Can we really "sav e" the environment?

“I posted the following in a different thread, but it deviated from the topic so I thought I'd start a new one...


I'm Just Partying on this Ship Until it sinks!
"Can we really "save" our environment? The only people who actually can choose to care are the wealthy 10% of the world's population. 90% are just working to feed their familys. Sometimes that equals burning the rain forests, over fishing, heating a house with coal.

With a population that continues to grow there will be nothing we can do that will save our environment.

Eventually we will cause so much dammage that people will starve, governments will fail to control their people. It will be a time of war, a time of death. Not everyone will die, some will survive, but the population will be vastly reduced. The world will be forever changed.

Eventually the natural forces will return the earth to a splended ballance. The air will be clean, the waters pure, animal populations will return, new life, and new civilizations....and maybe back to the beginning.

Personally I feel like the best thing to do is enjoy life! Waiste not, and try to live sustainable simple lives. But, the Titanic is sinking, there aint much I can do to stop it so I'm gonna kick back, pour another drink and party til she sinks!"”

“I tend to look at Mother Gaia like a large dog.......and one day she's gonna shake us off like a bad case of fleas if we don't straighten up.”

“I read somewhere that humans are now consuming resources faster than they can be regenerated. I guess that means it will only be a matter of time before we run out of things like oil, timber, drinkable water, maybe even air. I think the only way to curb this trend of consuming faster than regenerating is population reduction. Unfortunately this reduction will more than likely come as a result of the over consumption, so it will be drastic and probably violent.
With any luck, I will be dead before we reach the breakover point where demand for resources outstrips supply.

Until then, I will hike.”

“Unfortunately, previous generations have all taken the approach of "I will be dead before we run out of resources"..

I would like to think that some future generation will still have something left of this planet because we did the right things now.”

“The ecological term you're looking for is "carrying capacity". Every ecosystem, from as small as your local pond to as large as the entire planet, has resources available to sustain life at a given level of biodiversity and biomass. The unfortunate truth is, planet wide, we (Homo sapiens) are fare to heavy in our biomass, and have reduced biodiversity to a level never seen before. We (Homo sapiens) reached our carrying capacity decades ago. The first wake up call to that effect was the Ethopian famines of the early 80's.”

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http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050808/full/050808-14.html

Military exercises are boosting biodiversity, according to a study of land used for US training manoeuvres in Germany. Such land has more endangered species than nearby national parks.

The land is uncultivated, but also churned up by tank tracks and explosions. This creates habitat both for species that prefer pristine lands and those that require disturbed ground, explains ecologist Steven Warren of Colorado State University in Fort Collins.

Military land can host more species than agricultural land, Warren told a meeting of the Ecological Society of America in Montreal. What's more, its biodiversity can also exceed that of natural parks, where species that need disturbance cannot get a foothold.

Warren and his colleague Reiner Büttner of the Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology in Hemhofen, Germany, surveyed two US military bases at Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels in the southern state of Bavaria. Although the bases represent less than 1% of the state's area, they contain 22% of its endangered species, Warren told the meeting. The national parks cover a similar area but host fewer endangered plants and animals, Warren says.”

“Many of our bases here in Louisiana are actually open to the public for hunting. Most bases are teaming with wildife. Anywhere we set aside a big patch of woods the animals will follow. We used to watch deer graze in the impact area while we weren't shooting. I'm sure an unlucky few didn't clear out in time. We used the thermal sights to game watch at night. Rabbits, rats, fox, coyote, deer all sorts of things crawling around.
last edited: 8/12/05 6:14:10 PM”

“the population of wildlife increased dramatically because the Germans took away guns from the French folk. My father said it was some of the best boar, deer, fox, etc. hunting he ever experienced in late '44 and '45.

As well, the military bases of NC team with wildlife. Fort Bragg has about 300,000 largely undisturbed acres in the Sandhills and there is a 60,000 acre Air Force bombing range, rarely used (not needed) and leased for wildlife management and hunting by the NC Wildlife Commission, right in the middle of the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge.
last edited: 8/12/05 8:45:44 PM”