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In recent years, people have begun to realize the adverse affects of the technologies
we use. The tools that humans use to harness energy change the face of the environment
around us. When the industrial revolution began, I am sure that no one thought
that the innovation taking place could potentially be the cause of a huge change
in our surroundings. People were just doing what they thought was the best course
of action at that time: the new utilization of resources for the growing population.
Unfortunately, we have not retained the same sense of well being.
The shift in energy resources allowed for an increased population or, conversely,
an increasing population required the invention of new tools to deal with the
environment surrounding humans. Not only were more people needed to man the
machines, but more humans could be supported because of the increase in agricultural
yield and the new lands that had opened up for colonization. There was the feeling
of continuous well being and expansion. I do not think that we are out of the
expansionist mindset: the population boom figures prove this. For most organisms,
a population grows and then reaches a plateau; in effect, an s-shaped curve.
Humans are not following this pattern, or have not reached their plateau. Yet
as of now, the human population is increasing exponentially and shows no signs
of stopping. The use of resources has expanded to match the continued growth.
Because of our history of degradation, growth just means more pressure on the
earths systems.
The industrial age began a time in which humans were not just altering their
visible surroundings, but began to change the make up of these surroundings
as well. Without knowing it, humans began to change the chemical cycles that
had been going on around them forever. The environment is made up of many carefully
managed check and balance systems. The most important one of these, in terms
of climate change, is the carbon cycle.
The carbon cycle is a good example of a natural balance system. The carbon
cycle contains three parts: terrestrial, oceanic, and atmospheric pools. Carbon
moves between these three parts, changing phases and moving through organisms.
Plants fix carbon by using CO2 in photosynthesis, while humans and other animals
release carbon (CO2) into the atmosphere through respiration. Decomposition
also releases carbon into the atmosphere. Humans have altered this cycle drastically
by adding a new source of carbon: that of fossil fuels, carbon-rich sediments
that have been part of the terrestrial carbon pool for thousands of years. By
burning there fuels, humans have started to change the finely balanced system.
[1]
The atmosphere is the section of the carbon cycle that changes the most rapidly:
CO2 does not necessarily remain in the atmosphere for long as there are many
ways for it to be moved back to the ocean or land. But we have not only been
adding more and more carbon to this volatile part of the carbon cycle, but we
have also been removing the plants that help balance the amount of CO2 in the
atmosphere. Deforestation has had a major effect on the amount of carbon in
the air. In fact, researchers have found that there has been a net increase
of 3.5 gigatons of carbon in the atmosphere every year. This increase in atmospheric
carbon matters because of the nature of CO2: it is a green house gas. This means
that it is helping to trap heat near the earth. In fact, the Earths temperature
has changed by about 1 degree Celsius in the last century. [2]
Why should this matter? Humans have been becoming more and more advanced. There
is no sign to show that our population will reach a plateau any time soon, our
death rates and infant mortality have been going down, and we are living longer
(Southwick). It seems like the perfect world for us. Everything is going our
way. But as proved by the change in the carbon cycle, we are doing something
that is drastically changing the world around us. How is changing the environment
we live in beneficial to the human population as a whole?
While it seems as though things are mostly going well for the human population
as a whole, there are some sectors that are not doing so well. One fifth of
the worlds population is malnourished, and 17 million are refugees. Looking
at these facts, it doesn't seem as though the society we are in is doing so
wonderfully after all. If we are so technologically advanced, why do we have
people dying because they are not getting enough to eat? I feel as though the
world needs to make some drastic change in the way it is dealing with population
and technological expansion. I believe that both the issue of climate change
and the number of people suffering shows that we either need a new technology
that will change the way we deal with problems such as increased agriculture
and industry, or we have actually reached the population the earth is able to
contain. If the later is true, we are just fixing the problems as they occur,
not finding a real solution to the problem.
The increased use of contraceptives and factors such as literacy and women's rights has decreased the population expansion (class discussion). It could be that our problem will be solved by the population actually decreasing. But before that happens, if we are not going to fix the root of the problem (that of climate change because of human use), we should find better ways of getting energy and using the resources that we have, such as renewable resources and green chemistry. Whatever it is, something must be done to stop the environment from changing so drastically.
[1] Freeman, Scott. Biological Sciences. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc. 2002.
[2] Freeman, Scott. Biological Sciences. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc. 2002.
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