“The truth is: the natural world is changing. And we are totally dependent on that world. It provides our food, water and air. It is the most precious thing we have and we need to defend it.”
-David Attenborough
Planet Earth came into existence some 4.5 billion years ago and life on planet earth has existed long before we evolved. For example, trees evolved approximately 360 million years ago. Animal species like whales evolved some 50 million years and elephants approximately 20 million years ago. The modern human evolved somewhere between 200,000-300,000 years ago. In the short period of time we have been here, we have created an imbalance with nature which has caused many of the threats our planet faces today.
Earth is the only known planet in our solar system that has water and the best living conditions for life. Gravity naturally holds us down onto the earth as we go about our days. Earth takes care of us without us having to think much about it. Everything we need to thrive on a daily basis comes from this planet.
Unfortunately, the optimal living conditions earth has provided us are taking a down turn.
Below are statistics from NASA about Earth’s status to put things in perspective;
Here’s what’s up;
Carbon Dioxide is up 419 parts per million.
Our Global Temperature is up 1.01 degree since 1880.
Seal levels are up 4 inches since January 1983.
Ocean Temperatures are up 337 zettajoules since 1955.
Here’s what’s down;
Arctic Sea Ice Extent is down 13% per decade since 1979.
Ice Sheets are down 427 billion metric tons per year.
The following are what is at stake to keep the Earth in balance in order for life to thrive;
Deforestation and Biodiversity
As we continue to lose vast amounts of wild spaces and biodiversity for logging, agriculture, and human development, we lose our footing on stabilizing the earth so we can thrive.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the world has lost 420 million hectacres or about a billion acres of forest since 1990 due to logging and agriculture. 80% of global deforestation is due to agriculture and according to Our World In Data more than 40% of deforestation is driven by the expansion of pastures for raising cattle.
Other huge agricultural commodities driving out biodiversity and deforestation are palm oil and soy crops.
Palm oil is a key ingredient in many so many products ranging from soap to processed foods like protein bars. Palm oil comes the fruit that is grown on oil palm trees. The production of growing palm trees comes from slashing rainforests in places like Indonesia to the tune of 300 soccer fields every hour. These rainforest not only are home to endangered wildlife like orangutans and tigers but these rainforests have been able to store 300 billion tons of carbon, which is approximately 40 times the annual greenhouse gases emissions from fossil fuels.
Soy is another ingredient found in many foods and the demand for it globally has increased in the last decade. The majority of increased soy production has risen in places like Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil leading to deforestation in biodiversity hotspots.
American biologist, Edward O. Wilson, proposed in his book Half-Earth that by committing half of the planet to nature, we can hope to save the immensity of life-forms that comprise it.
He states: “At one-half and above, life on Earth enters the safe zone. Within half, existing calculations from existing ecosystems indicate that more than 80 percent of the species would be stabilized.”
Saving our wild spaces impacts so many facets of life on earth. By preserving these wild spaces, biodiversity is maintained, which is like life-support for life on earth.
The plant life of wild spaces actually give back to the planet by actions like absorbing and storing carbon, releasing oxygen for the planet, and seed dispersal for new plant life that continues this process. These actions help to regulate the temperature of the planet. These wild spaces also encompass watersheds that help to drain freshwater into water outlets like rivers and lakes that provide us drinking water.
Greenhouse Gases
In comparison to other planets, Earth is a pleasant place to live, it offers generally stable temperatures for all life here. This is due to the layers of gases that envelop the planet, which are atmospheric or greenhouse gases.
As massive amounts of light coming mostly from the sun is directed towards Earth in the form of visible light, infrared light, and ultraviolet light, approximately 30% gets reflected back out towards space by clouds, ice, snow, sand, and other reflective surfaces. The other 70% of light gets absorbed by the ocean, land, and atmosphere and causes a release of heat back out of the atmosphere and into space as infrared radiation. The greenhouse gases that surround the Earth trap the infrared radiation and redirects it back to Earth which keeps the temperature on Earth stable. But as human related activities increase greenhouse gases, more and more heat is getting trapped causing an increased warming of the Earth.
The key players of greenhouse gases are; carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, fluorinated gases, and water vapor.
Examples of human-related greenhouse gas emissions are;
· Electricity and heat production - accounts for ¼ of human-related greenhouse gas emissions
· Agriculture and Land use - accounts for ¼ of human-related greenhouse gas emissions. The vast majority of gases here are related to methane, released from cows, which is 80% more potent at warming the atmosphere than CO2 over a twenty-year period and nitrous oxide used in fertlizers. 3.4% of global greenhouse gases are due to cattle ranching.
· Industry – accounts for about 1/5 of human-related greenhouse gas emissions. This includes manufacturing, food processing, and construction.
· Transportation – accounts for approximately 14% of human-related greenhouse gas emissions, including cars, trains, airplanes.
· Buildings – account for approximately 6.4%, which includes burning natural gas for heating and cooking.
