I am well aware that most people think that this mouse is being alarmist by talking of the complete destruction of our planet and of the human race, but this new report by the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP), demonstrates that this is a reality and not some doom leaden fantasy.
We are stripping our home world of resources faster than they can be renewed naturally and we seem hell bent upon despoiling what we leave behind. If we take water as the key resource, which it is, humans seem to have lost the understanding that we need to keep our water clean.
Globally we are pumping out billions of tonnes of Carbon Dioxide into our atmosphere, plants will absorb some, and some will be absorbed by the oceans and seas. But in doing so, the seas change their ph value and become more acid. If you dissolve CO2 in water you get Carbonic Acid. Quite simple school level science, as has been discovered recently, our oceans are now saturated with CO2, they are not absorbing any more by natural means. Therefore, we have polluted our seas so much that the fresh water they release, in the form of clouds and rain is no longer pure.
As well as speeding up the degradation of our environments, it makes it much more expensive to purify the water. In the Western developed world we can at least throw money at the problem and produce clean water, but in the developing world we are condemning these people to illness and disease.
Not just directly from contaminated water, but impure water will effect the ability of the crops to grow thus reducing yield for peoples that are eking out a subsistence level of living anyway.
This is why this mouse doesn’t like the idea of crops being flown around the world. Its not because of the carbon footprint they leave, but because a water rich west is importing water from water poor areas. As vegetables are mainly water, each crate of vegetables is taking water away from the people who most need it. This is all speeding desertification especially in Africa.
It is the individual choices that we all make that add to this global disaster. None of us seem to be prepared to make do with what we have we all seem to want more and more. But beyond being well fed, adequately housed and warm, we don’t need most of the consumer goods we buy. While I hate to mention it, Christmas will soon be upon us, an orgy of consumerism and I can guarantee that in the rubbish of most homes will be last years must have items.
The more we consume, especially in the developed world, the more damage we do to our environment. But what use will any of those toys be when we no longer have a planet fit enough to live on?
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