These 7 biggest causes of the global ecological crisis form the inception of the list of burning planetary problems that still require global аttention. Whether we look at them as causes or as consequences, all of them are acting mutually, interactively, and simultaneously – each one is crucial, affects the others, and requires serious resolution actions.
1. Pollutions – The greatest amount of pollutants in the whole Universe
If someone asks you where is the biggest pile of colorful trash, interesting poisons, lovely diseases, respectable plastics, soundly heavy metals, and deep, luminous dirty minds in the whole universe, what would you say?
Everything can be polluted, literally EVERYTHING: water, soil, air, clouds, plants, animals, tissues, organs, vegetables, fruit, meat, soups, homes, rooms, bathrooms, towels, books, brains, minds, loves, friendships, hopes … by air pollutants, plastics, organic, metal, and other sorts of solid waste, wastewaters, toxins, chemicals, contaminated lands, noises and vibrations, radioactivities, excessive lights, thermal impacts, lies, diseases, violence, money, greed… And now try to imagine at least a few of their mutual influences. Nice view, isn’t it?
2. Global warming – Why the planet is getting warmer?
In the normal heat exchange on the Earth, which is constantly taking place, the Sun heats the surface of the Earth (water and land), that heat returns to the atmosphere, the excess heat goes into space, and a balanced life flows nicely. It should be emphasized that this is one of the main processes that make any planet habitable and suitable for life.
In a “regular” greenhouse, the heat “just” circulates because the plastic (or glass) layer prevents heat emission into space outside the greenhouse. From a planetary point of view, this “plastic” layer is made up of (so-called) greenhouse gases. In a previous stable state, that function was the almost exclusive right of atmospheric vapor and clouds, and everything was just fine… But then came humans and changed that.
The aforementioned infamous gases prevent the emission of that excess heat, thus raising the average temperature on Earth. These gases (carbon dioxide and methane occupy the first and the second place, respectively) are mostly generated by sectors such are energy production, industry, and traffic because they burn fossil fuels the most. That excessive heat circulates and overly heats water, land, and air, and changes all processes in the global ecosystem.
Shortly, rising temperatures of the oceans and the Earth’s surface causes melting of polar ice caps, rise in sea levels, changes in precipitation patterns (weather and climate change), exacerbation of biodiversity stability, water, and air pollution. Also, this could lead to an increased risk of natural disasters such are flooding, flash floods, hurricanes, wildfires, droughts…
3. Overpopulation – Is our planet overly small?
Don’t get me wrong – no person is superfluous on this planet. But surplus isn’t somewhere out there either. It lies within us. Disorganization, bad governance, shortsightedness, greed, and I-don’t-care-about-the-others mindsets are the main culprits of a shortage of resources like water, fuel, and food.
Population growth in developing countries is (officially) depleting the already scarce resources (plus use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, dirty technologies…). On the other hand, overeating, a huge waste of food, and SF sorts of extravagances in “rich” countries also worsen the picture (and guess where does much of the food and other goods come from? – Yes, you’re right – from “poor” countries).
The growing promotion of Healthy Lifestyles is changing the situation, but it is going slowly, and it’s certainly not enough without systemic solutions. We are all in the same boat, and not everyone knows how to swim.
However, new researches suggest that the growth of a number of cosmically unique earthlings is slowing down actually.
4. Natural resource depletion – Inside
Since the First Industrial Revolution, resource depletion has drastically changed the surface of the planet. One of the first places on the list of depletion of natural materials belongs to oil. In the depths of the Earth, it will be available for economic extraction for a few more decades, and – The End. No one will see it anymore, except maybe scientists. It took millions and billions of years to create something that humans have depleted within just two centuries.
Apart from oil, ores of iron, copper, nickel, and other (cheaper) metals are running out too. As for natural gas and coal, we can count on them for another 50-100 years approximately. But we will most likely stop using them before they are completely exhausted. Continuous needs for clean water, air, food, do not need special analysis.
