According to a recent study published in the journal SCIENCE, climate change, the extinction of species, the increase in the level of acidity in the oceans and other human activities have passed the point of no return.
Already in 2009, nine planetary boundaries were identified and quantified within which human society can exist and prosper, nine "boundaries" whose crossing may cause risk to human society and the environment:
- Climate change
- Changes in the composition and structure of the biosphere - loss of species diversity and extinction
- Damage to the ozone layer in the stratosphere
- The increase in the level of acidity in the oceans
- "Biochemical flow" Damage to the natural cycles of phosphorus and nitrogen in nature
- Changes in soil systems - for example, the destruction of forests for agriculture or grazing, which causes vigorous soil erosion
- Overuse of drinking water and its contamination
- Encumbering the atmosphere with aerosols - microscopic particles in the atmosphere that affect the climate and organisms
- The introduction of artificial substances into living systems - such as organic pollutants, radioactive substances, nano and micro-plastic materials.
These are the subjects in which the borders were crossed:
- Climate change or global warming, today there is already a broad consensus that warming at a level of more than two degrees Celsius will be disastrous.
- Loss of animal and plant diversity, a loss already described as the "sixth extinction" caused by human society.
- Changes in land use, the most prominent example is the destruction of forests.
- Changes in the biochemical cycle of phosphorus and nitrogen, a cycle essential to life and vegetation, changes that cause damage to agricultural crops and damage to water quality mainly due to the use of fertilizers. The spillage of fertilizers into water sources causes toxic algae "blooms" and mass death.
The other five borders have not yet been crossed, but we welcome their crossing.
A study conducted by 18 researchers and defining the harmful changes to our environment is published in"Science(Science). The study defines the crossing of the environmental boundaries towards the dangerous area as a result of human activity, processes that are significant and important for the stability of the environment.
According to the authors: "Humans are pushing the earth beyond the limits, into the dangerous zone." Crossing the borders makes the world a difficult place to live and make a living and harms efforts to reduce poverty or improve the quality of life. According to the authors: "This is the first time in human history that it is necessary to address the danger of losing balance on the entire planet."
The researchers state that "four (out of nine) borders were crossed because of human activity." This crossing places the world in the "dangerous zone", since crossing the borders fundamentally changes the functioning of the sphere, changes that break the complex balance between human activity and the environment, substantial and fundamental changes in the way the natural environment functions.
Crossing borders leads to immediate damage, but this is not always felt, the continuation of the crossing and its intensification pushes the environment into a period of uncertainty.
Of the four boundaries crossed, climate change is considered the most difficult and dangerous crossing, when the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere approaches 400 parts per million. We are experiencing more and more extreme weather phenomena and the loss of ice at the poles, and these must cause concern.
In September 2015, the "Millennium Development Goal - MDGs" will end, which was supposed to reduce poverty and hunger in the world and failed to do so (As we have already mentioned on the science website).
In order to implement a replacement plan, the research data will be presented to the UN institutions in the hope that it will be possible to balance the economic demand for growth and development with the essential need for sustainable development that will allow existence in a healthy environment.
Hall to her and a thorn in her. In the past four years, food prices have fallen, which shows that it is possible to produce food despite extreme weather phenomena (related to climate change). There was also a drop in the prices of many basic products, consumer products and energy prices, drops that cause economists to question the truth of the environmental danger, doubts that harm the chance of correct conduct.
10 תגובות
This whole thing doesn't matter that much,
Because the earth will get along just fine without us.
After humans and all animals have finally disappeared from the earth,
(because the earth will become a place, the life of any kind of living creatures will be prevented and this is an irreversible process),
which is something like 100 years from today (2015), in fact there will literally be "chaos" as it says in Genesis XNUMX of the Bible.
after which the earth will go through the process of evolution again, by the bacteria present in it,
(which in my opinion will be difficult to destroy completely),
Of course after he repairs the damage we caused him,
And so the animals will re-create and naturally return to nature and perhaps intelligent beings will also create.
According to science today, until the final destruction of the earth by the sun there is still a long time,
And so life will continue even after us.
to collect
Basically, I think that the Nature and Parks Authority is trying very hard to preserve nature. Along with impressive successes, there are failures. Perhaps the policy towards invasive species is too draconian, that is, it could be that the common jackal (a local species) causes greater damage to biodiversity. From the squirrel 5 ps.
philoshit
There are people who invest time and money to "contribute" to the environment without any personal benefit. And there are people who only invest in themselves. Why are you making generalizations?
Is it allowed to ask which group you belong to?
To Mr. Assaf the quarrelsome - you proved exactly the point I wanted to convey. We don't care about the environment - only ourselves.
I know about you, but I personally am tired of the hypocrisy that tries to present the whole ecological issue as if we really care about anything but ourselves.
to the "philosopher"
First of all you should learn to count
Because according to all researchers there were five (5) mass extinctions,
five not seven
And as it is written above, humanity causes a sixth extinction,
As Nisim wrote, extinction at a faster rate (ten times) than anything that has happened so far,
An extinction that also endangers those who cause it - human society,
(To this day, there is no known factor - neither a meteor nor glaciers - that caused the extinction),
That's why the "cheating" is (yes) also about the future of your children and grandchildren,
"Blazing" about the fact that the cause of extinction is doing it consciously even though unconsciously,
"whining" about the fact that humanity has no right and moral authority to destroy its environment,
"Whining" about the ignorance that causes extinction,
"whining" that the environmental disaster can still be prevented (or at least mitigated),
"Whining" about opinionated (but mindless) people reacting like you.
philoshit
The rate of extinction today is much higher than the rate of extinction in each of the extinctions you described (as far as I know - there were 5 in the past). And - humanity itself is also in danger.
No less than 7 massive extinctions have occurred in the history of KDA, which wiped out every trace of 50% to 90% of the species that ever lived here. It's been billions of years that nature has been exterminating species and starting all over without realizing it, so what's the whining about here? That we are not different from nature, and do exactly what it does anyway or will do at some point in the future? Or are we just afraid that we will be next in line for extinction? And then the whole argument is actually revealed here - we don't care about nature. only from ourselves.
You can return to the Israeli nature, ostriches, golden squirrels, golden hamsters, seals, bobal deer, and tabor oak trees to the Yarkon Park.
There are tankers and cargo ships, each of which emits air pollution like all vehicles in the world. That is why it is worthwhile to develop a hybrid cargo ship, on an electric engine and a natural gas engine. There was no such development in Israel, because Israel is not South Korea, or Taiwan.
two points:
The very fact that the issue is not at the top of the headlines shows that humanity is behaving like a frog in a pot of water that is getting hotter and hotter.
A second point is that economists are the last ones to discuss ecological issues with, since the entire concept of economics is based on endless growth. Imagine the pricing of shares of companies with no growth forecast...