A word from an Ecology Professor!

Sorry Navdeep, I couldn't add anything on this, life has been too busy!

But I am enclosing a web copy of the editorial that I recently wrote for a local newspaper. It is enclosed, you can share it on the blog.

http://wildsingaporenews.blogspot.com/2007/12/clear-and-present-danger-to-planet-prof.html

Best wishes for the New Year!

Navjot

Human Population

We all know that the human population has been increasing at a rapid rate and there seems as if it is not going to slow down. We are currently at a world population of 6.6 billion and expected to reach 9 billion by the year 2050! We have to do something to control our growing world population or else there will not be any more resources for the upcoming generations.

We know what we are doing and we know that we are destroying the planet, but why doesn't anyone do anything about it? We as humans have the power to control the population through parent planning or some other reliable method. I am not saying we should limit the amount of children a family has, because that would be unjust, i am just saying that if people are ready to have children they should instead of people just having children just for the heck of it and overpopulating the planet.

If we cannot solve the population problem, we might as well try to use what resources we have left in a sustainable manner. We here on the news everyday about problems such as global warming and the melting of the polar ice caps and the decreasing forest area around the world, but we just go on living our lives. We need to realize that what we are doing to the planet does not only affect us humans, it affects the other animals that inhabit this planet. When we use up resources such as trees and start to cut them down more and more, animals that rely on the trees as a habitat for themselves and their families have no where to go. We are closing in on animals around the world and causing them to lose their homes. If we cannot fix this problem of growing human population, we will not only suffer but other animals that are not at fault will suffer also. We know that the problem is more of a concern in the developing countries because they do not have the access to the same information that us developing countries have and are unaware on how to reverse their planet destroying actions.

We need to find a way that we can fix the problems where it will be easy for everyone to participate and spread awareness, or the world as we know it will become useless to us and that is the inconvenient truth.

Who will solve the problem she poses:

hello everybody

A big issue in the world today is intense human population growth. reasons for this recent, rapid, boom is due to expansion of agriculture and industrial production with lower death rates because of better hygene and medical technological advances. so right now the number of births and immigration is far surpassing that of the emmigrating and dying. because there are so many people for the earth to sustain, its resources have been, and will continue to dwindle. especially us americans, we tend to overconsume and therefore our "ecological footprint" is too big for our own good.

Yes, of course the fertility, and birth rates need to be controlled, but that's easier said than done. becasue of culture, and tradition, it is hard for some families and communities in developing countries, to "break the mold" and change the standards that define how a family is supposed to look. for example, India, yes... India. although we hear about it ALL THE TIME, its true, there are too many people. a factor of this problem is lack of educated women. traditionally, in India, a man runs the household, and has sole sayso on what happens within his family; including number of children. to the wife's liking or dislike she will have as many children as he wants; usually until she has a boy or two. but until then, she is stuck with, what seems like, five or so girls....that nobody wants. these girls are a burden, and as soon as the father can rid himself of her, she gets married...and the whole process starts all over again. this leaves an economically struggling nation with an out of control (and growing) population, with no means of sustaining them, or providing them with chances to enhance each and every person's (including women's) quality of life. thus, the need for family planning is evident.

explosion of human population is an issue that is hard to solve. an easier task would be eduacating the masses on how much damage our "privledged" countries are doing. currently the united states is the leader for overconsumption. it is time that we distinguish between "necessities", and "wants". if everyone lived off of pure necessity, the world would be in fine condition. but because we are so frivolous, and in constant desire of ... everything we are deeply affecting the natural wonder of this earth. because of pollution, and degredation of many natural habitats our resources are becoming scarce. basically we have too many people with too little of supplies. it is time for people to wake up and have some respect for this awesome place we live in (not necessarily Bakersfield). i think too many times, we take things for granted, and if we keep up the style of living it might all be gone.

so yeah... recycle, and give a tree a hug!

