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Hayk
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Earth is too crowded for Utopia
January 6, 2006 - 07:43 AM
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I thought I would share with you the following point of view posted on BBC News site:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4584572.stm
Cheers,
Hayk
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Anu maheshwari
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we might be history before going into future!!!
March 22, 2006 - 02:49 AM
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Wake up before its too late!!!!
Check out this article;
Life's diversity 'being depleted'
By Tim Hirsch
BBC News Environment Correspondent
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4826262.stm
Abundance and variety continue to fall across the planet
Virtually all indicators of the likely future for the diversity of life
on
Earth are heading in the wrong direction, a major new report says.
The Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO) is published as national
delegates
gather in Brazil under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.
The Convention commits governments to slow the decline in the richness
of
living systems by 2010.
The GBO says "unprecedented efforts" will be needed to achieve this
aim.
It sets out 15 indicators of progress towards the 2010 target, ranging
from
trends in the extent of wildlife habitats to the build-up of nutrients
such
as nitrogen which can harm aquatic life.
Only one of the 15 - the area of the world's surface officially
protected
for wildlife - is moving in the right direction for biodiversity.
GLOBAL ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT
Resource demand challenges Earth's regeneration capacity
Fish are harvested faster than their natural replacement rate
Water is being withdrawn faster than aquifers are replenished
The biosphere takes one year and nearly three months to renew what
humanity
exploits in one year, on this analysis
Even here, however, most areas still fall far short of targets to
protect
10% of each region with distinctive combinations of species.
The other indicators point to an accelerating decline, which has seen
the
rates of species extinctions surge to their highest levels since the
demise
of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
Forests continue to be lost at a rate of six million hectares a year -
that's about four times the size of the English county of Yorkshire -
and
similar trends are noted for marine and coastal ecosystems such as
coral
reefs, kelp beds and mangrove forests.
The abundance and variety of species continue to fall across the
planet,
according to an index measuring the percentage of species with good
prospects for survival; bird variety is on the decline in every
ecosystem
type from the oceans to the forests.
Less complete indications are available for other groups of animals and
plants, but it is feared they would show a similar picture.
Within reach
The report stresses that despite the gloomy trends, the target set by
the
Convention - involving a stabilisation, not a reversal of these losses
- is
still within reach.
"Meeting the 2010 target is a considerable challenge, but by no means
an
impossible one," the GBO notes.
"Unprecedented additional efforts are needed, and these must be
squarely
focused on addressing the main drivers of biodiversity loss."
These "drivers" are identified as:
the loss of habitat, largely through the expansion of agriculture
climate change
the introduction of alien species which can badly disrupt ecosystems
after
being carried across the world, often accidentally in ship ballast
tanks
over-exploitation of wildlife, for example through overfishing
the build-up of nutrients through chemical fertilisers, sewage and air
pollution
The great challenge in meeting the biodiversity target comes in the
fact
that these pressures are currently projected to remain constant or to
accelerate in the near future - so slowing the extinction slide would
involve major changes over wide areas of human activity.
In the jargon, this requires "mainstreaming" of biodiversity concerns
into
areas of policy well beyond the remit of the environmental officials
and
ministers from more than 180 countries meeting in the Brazilian city of
Curitiba over the next fortnight.
Unless they can convince their colleagues responsible for agriculture,
energy, world trade and industry that losing biodiversity threatens
people
and economies across the planet, the decisions and pledges they make
will do
little to reverse the trends identified in this report.
ECONOMIC BENEFITS UNDER ALTERNATIVE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES
The full economic value of sustainable ecosystem management is rarely
recognised and frequently ignored
Converting mangroves to shrimp farms brings immediate monetary benefit
but
diminishes other important 'services'
For example, mangroves provide timber, boost fisheries and provide
storm
protection - all of value to a much wider community
If these 'externalities' are properly taken into account, the benefits
of
ecosystem conversion look weaker.
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Luke Lieberman
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Re: Earth is too crowded for Utopia
March 22, 2006 - 03:16 AM
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this is a serious problem that needs to be addressed - unfortunately the world can't seem to get on the same page about anything.
With Bush being such a putz, the world lacks leadership.
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Val.e.ria
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Re: Earth is too crowded for Utopia
March 27, 2006 - 03:29 AM
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Well, but there has to be other ways, participate in campaigns to prevent it. Does anyone know about meetings of this issue?
--
P.D.: Also thanks both for the info.
BBC is such an excellent newspaper, the best, I might say.
Val.
