wrong; also, they may have several questions about the problem of environmental justice and its possible solutions or outcomes.

For example, a preservationist may question if it is moral to drive other species to extinction; since his notions concerning the environment are more extreme, a preservationist will definitely think about environment and the non-human entities as well. Something similar will happen with a conservationist, since he also thing of both the environment and the non-human entities.

On the other hand, an environmental justice advocate will definitely not thing about the non-human entities, but only anthropocentrically consider human entities, since environmental justice is a problem regarding human species only. That is, an environmental justice advocate may question: is it appropriate for communities to be exposed to pollution and hazardous industry emissions?

Similarly, a neoclassical economist will only consider the human factor, by doubting what is more preferable, to preserve a forest or to create jobs for the communities; the neoclassical economist is living into a capitalist reality, only searching for ways to make more money. Last but not least, an ecological economist will definitely ask if humans should conserve recourses for future generations, since he is thinking ecologically, both for human and non-human species, in order to achieve a sustainable future for the environment.

That is an image from a campaign called: “Save The Future”, launched by the H&M company throughout the Climate Week (12th-18th March 2012); enviromental and climate condition affect ALL of us in EVERY dimension of our life.

Conclusion

I do believe that environmental racism is a problem spread in all around the world, and it must definitely be solved. It is completely unfair and immoral to “punish” people in an unhealthy way of living due to their uniqueness or their incapability to afford a healthy way of living. Governments should take under serious consideration that problem and generate laws protecting this type of people. To conclude, I definitely support the environmental justice advocates’ theories, since, undoubtedly, a healthy way of living is a right for all human beings. All we can do is to hope about such people and help them in any way we can, either by protesting with them for a healthier way of living or by supporting them with medication care to prevent any health disorder.

Work Cited

Campbell, Margaret. Environmental Justice. Digital image. Http://beautifultrouble.org/.N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Apr. 2013.<http://beautifultrouble.org/theory/environmental-justice&gt;.

“Environmental Justice / Environmental Racism.” Ejnet.org. Energy Justice Network, n.d. Web. 09 Apr. 2013. <http://www.ejnet.org&gt;.

The Environmental Justice Movement. Digital image. Www.nrdc.org. N.p., 10 Dec. 2006. Web. 9 Apr. 2013. <http://www.nrdc.org&gt;.

The Urban Landscape of Thessaloniki. Digital image. http://www.greekscapes.gr. N.p., 2008. Web. 9 Apr. 2013. <http://www.greekscapes.gr/index.php/2010-01-21-16-47-29/landscapescat/54/96-dytiki-thessaloniki.html&gt;.

Withgott, Jay, and Scott Brennan. Environment: The Science behind the Stories. 4th ed. San Francisco: Pearson Benjamin Cummings, 2011. Print.

Is our Ecological Footprint connected to the Sixth Great Extinction?

This post is going to describe the upcoming “Sixth Great Extinction” and the concept of the ecological footprint. In addition, it will explain how these concepts affect Homo Sapiens species and the human behavior.

The Sixth Great Extinction

First of all, what is extinction? Extinction is the disappearance of a species from earth, due to their inability to evolve from simple to complex in order to survive in a changing environment. Extinction is an irreversible situation; once a species is lost, it lost forever.

There were five vast mass extinctions that took place in our world the past six hundred million years. Each one of them resulted in a fifty to seventy percent extinction of all the species lived in earth until then.

(Major Extinctions)

The fifth extinction, as demonstrated in the table, is the most common to people, since the dinosaurs become extinct due to an asteroid impact on earth.

