My
summery consist of information obtained through multiple sources to include ted
talks, common knowledge, and known facts.
How do we feed a population growing by several billion
people a year without destroying the planet?
Feast or famine?
These are the questions we must face in our generation. No
one has a “simple” answer to this, because it is not a simple matter.
Agriculture is the leading cause of climate change on our planet today, 30% to
be exact. That’s more than emissions from ALL electricity and industry, more
than all the planes, trains, and automobiles. So when you hear about global
warming on the news don’t automatically assume it’s from oil or your car. Go
and open your fridge or your pantry and the answer will be there. People don’t
really think about how much damage it’s had on our planet. Think about how much
water has to go into the food you eat. We use enough water on crops every year
to fill 7,305 empire state buildings every day! That’s our lakes drying up or
our rivers reduced to flows. Here’s a little fun fact for you, did you know
that the Colorado River doesn’t connect to the ocean anymore? Yeah that’s
right! Oh and don’t forget the Aral Sea which is now a desert. So far we’ve
cleared 40% of earths land for agriculture. These facts are pretty staggering. My
point is; evidence that agriculture is destroying the planet is pretty evident,
just take a look around and you’re sure to catch a glimpse of it.
I agree there is so much we do in our day to day lives that effects our enviroment, which may or may not be reversed. Right now its looking like it will not be reverseable to undo the damage that has been done.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea that agriculture had an impact on the world. I figured since it was a natural-ish process that it would just kind of happen with no negative outcome. I can't believe that we are losing water as well, it's reusable, how can we be losing water? Very interesting...
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