For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Everyone knows Newton's third law. But I wonder who really thinks about it.
For example: we drill up oil and replace it with with co2 (I hope I'm correct in this but I'm too lazy to double check it at this moment). What I wonder is what do people think is going to happen after this? The oil is there for a reason, taking up space and while we do replace it, we replace it with an extremely flammable substance. Does no one think that this might end up a bit problematic? Aren't volcanoes underground? Wouldn't an earthquake cause some sort of breakage in the containment of this replacement?
Another example: Extinction.
An excerpt from wikipedia states: Humans can cause extinction of a species through over harvesting, pollution, habitat destruction, introduction of new predators and food competitors, over hunting, and other influences. Explosive, unsustainable human population growth is an essential cause of the extinction crisis.[11] According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), 784 extinctions have been recorded since the year 1500 (to the year 2004), the arbitrary date selected to define "modern" extinctions, with many more likely to have gone unnoticed (several species have also been listed as extinct since the 2004 date).
This makes me think about what Mother Nature has up her sleeve. Many know the quote "you build a better mousetrap and nature will always build a better mouse." But do we actually think about it? I mean really think? So many species have gone extinct because of over fishing, pollution, habitat destruction, etc that I wonder what is in store for us as payback. We've already seen evidence of new viruses that have no cure, cancer, AIDS and other terminal illnesses that have begun to hack into our surplus of species but what about natural disasters? Would they count as well?
Hurricane Katrina, Haiti, recently there was Japan's earthquake and tsunami. Now, I want to be sure and state that I don't believe these happened because of some religious you-did-something-wrong-and-have-proven-yourself-unworthy-of-life or something. And by no means does anyone deserve to be hit by a quake and tsunami within thirty minutes of each other, but it just makes me think, is this nature's way of payback? Natural disasters seem to be the only thing we can barely predict let alone prevent or protect ourselves from. To be honest, I wouldn't blame Mother Nature for doing it as we seem to have caused a lot of problems for her.
i have always had the same concern - we are dealing with a very fragile ecosystem, and instead of treading lightly it seems we just plod along with no concern of the repercussions. one thing that amazes me is that it seems a lot of people have already put the bp oil disaster behind them - i said it then, and ill say it again: there will be serious consequences for that.
ReplyDeleteand that brings me to your other point: mother nature is retaliating for our actions. i do agree with this as well. if it gets real bad, im guessing it will be like every natural disaster movie x10, and all at the same time
Most definitely. I agree with you on the BP point. It's out of sight and out of mind therefore people have assume(stupidly) that it's over and done with. However, the repercussions of this fiasco are viewable if you know what you're looking for and they will only continue to worsen.
ReplyDeleteI've often said(and I'll continue to do so) that humankind is past the point of no return. We have done so much damage to our home planet that there is no turning back. The shit will hit the fan, sooner than we think, and depending on whether or not we become extinct life will never be the same. We have slowly demolished the way we live now and life as we know it will never be the same. Take that how you want it but mark my words, it will happen.