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Robert Margolis
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Many Countries are Reducing Population
March 28, 2006 - 12:08 PM
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Most of the reports show that as countries develop and people move to the cities that population growth slows or stops. Many countries in W. Europe are trying to figure out what to do as they will have large numbers of seniors and fewer young workers. My guess is that you can adapt to declining population by changing reitrement ages and other initiatives. Still, reducing population stands typical economics on its head.
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A. Tsang
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Many Countries are Reducing Population
March 29, 2006 - 08:21 AM
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Originally posted by rsmarg
Most of the reports show that as countries develop and people move to the cities that population growth slows or stops. Many countries in W. Europe are trying to figure out what to do as they will have large numbers of seniors and fewer young workers. My guess is that you can adapt to declining population by changing reitrement ages and other initiatives. Still, reducing population stands typical economics on its head.
As Western Companies shift manufacturing operations to developing countries, Western countries need less workers
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Robert Margolis
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Taxes
March 30, 2006 - 09:05 AM
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It isn't merely a switch of jobs internationally. With fewer young people in the west, there are fewer paying taxes to fund the pensions and health care of the retired. As the developed world urbanizes, this trend will spread beyond the west. Not that population stabilization is bad, just that we need to rethink jobs, retirement, and lifestyle.
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A. Tsang
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Re: Earth is too crowded for Utopia
March 31, 2006 - 02:29 AM
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>there are fewer paying taxes to fund the pensions and health
>care of the retired
That can come to immigration policy by attract rich & wealthy migrants to invest. Oso export education where overseas student pay 2 to 3 times higher tuition fee to sponsor the school. Those overseas students may oso become good work force then they r graduated.
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Robert Margolis
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Good idea
April 1, 2006 - 04:40 AM
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Certainly having an even more interconnected world (whether through exporting education or other services) would help spread the burden out.
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Connor Scanlon
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Re: Earth is too crowded for Utopia
May 15, 2006 - 09:27 AM
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Natures first green is gold
Her hardest hue to hold
Her first leave's a flower
But only for an hour
Then leave subsides to leave
And Eaiden sank to grief
so dawn gives down to day,
NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY
a poem I picked up from Robert Frost. but yes a very interesting clip should make a lot of people think. Stay gold everyone, stay gold.
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Anu maheshwari
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Re: Earth is too crowded for Utopia
May 26, 2006 - 11:47 AM
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How do societies collapse?
I am reading a book called Collapse by Jared Diamond, thanks to the thoughtfulness of my friend who decided to gift it to me.
Diamond is talking about how societies commit ‘ecocide’ and about external factors that contribute to its collapse…
I have just started reading it and I thought it would be interesting to discuss the possible ways societies we live in can collapse if we don’t give attention to certain changes happening around us and the possible ways we can counter the ill effects.
For example in Mumbai, the rapid urbanization is more or less done without keeping in mind the ecological balance. Aren’t we literally digging our own graves by being negligent of the fragile environment we live in?
Basic things like separating the waste into recyclables and the disposables are not being enforced into practice.
What about the human aspect?
We are causing more harm by recoiling into the narrow parochial societies, trying to protect ourselves, our own countries….when I read Goldsmith’s 'National Prejudics some six years back ,I thought we might all be moving towards the idea of a global citizenship. But the more we move ‘ahead’ we are falling for claustrophobic ideas of nationality, regionalism, and religious fundamentalism.
But I want to be optimistic. I like to count the good things ….and yes there are a lot of positive things happening in this world. But don’t know why…I think the bitterness is more newsworthy and hence our news channels exclusively focus on it…so that watching news gives me a headache most of the time…
A communal riot is one thing which never fails to shock me. The same people we grow up with …one day try to harm us. What is it that drives such madness? The reasons may be economic, psychological, political or combination of it in brainwashing. But are the people who engage in such crimes even aware of what they are doing? Do they repent later?
coming back to the positive side , i feel that human beings have an innate capacity to see sense 
if they are told about things in a rational way, if people are made aware of the possible dangers in future because of our callousness today and if they are told of the alternatives that they have before them . i am positive they will choose the alternatives.
to be contd..
This post was edited on: 2006-05-26 at 11:54 AM by: anuriandima84
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Anu maheshwari
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Re: Earth is too crowded for Utopia
May 26, 2006 - 11:48 AM
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contd...
I know we cannot go for Utopia at this stage ....but most people can have a better life than this ...we can have cleaner air and water in our cities...and we can extend the better life to the future generations...
This post was edited on: 2006-05-26 at 11:48 AM by: anuriandima84
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Anu maheshwari
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Re: Earth is too crowded for Utopia
May 26, 2006 - 03:38 PM
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check this out!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/05/sci_nat_how_the_world_is_changing/html/1.stm
This post was edited on: 2006-05-28 at 11:28 AM by: anuriandima84
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