Dying Biodiversity

We are killing everything on the planet and don’t even realize that we are doing this. The problem is getting worse because the population is getting out of control. We are slowly increasing our resource use. We are also over fishing and destroying the environments important organisms live in. We are destroying the forests by strip cutting which also plays a role in erosion of the soil which prevents future tress to thrive because of the degraded soil. We are over fishing and seeing a decline in the bigger population of fish which will eventually lead to their extinction. We are the smartest organism on the planet but we can not find a way to help preserve the planet that we live on. Just because we are the most dominant species does not mean that we have killed everything that moves. Dinosaurs lived on this planet for millions of years and they did not kill everything that they came across. If we do not live in harmony and respect our planet soon there will be no planet to live on. What are we going to do when the biodiversity dies? Biodiversity is what keeps our planet going. However how can we ask people to care for our planet when they are barley surviving? Millions of people live in poverty today and you can not ask them to help do something when they are trying to receive the basic needs to survive; and yet even worse people that have money and do not have to struggle to survive still destroy their own body and then try and make everyone feel sorry for them later because they did not take care of themselves. The only way people are going to know what they are doing to the planet and the biodiversity is education. How people are suppose to help a situation when they know nothing about what is happening right out side their homes. With the standard of living going up areas are more crowded then ever before. Why is this when there is land out there that no one is living on. We need to spread out our population it is putting to much stress on the planet. we also need stricter rules on protected land and protected animals otherwise the problem will only get worse but I have not herd of any plan to start fixing it just ideas but actions speak louder than words so we have to act or life as we know it will cease to exist.

Population growth

Population growth has always been increasing, but lately the growth has become outrageous. Our planet population is roughly 6 billion. Scientist have estimated that between 2006-2050, over 6.6 to 8.9 billion people will be added to our planet. Much of the growing population comes from developing countries. Population growth is growing from 0.1% in developed countries to 1.5% in developing countries. This may seem like a small amount to some people ,but this little percentages will keep on adding up. Much have this has been because of the medicine we now have to increase the life span of humans, or dating back to history when the baby boomers were born Scientist have concluded that if a women would have 1.5 children in her lifetime then we could possibly dwindle down the population increase. I think that would help, but our planet has to do a lot more than that. We need to educate everyone, in both developing and developed countries, on how our planet can not withstand much more of increasing high population. We also must make sure governments have a family plan. If we do complete these tasks it will not get our population under control in 5 years, but maybe over the next few decades it will help lower the increasing rate of population growth.

Essentially, Humans ruin everything...

So, everyone knows that the human population is increasing exponentially. Right now, the population is already at an unstable 6.6 billion, and is expected to increase by 3 billion in the next 30 years. So when will humans finally learn the lesson of their constant reproduction? Well looking back at how well humans learn from their mistakes, probably never. We are devastating the populations of the species we share this earth with. But humans continue in their poaching, hunting, and tearing down habitats. Humans are ignorant and most could care less about other species as long as they are still alive.
Humans are like a cancer to this world, spreading rapidly and destroying everything with no way to stop it. So how do we cure cancer? People have come up with some really creative and good ways to control the population, but these actions will never be initiated unless people are convinced slowing population growth will really benefit them. Although steps are being taken all over the world to try and stop our rapid population growth, other drastic measures would have to be taken to repair what we have already destroyed. And I could list all the ways I believe population could potentially be controlled, but that's not what this is about.
This is about the biodiversity of all living things we are destroying on this planet. I really detest anything that has to deal with harming innocent animals, so I feel really strongly about stopping useless hunting and poaching. I don't see how some people can be so cruel to animals, they are so cute and innocent! Even so, things need to be done to protect not just animals, but also the biodiversity of plants. If we had things my way, I would put the death penalty on ANY person who harms ANY wildlife. That would get rid of the population problem, and the loss of biodiversity problem. Ok, now I'm kinda scaring myself....
Well all people definitely needs to be educated on the effects they have on wildlife. This would help some of the issues we have on loss of biodiversity, but would definitely not fix the big problem we are facing. We need these animals for many reasons, and even if we didn't, they still have the intrinsic right to live! I believe this is a hopeless cause, because people can not be taught to care about animals. Forests can be replanted, but biodiversity can never be restored...

