Page 5 of Plan B 4.0
"The first trend of concern is population growth. Each year there are 79 million more people at the dinner table. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of these individuals are being added in countries where soils are eroding, water tables are falling, and irrigation wells are going dry"
Why are people having so many children? Exponential population growth is the root of many problems. People should be smart enough to realize that there are too many people for this Earth to support. People should make the conscious decision to have less children. If everyone has only one child then population would be declining. Having two children simply keeps the population the same. I don't know if population growth is controllable. People want to reproduce. I know that laws wouldn't help with population. People do what they want and there is no way to enforce a law to prevent people from having children. There are no ethical or humane ways to enforce laws. I wouldn't want someone telling me how many children I was allowed to have. What about the days before modern technologies? Days when you could only have as many children as you could support. Emma and Tobias MacIvey only had one child. Zech was all they could support because they lived only on what the land provided. I hope people start realizing that over-population is an important issue before modern civilization collapses like the Sumerians.
Page 59-60 of plan B 4.0
"In 2003, the searing heat wave that broke temperature records across Europe claimed more than 52,000 lives in nine countries. More than 18 times as many people died in Europe in this 2003 heat wave as died during the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001."
I am shocked by the numbers. Record high temperatures causing small crop yields, melting glaciers, increased flooding, more destructive storms, drought, and more-frequent wildfires. If we are intelligent enough to see the global climate changing, then why are we still burning coal and other fossil fuels? Why are we building an economy that relies upon the burning of fossil fuels? Imagine all of the carbon monoxide we are breathing in from our polluted atmosphere. I made a vow to myself that I would limit my car usage as much as possible this year. I ride my bike to school as often as I can (usually 3 out of four days a week I bike). The sad truth is that I want to abandon things like vehicles in order to reduce my environmental impact, but these things are kind of forced on me by society. I try hard to turn off lights, take short showers, and shop at local food stores. I wish everybody would resort back to local communities and local civilizations.
Page 74 of Plan B 4.0
"Mercury emitted from coal smokestacks literally blankets the earth's land and water surfaces. In the United States, virtually every state warns against eating too much fish taken from fresh water, lakes, and streams because of dangerously high mercury content."
Then why do we burn coal? If burning coal is directly impacting the fish, as well as us, then why do we do it? I think many of the modern luxuries we are used to now are going to have to go. Planes can't burn jet fuel indefinitely. Same goes for other vehicles. We can't burn coal to generate electricity indefinitely. These "resources" are finite. Our Earth is finite, and we can't keep raping it like we do. What makes me the most upset is the majority of the people have no say in the building of the smokestacks, and the power plants, and the oil rigs. All these things existed before I was even born. Now I'm the one stuck with polluted fish in my water. I want to change this. I don't want my children's fish to be loaded with mercury.
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