After the previous mass species extinctions, our world is about to face the Sixth Great Extinction, which is estimated to be the more catastrophic one. “Overexploitation of species for consumption, collection and trade, agricultural monoculture, human-induced climate change, nitrogen loss in soil and oceanic acidification as a result of a warming climate, and urbanization” are some of the key factors contributing to the upcoming extinction. Human population nowadays increasing dramatically, and as a consequence the demand of natural resources will continue to grow in a way that is totally unacceptable by the nature. (“The Sixth Great Extinction”)

It is said that the Sixth Great Extinction will  occur due to the disastrous for the universe species Homo Sapiens, and began about 100,000 years ago. Moreover, it is estimated that half of all the current species living in earth today, including plants, animals and birds, will die off before 2100. (“The Sixth Great Extinction”)

After every mass extinction, as illustrated in the chart, the biodiversity either returned to or exceeded its original state. The situation will not be the same in the Sixth mass extinction. Suppose that the average number of people on Earth during the recovery period of the previous extinctions is 2.5 billion (by contrast with the 6 billion today). “Under these conditions, the total number of people affected by what we do during the next few decades will be about 500 trillion.: So humanities are involved in a very crucial decision ever taken by them.” Undoubtedly, the upcoming extinction will alter not only biological diversity, but also the evolutionary processes by which diversity is generated. (Meyers)

(The Road to Sanity)

Humans do not live with nature but outside it.

Earth can’t sustain the trend in human population growth. It is reaching its limit in carrying capacity.

 Overpopulation, invasive species, and overexploitation are fueling the extinction.

Only 10% of the world’s species survived the third mass extinction. Will any survive this one?

Wherever early humans migrated, other species became extinct.

The invention of agriculture accelerated the pace of the Sixth Extinction.

The previous mass extinctions were due to natural causes, where the current mass extinction is caused by humans.

About 30,000 species go extinct annually.

(Eldredge)

Ecological Footprint

Humanities depend upon what nature provides, but in what ways do they know how much they are using in contrast to how much they have to use?

The Ecological Footprint is the measure of humanity’s demand on nature. “This accounting system tracks, […] , how much land and water area a human population uses to provide all it takes from nature. This includes the areas for producing the resource it consumes, the space for accommodating its buildings and roads, and the ecosystems for absorbing its waste emissions such as carbon dioxide.” Biocapacity is the supply of nature; in other words, biocapacity is the measurement of how much biologically productive area is available to provide the services mentioned above to humanity. Furthermore, the concept of the “overshoot ”,  is the point where human consumption and waste production exceed nature`s capacity to create new resources and absorb waste. (Footprint Basics)

The accounts comparing human demand against nature’s supply of biocapacity vary among nations. Greece’s Ecological Footprint, as demonstrated below, exceeds the supply of biocapacity, since the Ecological Footprint is 4.92 hectars per capita in contrast to the 1.59 hectars per capita supplied by nature (biocapacity); in addition, its Ecological Footprint exceeds the world’s average Ecological Footprint (4.92 VS 2.7  hectares per person) (Footprint Basics)

In the graph we can identify that the nation’s biocapacity keeps falling while the demand of Ecological Footprint raises as the years go by. Undoubtedly, the more we harm and exploit the environment, the less the biocapacity it serve to us. If we keep on harming the environment the way we do now, the future would be disastrous, since we would not anymore be welcomed by the nature; a situation  should be taken under serious consideration by everyone. (Footprint Basics)

…if everyone in the world consume like a midde Greek, then the EF would be 2,77 planets…

That is, every people in the world consume like an average Greek, then we would definitely need 1.7 more planets in order for us to survive!

Taken into consideration the chart, we realize that the developed countries have an increased Ecological Footprint, whereas the underdeveloped countries had a decreased one. For instance, USA and Germany, which are 2 of the most developed countries in all around the world, with a high GDP per capita, tend to have the higher scores in the EF measurement; on the other hand, underdeveloped countries such as Afghanistan and Egypt, with a low GDP per capita, have an interestingly low EF. This is due to the fact that the developed countries tend to exploit the earth in a high level; in addition, their citizens have acquired a luxurious way of living, and that means that they consume brazenly, whereas citizens of underdeveloped countries are unable to afford more and more new, high-tech goods, and, consequently, do not harm the environment.

In the graph above, we can see the most recent estimate of the world Ecological Footprint & Biocapacity.

Having taken the test to identify my Ecological Footprint, I got very disappointed. If all humanity had the same lifestyle with mine’s, then we would need another 2.02 earths to survive.

