Do you think we can make it before committing ecological suicide?

United States
February 1, 2018 4:25am CST
Everyone probably already knows about how is climate change and carbon emissions linked to our activity. Well, it also makes perfect sense - our population has grown like never before, we took huge strides in burning fossil fuels, cutting forests, exhausting soils and changing this way our planet's mechanisms. There are many plans how to curb those emissions, reforest, etc. But on the other hand there are also many plans how to frack more oil, expand nuclear power, build stronger SUVs, expand industries, farms... It somehow seems to me almost impossible to decrease the emissions...maybe balance them out - emitting industry versus more forest to suck them in, but I simply cannot imagine that we would turn the scale the other way. For example, solar industry is booming now and is recognized for being low emitter, BUT more commercial it becomes, more chances there are corruption and lacking legislative will allow this industry pollute and cause harm anyway. There were already records of water pollution in China. Example of other harm -
Homeowners on the hunt for sparkling solar panels are lured by ads filled with images of pristine landscapes and bright sunshine, and words about the technology's benefits for the environment — and the wallet.
4 people like this
5 responses
• United States
2 Feb 18
as long as there's corporate greed and other countries polluting still,most likely not. probably the best thing we could do at this point is seriously start working on the space program..there's too many people on earth anyway and that's part of the problem..
2 people like this
• United States
3 Feb 18
Yeah, well, as for me I cannot imagine giving up on living on our beautifully-diverse planet with oceans, forests, animals. But our future does not look that bright...as we could see on the example of some other great civilizations, such as Maya, if we kill the environment, we die. And the problem is that in the last two centuries, human impact has grown to global scale...
1 person likes this
@nanette64 (20364)
• Fairfield, Texas
1 Feb 18
Since the world's population is what is out of control; we need to get that handled first @tristanex .
2 people like this
@indexer (4852)
• Leicester, England
1 Feb 18
The problems can be solved, as long as the will is there to make the necessary changes. However, when the US President talks about reviving the coal industry, for example, this is made more difficult.
1 person likes this
• United States
3 Feb 18
I agree. The problem is also what's happening in politics globally - e.g. IKEA is cutting ancient forests in Romanian national parks (corruption), Amazon rainforest is being plundered as well - and everyone knows it will trigger set of negative global effects, but it's still happening - too many people. Some people care, some are too poor to care, some don't care and since the numbers are high, it has consequences.
@MALUSE (69373)
• Germany
1 Feb 18
What does your all-knowing President have to say on the topic?
• Nairobi, Kenya
1 Feb 18
@MALUSE I think he is the one referred to in the line "...there are also many plans how to frack more oil, expand nuclear power, build stronger SUVs, expand industries...."
• United States
3 Feb 18
@agneswilson16 geeee...I don't even have energy to comment on this...it's the matter of self-preservation - mental health protection :)
@redurnet (1798)
• United Kingdom
1 Feb 18
I think unless we tackle the issue of human population growth then this world is not going to be a nice place to exist and I think that will happen very soon. There are some people who think that discussing controlling human population is a terrible thing but I think we should just accept that we have limited space and resources. We have never managed to live in peace with one another and we never will and that will only get worse as we grow in numbers.
1 person likes this
• United States
3 Feb 18
Yes, that's very smart approach.
1 person likes this