economics as a solution

There are many problems that plague our planet today. However, I find that environmental activists have greatly exagerrated many of the problems. We recently watched a video with Edward Norton in it (what Edward Norton has to do with saving the environment is a bit of a mystery to me). In the video it has a segment in which a team of "conservationists" go to Brazil or some such rainforest and try to save it from some horrible purple plant. First of all i very much doubt that a purple plant will take over all of the Brazilian rainforest. Secondly, WHO CARES. it is a purple plant. purple, green what is the difference? Thirdly, if the Darwinian view of nature is true then what do invasive species matter? it is survival of the fittest. We just happen to have sped the process slightly. If a species takes aversion to the color purple and dies out then it obviously wasnt all that strong or fit to survive. Now you may be reading this and thinking to yourself that it is a digression and has nothing to do with the original problem at hand. however, it leads me back to the question of do i think that the human population explosion is a true threat?

There have been many booms and busts in human population. Human population as a whole has increased dramatically since the beginning of time. But so has every animal in the history of everything everywhere. To begin with there were not millions of reptiles, fish, mammals and birds. If darwinian thinking is true then only a few were spontaneously burst from the primordial soups. Now if this is true then there was a dramatic increase in animal population when they reproduced continually to create more organisms that inhabit our earth today. the same is true of human kind. I am not saying that there arent a lot of us. there are. but perhaps it is not the huge ordeal it is made out to be.

Industrialized countries are proven to have shrank in size after they have reached the post- industrialized stage (Japan, Germany, Italy, United States). Now if this is true then eventually once every nation has reached its peak of industrialization then its population will begin to reduce. this will not happen all at once. however one by one each nation will industrialize and its population will decrease. the truly worrying thought is that for some reason some nations may not industrialize. Given the right environment and support, any nation can become industrialized. the trick is keeping out dictators and those who oppress their people and keep them in a bondage of perpetual poverty. With the right stimulation from countries that have already industrialized this should be possible.

There have been many other areas that have been cast in a decidedly negative light. Global warming is a specific area that is described as definative and exact. There is much debate between scientists today as to the validity of global warming or even its existance. It is shown to the students today as an absolute truth. Perhaps it is, but there is simply not enough evidence to conclusivly say either way.

It is interesting to note on this graph that the CO2 level appears to increase BEFORE the temperature does. The theoretical proposition of some scientists claim that CO2 levels do not change the temperature, instead the temperature affects the CO2 levels.
this is never discussed or even mentioned in the class.
ineteresting

Duh!

Of course humans kill animals without thought, even animals kill animals without thinking about the consequences... they are hungry. Ok, I'm not advocating poaching, or killing the whales just because we are humans (and extremely superior... we do have brains and hearts and souls... that, yes, make us different and better) but I do think that killing animals around us for food, or comfort is no problem. I'm sorry but you can't compare how humans treat animals without looking at how animals treat other animals. When a tiger walks down the path and squishes an ant, it doesn't cry about it- so we shouldn't either. Yes, I understand that our living habits tend to kill more animals than necessary... like cows, but who cares... as long as they aren't becoming exinct (that is an issue). I don't think we should dictate our actions according to what might happen to an animal if we did the action. Basically what I am saying is that, yes continuous killing of animals that are necessary for the environment and biospheres to grow and prosper is bad, but at the same time I'm going to kill a cockroach if I find one in my bathroom, because I'm a superior human and they are gross.

The Human Population is a mess!!!!

Humans believe since their the smartest species on the planet they can destroy it. This sort of thinking is the one that got us to this disaster. We have finally noticed that we are reproducing to quickly, but still we make no effort in helping prevent it. I believe that their should be rules like in china where we can only have one child. We should all take that pledge like Dr. sighn has and make an effort and try to stop reproducing so much. The animals that we use to see in the zoo, like for example the gorillas, are no longer their because they are becoming extinct. Due to all the damages we have done as humans the species now have to pay. If we are the smartest then why don't we have the capability to stop harming the environment.

