In May, 1996, senior U.S. State Department and military officials met in Washington to be briefed on serious global issues by a group of concerned scientists.
The report of this Union of Concerned Scientists stated: “Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course. Human activities inflict harsh and often irreversible damage on the environment and on critical resources. If not checked, many of our current practices put at serious risk the future that we wish for human society and the plant and animal kingdoms, and may so alter the living world that it will be unable to sustain life in the manner that we know. Fundamental changes are urgent if we are to avoid the collision our present course will bring about.”
Following are issues they raised.
Population
Pressures resulting from unrestrained population growth put demands on the natural world that can overwhelm any efforts to achieve a sustainable future. If we are to halt the destruction of our environment, we must accept limits to that growth. A World Bank estimate indicates world population will not stabilize at less than 12.4 billion, while the United Nations concludes the eventual total could reach 14 billion, a near tripling of today’s 5.4 billion. Under present conditions, one person in five lives in absolute poverty without enough to eat and one in ten suffers serious malnutrition.
Water resources and the oceans Heedless exploitation of depletable ground water supplies endangers food production and other essential human systems. Heavy demands on the world’s surface waters have resulted in serious shortages in some 80 countries containing 40% of the world’s population. Pollution of rivers, lakes and ground water further limits the supply.
Destructive pressure on the oceans is severe, particularly in the coastal regions which produce most of the world’s food fish. The total marine catch is now at or above the estimated maximum sustainable yield. Rivers carrying heavy burdens of eroded soil into the seas also carry industrial, municipal, agricultural and livestock waste — some of it toxic.
Soil
Loss of soil productivity is a widespread byproduct of current practices in agriculture and animal husbandry. Since 1945, 11% of the earth’s vegetated surface, an area larger than India and China combined, has been degraded and per capita food production in many aeas is decreasing.
Forests
Tropical rain forests, as well as tropical and temperate dry forests, are being destroyed rapidly. At present rates, some critical forest types will be gone in a few years and most of the tropical rain forest will be gone before the end of the next century.
Living species
The irreversible loss of species, which by 2100 may reach one-third of all species now living, is especially serious. We are losing the potential they hold for providing medicinal and other benefits. We are also losing the contribution genetic diversity of life forms gives to the robustness of the world’s biological systems and to the astonishing beauty of the earth itself. Much of this damage is irreversible.
The massive harm done to the world’s interdependent web of life could trigger widespread adverse effects, including unpredictable collapses of critical biological systems whose interactions and dynamics we only imperfectly understand.
What must be done
Professor Thomas Horner-Dixon, a spokesman for the group, claims: “There is no single magic-bullet solution — not poverty alleviation, not democracy, not family planning.” Instead the proposed solution is multifaceted, including:
- Stabilizing the world’s population.
- Halting deforestation, injury to and loss of agricultural land, and the loss of terrestrial and marine plant and animal species.
- Managing resources crucial to human welfare more effectively.
- Giving high priority to efficient use of energy, water, etc.
- Making nations recognize that improved social and economic conditions are imperative to reversing this trend.
- Reduce poverty.
- Requiring developed nations to greatly reduce their over-consumption, and thus pollution.
What will be done
Of the several recommendations listed above, it is unrealistic to assume any of these recommendations will ever be implemented. If current trends continue, the world’s population will double in the next 20 years. The increase in the world’s population base will, at a minimum, require that cities be expanded and water resources utilized further.
Trends causing Earth’s decline are present all around us. As man searches the breadth of the earth for answers, we realize only divine intervention can solve problems of this magnitude. This is the solution we all desperately need.
“There will be signs in sun, moon and stars, and upon the earth distress of nations in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory” (Lk. 21:25-27 RSV).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One