The image shows the frightening range of changes on the Earth’s surface, without the possibility of a process of recovery and return to the previous primordial state, which represents a beautiful example of entropy.
And beyond
The most tragic fact is that the lack of resources and their “unequal” distribution were and still are the cause of many wars (including the First and Second World Wars), suffering, destruction, and regression of many regions of the world on a huge scale.
Many deaths are the sad consequences of wars for resources. The initiators of the wars wanted a profit, food for their economies, and bloody insurance for an otherwise fragile future. Many war generators made a profit indeed, but they killed many innocent people and caused tremendous environmental problems that we have to solve now.
Of course, many of them we will leave to our descendants.
No one (or almost no one) cared about this indescribably uncontrolled depletion and destruction, because the most important thing was – Profit. All this makes us think that we need another Earth for our insatiable greed, sorry, – need. Good luck with that! We have only one planet and we have to deal with that.
However, scientists, companies, and governments are making efforts in switching to renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, biogas, geothermal energy… and sustainable technologies (with as little energy consumption and waste production as possible). Encouraging data show that the costs of installing and maintaining these “green” technologies have dropped significantly in recent years. But, we still have a lot of work to do.
5. Excessive waste producing
The current way of life, hyper-ultra-giga-tera-consumption, and traditional “dirty” technologies produce too much waste. Excessive generating of non-degradable and non-recyclable waste is part of the problem since their treatment implies only landfill disposal. Many other kinds of waste are recyclable, and they are considered valuable resources. But, in most countries, the implementation of organized recycling measures is also at the beginning.
Most of the waste ends up in “wild” landfills (or just – dumps), contaminating vast surrounding areas, and generating enormous amounts of methane (one of the worst greenhouse gases) and other pollutants. And don’t forget “garbage views” – the most picturesque sceneries of our disgrace.
6. Waste disposal
There is no way to avoid completely the production of many kinds of waste (trash and garbage). But, with some exceptions, current sorts of waste treatment are unsustainable, and…just go back to those sceneries above for a moment. Garbage is everywhere, except in those countries, cities, and regions which have evolved more and solved most of these problems efficiently.
Sanitary landfills (that is the official term for them) are the sole legal way of waste disposal. But, they require huge amounts of organization, investments, seizures of land, maintenance… The most productive ways of avoiding these problems are developing so-called “zero waste” technologies and intensifying and perfecting the recycling industry.
Nuclear waste disposal has a special part in this process, due to its tremendous health hazards. And there are still no long-term effective measures for its disposal and recycling.
7. Dirty technologies – A foundation of all causes of the global ecological crisis.
That word “dirty” within this phrase doesn’t mean necessarily that they are all ugly and evil. Moreover, many of them are very “clean”, such as the pharmaceutical industry, for instance. The catch is in the consequences of the processes of these technologies, as always. Causes are more clearer: demand for jobs, goods, food, supplies, vehicles, energy, houses, money, profit… But, what are the actual costs of all this?
These technologies, whose euphemistic adjective is “traditional”, pose one of the crucial causes of the global ecological crisis, are to blame for a wide range of consequences. Resource depletion, global warming, pollution of air, water, food, soils, destroying of natural habitats, species, and entire ecosystems, deforestations, permanent decreasing of worker productivity, the concentration of overcrowding in unstable regions, increasing the number of diseases and their complications, other health issues, and consequently – enormous public health losses are only the most important on an otherwise endless list.
Don’t get me wrong: I don’t want anyone to be fired or laid off. There is a huge space for improving any kind of technology and/or human behavior, starting with investing in knowledge. Fortunately, a respectful number of progressive individuals, companies, governments, and other institutions are diligently working on that.
“We show that investments in alternative technologies from the very beginning can help an economy make the eventual switch to clean energy sources, thereby attaining better environmental quality.” (www.cambridge.org)