I think that humans are abusing their natural powers. We are the smartest species, and yet we are mindlessly popping out kids and killing any species we want, even our own kind. I really don't see any way to stop people from living in such a terrible manner. Humans have been destroying the planet for years, so what method could magically change their minds? 

I also think that some animals were put on this earth for us to kill and eat, but some people take this too far. Hanging up animals in your house to show off is pointless for you and the animal! 

Humans have just taken this way too far, and there really is no way to go backwards. We just need to see where we are now and how to slow down this process, and then maybe someday our population numbers will go down. But that day won't be in our lifetime, and maybe not in our child's lifetime. That is our fault and the doing of past generations.

In other words, hallelujah, we are doomed.

Ummmmmm....

Population has shockingly increased in the past few decades and that is due to the massive birth rates in some of the countries in the world. Some countries have an average of 5-9 kids living in their families and others have probably 2-3 kids in each family. Countries where the majority have 5-9 children really boosts the amount of people that are living in our country and i think that it could be terrible for the world in the future. Alot of resources could be used up with the greater population and the Earth could run out. Of course we could find substitutes to help make up for resources but if we dont than we might not be doing so well. If you think about it than greater population could lead to greater problems.
Really...there is nothing that we can do to brign down population besides telling people to not have so many kids. Researchers have found that alot of families in the United States and countries similar have a much lower birth rate than a third world country like Somolia or other African countries. A way that could decrease or limit the population to how it already is, is by telling people to only have a limited number of children. I dont believe that alot of them will listen, but some of them might just choose to. In a country like China or something, i think that they are limited to only one child because some of the families are trying to succeed in giving birth to a boy, which could, and might just take seven children to do so. I dont know why they feel like they have to have a boy, i think its personally kinda dumb because it uses alot of money and other things to take care of a child. I have heard of a few other ways to take care of human population, but i dont even think that they might work.

It's not too late, or is it?

Prevention is definitely the way to go, we've already lost a lot and we must start looking into preventing further losses. Invasive species need to be severely limited, once they are introduced we can't easily remove them... so our only good chance against them is to prevent them. We need to spend more money on our natural parks and other nature preserving agencies. If we don't, then many of our prized species will be lost forever very soon. We must also greatly reduce our deforestation, we can't afford to lose all of our tropical rain forests, which is most certainly where we are headed. Alternatives must be determined and put into action. I think with proper funding we could preserve a lot of the species and forests that we have, but it just isn't happening. Action must be taken soon or else we will lose countless species.

Who's the coolest guy you all know? Daniel B!

Maintaining biodiversity is a huge feat that doesn't seem possible. My favorite animal, the panda bear, is an endangered animal that is been fostered for a long time. Even though scientist across the world are trying to keep these lovable animals from dying out, it's just too much of an effort to keep them all alive. If you think about how many species around the world there are that are endangered, and what seems to be a dwindling amount of new scientist nowadays, there is no possible way to maintain biodiversity around the world. My opinion is that we need to focus on the species that actually affect the way that WE live. In all honesty I can see many animals in the world that don't NEED to be here, they just stick around making things worse for us and taking up our time when they get endangered. I really wish that I could say that we can maintain all the animals we have on the earth but really think about it, we don't need everything. There are animals like the cow and the chicken that help us out a lot by creating food and drink for us day to day, and then there are animals like, sadly, the panda that have almost no use to us. To maintain biodiversity we will need to first get to a point where we have only species that are useful to us and then preserve what we have. Once we get to that point there shouldn't be too much work for our scientists and we can focus on better things like creating a renewable energy source or even smaller iPods. This is the only way that I think we will be able to keep on living while maintaining biodiversity.