In addition, my ecological footprint is even higher than the average of my country’s one. My results would be decent though, if I was a citizen of Germany or USA, since my lifestyle is more close connected to those countries. Overall, I was somehow embarrassed about that and I’ll try to do my best to reduce this number. Here’s a video suggesting ways to reduce our own Environmental Footprint.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9cCFBcVRO4

All societies should make efforts to reduce their EF, not only to leave more resources available for nations with smaller footprints, but also for their own benefit; reducing the Ecological Footprint equals upgrading the way of living and turning the nation into a sustainable one.

To conclude, I do believe that every nation having an  Ecological Footprint higher than their biocapacity, has a moral obligation to reduce its EF. Humanities sometimes act and behave in a very egocentric way, not thinking about their descendants’ lives. We should all be aware of our EF and try to reduce it if it exceeds the biocapacity that nature serves us. Issues mentioned above like extinction and loss of biodiversity, lie only upon humanities; we are responsible for our future and we, through our behavior, determine what is going to happen in the future.

Works Cited

Eldredge, Niles. “The Sixth Extinction.” (ActionBioscience). N.p., June 2001. Web. 10 Mar. 2013.

“Footprint Basics – Overview.” Footprint Basics – Overview. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar.2013. <http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/footprint_basics_overview/&gt;.

Major Extinctions. Digital image. Teara.govt. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2013 <http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/diagram/13650/major-extinctions&gt;.

Myers, Norman. “How Will the Sixth Extinction Affect Evolution of Species?”(ActionBioscience). N.p., May 2001. Web. 10 Mar. 2013.

The Road to Sanity. Digital image. Declineoftheempire.com. N.p., 2 Aug. 2012. Web.10 Mar. 2013 <http://www.declineoftheempire.com/2012/02/the-sixth-extinction.html&gt;.

“The Sixth Great Extinction: A Silent Extermination.” News Watch.Nationalgeographic.com, 28 Mar. 2012. Web. 10 Mar. 2013.

The Tragedy of the Commons

ecology textbook page 5

In the given problem, we have a person that makes his living by fishing. He was, as everyone in the same place, free to boat everywhere he want and make any number of catches. But, as the years went by and the population grew, the catches became smaller and smaller, since no norms and laws ever regulated and everyone were free to make whatever they like.

In that problem, there were three given choices, all concerning a legal set of regulations in order to both combat the tragedy of the commons and restore the fishery.  In my opinion, the most suitable solution is the one regulated by the government and not taken from the fishermen themselves, so that to avoid personal favors and dissimilarities. So, an appropriate solution of that problem could be the set of a limitation of how many fish can be caught per person; through this way, the government will achieve both to stabilize the fishery and ensure a decent way of living to the fishermen.

To conclude, the most suitable answer to this problem is the one analyzed above, since it is about to be the fairer of all. Any other possible response to this problem may generate further problems, since setting quotas according to each fisherman’s oldness or dividing the areas by themselves, are not in any way fair criteria.

Welcome to Sustainable Energy Solutions!

Hello to my followers! Welcome to my blog!

I’m a sophomore student in the American College of Thessaloniki, studying Business Administration.

The purpose of this blog is to find and discuss various ways of renewable energy or green energy solutions able to make the environment live healthy forever. In addition, this blog is created for people to comprehend the importance of environment for the humanity existence; as a result, discussions examining several environmental problems are welcomed.

I recently found a very interesting definition, supporting that “It is an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living species” I truly believe that the environment is an intelligent being and humanities depend upon it. Since people keep on having harmful for it habits, it definitely finds numerous ways to take revenge.

One remarkable incident happened a few days ago, was the case of the meteor strike in Russia, where a meteorite hit a crowded area of Russia, injuring thousands of people. That may sound senseless, but I do believe that is really not. To be more specific, since the environment “encompasses the interaction of all living species”, then it is a part of the entire universe. So, when people keep on damaging environment, it always finds ways to take revenge. In that case, the fall of the meteorite could be a possible kind of revenge, or on the other hand may just be an unhappy incident.

Having visited numerous destinations in our world, I believe that Greece cannot even be compared with any other place. It is a very beautiful country, with a great natural wealth; the following pictures may convince anyone about which is most beautiful place of all around the world, and how lucky & proud should every person living in this country feel.