Environtmental and Global Health

Archive for the ‘Resource Depletion’ Category

And we must not forget those critical resources, but often overlooked as resources because apparently “do not cost money” – which represent sinks (atmosphere, oceans, the land itself) that are diluted and sometimes neutralize pollutants result of human activity. And it is that we are also wasting resources, soils, oceans, air, saturated with pollutants.

Of particular concern is the fact that the oceans (which contain about 50 times more dissolved CO2 atmosphere) and as the Arctic permafrost soils are evolving, when temperature rises, sinks into sources of CO2 and methane, threatening a fatal increase the greenhouse effect (Pearce, 2007). Read the rest of this entry »

On the other hand, logging and fires are made, supposedly to have more fertile soil, but the result is a total breakdown after a very short time is what happens in the rainforests.

For example, Brazilian governments, in the early 80′s, encouraged the colonization of certain areas of tropical forest, with the supposed fertility of the soil able to grow so lush vegetation.

But shortly after having cut down and burned large areas, the fertile soil, very little thickness, had been swept away by not having the setting of trees and crops extraordinary first year fell dramatically. But it was too late to rectify and in those areas can not continue growing … not grow back the forest, thus contributing to the greenhouse effect. Read the rest of this entry »

The problems and imbalances and enhance each other, threatening the survival of the human species. A clear example of this is another essential tool in reverse: that of the forest. In the past 100 years the world has lost almost half its forest area. And, as indicated by reports of the FAO (Food and Agriculture) the Earth is losing on net every year 11.2 million hectares of virgin forest.

This is reportedly the World Wildlife Fund, mainly due to its use as an energy source (about 2000 million people worldwide depend on wood as fuel ) of agricultural and livestock expansion and mining and logging companies activities, often beyond control.

A report by the Brazilian government acknowledged in 1999 that 80% of the timber from the Amazon without a permit was obtained. And the tropical forest areas cleared in Africa correspond to species that take more than two hundred years to grow. One problem has been to add the deforestation that is causing Cotlan exploitation in Africa with great impact also on biodiversity. Read the rest of this entry »

Naturally it is difficult to predict precisely how long we can continue to have oil, coal or natural gas. The answer depends on the estimated reserves and the rate of global consumption. And both are subject to change: they are prospecting for new deposits and is even going to extract oil from fields that were long ago abandoned as unprofitable.

But the trends are becoming clearer, even the most optimistic can ignore that it is non-renewable fossil resources whose extraction is becoming increasingly expensive, resulting in a progressively more expensive oil, which has soared to an alarming after the invasion of Iraq. Read the rest of this entry »

We now face a serious problem of depletion of essential resources, despite the fact that most humans have little access to them. Depletion of resources has played a role in the collapse of past civilizations and now threatens to lead to the collapse of global society as a whole. It is possible, however, adopt measures leading to sustainable use of resources. Not all are simple measures, of course, but it is urgent to begin to implement, as claimed by the Worldwatch Institute, with “a mobilization and in times of war.”

The depletion of many resources vital to our species-a result of dilapidation or destruction, the result of predatory behavior consciously or unconsciously guided by the pursuit of private benefits in the short term is one of the most troubling problems of the current situation planetary emergencies (Brown, 1998; Folch, 1998). Read the rest of this entry »