We Need to Act Now

The biodiversity of the planet has been decreasing for a number of years, but recently the decrease has become enormous. We are losing more species now than ever. A contributor to this decrease in biodiversity has been the human population explosion plaguing the planet. The increase population has used natural resources, degraded species' habitats, and led to a rise in extinction rates. The humans have to act quickly in order to solve this problem. If we continue at the rate we are going, species will no longer exists. So how do we fix this problem? Is there really a way for wild life and human to exist harmoniously? Yes and yes. Education is a key component to reversing the current cycle. Informing people on what is happening to the planet will raise eyebrows and increase awareness on the issue. For humans and wild species to coexist, barriers must be set to where humans can travel. There should be better limits on where developments are placed and how much of a specie's habitat can be destroyed and degraded. -Melody B.

brining too many unprovided people into the world

Okay maybe it isn't right for me to pick on developing countries because I know its our fault too, but I think parents in developing countries have a huge part in the growing population. Think about it they have as many children as they want with out even really thinking about their future. Whether they will have an education or substantial heath care, or live in intense poverty. I know there are a lot of women in developing countries that don't want to have many children but they are often forced or feel forced to have them by their husbands. In Bangladesh for example you have too be crazy, right to think that you can provide for many children, am I wrong? Nearly three quarters of all people in developing countries are already below the poverty line. Over 14 million children, under the age of 5, die each year from hunger, thirst, malnutrition, or from easily curable or preventable diseases. Yet, the death of a child or even a few because of this problem does not stop the families from having even more children. If we provide education and contraceptives I am aware this could have a huge affect on decreasing the population. And people in the U.S. if you rich that doesn't mean you should have a bunch of kids, why don't you just adopt the poor orphan kids, and have like just one of your own. I really hope that population decreases all around the world because we will have problems with having enough resources such as food and arable land.

Live and Let Live

I completely agree with Dr. Singh's idea of "live and let live". I don't think there's a whole lot we can do about the explosion in the human population, but I do think there are ways to live together with nature and the natural habitats of native species without completely destroying them. We shouldn't be destroying the entire Earth, simply because we are the most intelligent, most advanced, most adapted species. National parks, protected wilderness areas, and preservation of species through animal rehabilitation programs are fantastic ways to keep natural habitats and those animals that live there alive. I only hope that the rest of the world will establish national parks or preservation areas as the United States has done so well. I believe that there are many areas, especially in the United States, that are completely overpopulated, so many of those areas have lost native species and natural habitats. But what about the rest of the country? Places like L.A. and New York and Chicago are only popular because so many people live there. I think that we could better use the land in vast open areas like Kansas and the mid-West for human development, rather than destroying more habitats around those around already heavily populated cities. Seriously- no one lives in Nebraska or Kansas- why can't we live there???
I honestly don't think there's anything wrong with growth of the human population. Growth will happen; it's totally inevitable. However, the exponential growth we're facing now is completely out of control, and we are destroying one hundred times more than we are conserving or preserving regarding natural habitats and resources alike. I only hope that we can save those endangered and threatened species now that we see the major problems we've created that hinder their natural existence. :(

what's up with that?

The human population has obviously increased out of control over the past century or so. Of course, the reasons are apparent in our everyday lives if we compare it to the customs and lifestyles of a little less than a century ago. Think about it, if you were to get a common cold you would probably run off to the corner market and get an over the counter drug that would cease the symptums of this cold and ultimately cure it ten times faster than if it were to be let play out on its own. Am I wrong? The human population is growing because of the lower death rates which leads to higher birth rates. With the average person running off to the corner market everytime they get some sort of "bug", the rate that the products are being sold and therefore the need of the product grows, the more often the ingrediants are harvested to meet that need. This is a neverending loop that is one of the main reasons that our earth is not able to hold these many people. So, what can be done to try and reverse this pattern? Well, the most practical answer is to go with the ideas of family planning. Since this is offensive in some counrties, education and equal oppertunities for women will help in the decrease of the world wide birth rates. Other than that, I got nothing. So, until next time, toodle-pip!

Our responsibility as humans.