· Processes that extract, refine, process, and transport oil, gas, and coal – account for approximately 9. 6% of human-related greenhouse gas emissions.
Light Pollution
According to weforum.org, light pollution has increased 49% over 25 years up to 2017. There are many reasons light pollution is harmful;
· Wildlife have difficulty with migration patterns due to increased light at night, causing increased collisions and incorrect navigation on their migrations. Light pollution also affects animals such as owls, frogs, bats, and badgers and insects because it disrupts the way they perceive day-time and night-time, mating, and sleep cycles.
· Leaving night-time lights on, causing overconsumption of energy and does not allow the atmosphere to clean up gases like nitrogen oxide.
The Ocean and Plastic Pollution
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the ocean contributes to 50-80% of the Earth’s oxygen and much of this is dependent on the phytoplankton that are tiny drifting plants, algae, and bacteria living on the ocean surface. Not only do they provide us with oxygen, the aquatic food chain also depends on these phytoplankton. However, due to climate change and plastic pollution, these microscopic plants are at risk.
Phytoplankton need to live near the ocean’s surface to capture sunlight but they get their nutrients from the deep ocean water. When the deep water is brought to the surface, the nutrients are brought up for the phytoplankton, but as ocean temperatures climb, the supply of these nutrients are reduced.
As more plastic pollution infiltrates our ocean, the plastic blocks sunlight from reaching the phytoplankton which limits its ability to photosynthesize and create oxygen.
Currently, .5% of plastic waste ends up in the ocean.
According to the Ocean Conservancy, 11 million metric tons of plastic ends up in our oceans. Marine life are also mistaking the plastic as food, which can lacerate their organs, and the marine life get tangled in the garbage. The plastic pollution accelerates climate change because heat can cause the plastics to burn off carbon emissions and to make matters worse is about 70% of the debris sinks to the bottom of the ocean.
To learn ways to reduce your plastic consumption, please check out the How We Can Help Page to learn more.
Soil Erosion
Soil is an extremely important part of the ecosystem. It contains diverse organisms and vital nutrients that help maintain biodiversity and can also influence the distribution of animals as certain plant species provide food and shelter. Soils that support natural ecosystems usually have the best biodiversity.
Soil erosion occurs when the top part of the soil is degraded. This happens when ecosystems like forests and floodplains are converted to grow crops like coffee, soy, palm oil trees, cotton, and wheat. The problem is these crops cannot hold onto the soil like the native vegetation and soil erosion occurs.
Many things happen when native vegetation is replaced with agriculture. Since crops cannot hold onto the soil like native vegetation, wind or rain easily washes away the top soil which ends up in waterways along with any pesticides it was treated with to grow crops, polluting the water. The soil that ends up in waterways creates sedimentation, clogging these waterways and also leads to population decline of fish and other species. As a result of soil erosion, the diversity of nutrients within the soil and microorganisms that keep the soil fertile, greatly diminishes which can cause some of these converted regions to become desert like. Another phenomenon that occurs is with the transformation of a natural landscape into cropland, the soil can no longer absorb water as before, which can lead to increased flooding.
Water Availability
The United Nations stated; “Water is the primary medium through which we will feel the effects of climate change.”
A rise in global temperatures has been causing an increase in larger amounts of water evaporation which leads to more frequent, intense, and heavy rains as seen when Typhoon Rai, one of the strongest in history to hit the Philippines in December of 2021.
Climate scientists predict these intense rains will cause increased flooding. This excess water or water run-off will pick up contaminants like fertilizer and eventually will end up in larger bodies of water like lakes and the ocean, resulting in increased water pollution and limiting water access for us and ecosystems.
As fertilizer pollutes our lakes and oceans, it causes algae growth. These algal blooms block sunlight for underwater life and decrease oxygen levels within the water. These algal blooms are toxic and can kill off fish and other marine life, which are also resistant to the purification process, making tap water unfit to drink.
Something for us to be aware of is 70% of the Earth’s freshwater is used for agriculture, understanding how climate change is affecting our access to freshwater and using it in food production will be paramount to how we manage our food supply.
With continued global temperature rise, freshwater glaciers are melting and runoff into the oceans which causes the sea level to rise. With this rise in sea level, more saltwater contaminates aquifers which are bodies of rock that hold or contain freshwater. In places where droughts occur consistently and freshwater is lacking, a process called desalination is used to remove the salt from the saltwater. Unfortunately, this is a very high-energy and costly process in order to produce fresh water. Places like the Middle East, the Caribbean, and North Africa use this process out of necessity.
Even snowmelt is used as a freshwater source and held in reservoirs. As snow fall begins to decline in many areas, farmers may not have this reserve of water to irrigate crops.
Every facet of nature has a purpose and ultimately helps to keep our planet in balance and helps us thrive. Let’s bridge the gap between us and what nature is doing for us.
We have a symbiotic relationship with nature. As John Muir states; “When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.”