We [humans], probably the most intelligent creatures ever to walk the earth, have a moral responsibility to look after and take care of the other living organisms of our planet. We fail in this due to our own selfishness; we kill endangered species that we may take only a few choice parts and throw the rest away, we pollute the earths air and water, spread our filth and think nothing of it. We mustn't look only to the short term gain, these plants and animals we stupidly kill provide necessary services to our planet. If do not realize the ere of our ways and put aside our stupid pride, we will loose our rare plants and animals and in doing so spell certain doom for our own species.
.....

not so likely...

Ok I'm not trying to say that the world has no hope, but lets just think about this. How hard is it for teacher to get a class of 1st graders to listen to him? Pretty tough right. Well how in the world are we going to get the BILLIONS of people around the globe to listen to just the few environmentalists who are hoping to save this planet?! Its not likely.

The world is customed to certain things. In the U.S. we grow up, get married, and have 2 or 3 kids. In poor countries, they have a lot of babies because the chance of survival is low. That is just our ways of life. If they are being asked to automatically change the way they have been taught for generations they arent going to listen.

People are not going to see the danger in overpopulation until is directly effects them. When they start running out of clean water or food that is when they will start coperating. Until that point I highly doubt that anyone will realize that we our killing our precious planet and our chance for our future blood line to experience the beauty of a healthy life.

The dinosaurs went extinct for this???

byMore and more animals are going extinct because we "feel like it"??? I'm sorry, but what makes humans so important? Because we have thumbs? All we do is pollute, overpopulate, etc. I am very unaware as to why we are still here. soon enough, we very much are going to die, and i wont lie that i think we have it coming. People are being very careless to satisfy themselves. the dinosaurs did not live this way yet they went extinct so that we could evolve and mess everything up? we need to help the earth, that is why we are here. we need to help the animals that can't help themselves, the plants that can't grow themselves, the earth that can use the extra help. We need to help out and causing other species to go extinct isnt exactly taking part. I mean we have the most complex brains yet we are using them to be cruel? Hmm.


we deserve it

we're all gonna die!!!!*gasp*

We can easily just ignore the problem and just say, "Whatever it doesn't matter we won't miss them" but what about future generations especially children. I remember going to the zoo was just amazing for me let alone seeing them in the forest when I went to Camp KEEP. It's just crazy how animals that don't have the brain capacity humans have can keep everything in harmony and animals who go extinct do it for natural causes. Humans have a responsibility for taking care of the earths ecosystem [seriously how boring would it be if it were just humans,dogs, and cats on earth]. Governments should be more strict on environmental issues. We should have to recycle no matter what no more just throwing things away. National parks around the world should have stricter laws and harsher punishments for them. People should stop buying the "gas guzzlers" and just use something more efficient or just get rid of using gasoline all together.Developed countries should make it an issue to help developing countries get resources and help them to become a developed country too. World leaders should meet together it is not an issue that can just be dealt by individual countries. Also they should invest in family planning to hopefully persuade people to have less children.

Do it for the panda's!!!!!!!!!!!!

Human Population Acting Like Rabbits?

Human Population Growth is estimated to reach about 9 billion by the year 2050. Although human population is expected to grow this high there has been significant progress in countries such as America, Japan, and Europe in maintaining the 2 babies per couple replacement rate. In some countries such as Japan population is expected to actually decline by the year 2025. However in most countries such as India and Africa population is projected to continue to increase sharply. This is largely due to a failure to recognize these problems. The sooner we recognize our population growth as a problem the sooner we can fix this problem. The answer for both of these countries lies in family planning programs and equality of both women and men. Until these standards can be achieved female babies will continue to killed causing more births for the want of a male baby to support the old parents.

Monoculture!!

The speed at which we are destroying the biodiversity on this planet is going to leave us alone pretty soon! The unprecedented growth of human population is taking up more and more space making the other species to run away, die, or leave their habitats. We have the highest rate of species extinction at this point. Fragmentation, deforestation, urban explosion and habitat destruction are some of the terms we should be watchful for!

If we are the smartest species on this planet; does it mean that we have some special rights to kill every other living thing? Are we saying that the other species do not have the rights like us, they are dispensable? How can we live on this planet in harmony with the other species? How can we use the same philosophy for the other creatures and say, “Live and let live”.