Blog Action Day 2007: The Environment

October 14, 2007 · By Shane

Small blue planet

In 1944, 29 reindeer were moved to St. Matthew Island. The reindeer thrived on their rich natural resources. The island had no natural predators to keep the reindeer population in check, so the population swelled to 6,000 animals during the next 19 years. Suddenly the natural resources were depleted and the population crashed until only 42 animals remained alive.
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef will lose most of its coral cover by 2050 and, at worst, the world’s largest coral system could collapse by 2100 because of global warming.
Rainforests once covered 14% of the earth’s land surface; now they cover a mere 6% and experts estimate that the last remaining rainforests could be consumed in less than 40 years. One and one-half acres of rainforest are lost every second with tragic consequences for both developing and industrial countries. The Amazon Rainforest has been described as the “Lungs of our Planet” because it provides the essential environmental world service of continuously recycling carbon dioxide into oxygen. More than 20 percent of the world oxygen is produced in the Amazon Rainforest.
This year’s dead zone off Oregon ran for 17 weeks, compared to the previous high of six weeks in 2004, and saw oxygen readings near zero that left the ocean bottom littered with dead crabs, sea stars and sea anemones. This is the fifth straight year the dead zone returned. It covered 70 miles of the central Oregon Coast and there are indications a dead zone also formed off southern Washington.

We live on a small blue planet. It’s an island. A reef. A forest and a beach. And it’s the only … the only one we have.

We are many. Some days, too many. And even though it sometimes seems the world is not enough, we have to remember …

That’s not our choice. It has to be.

Take care of it.

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5 Responses

ed

October 14th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
1

Check out this US Carbon Footprint Map, an interactive United States Carbon Footprint Map, illustrating Greenest States to Cities. This site has all sorts of stats on individual State & City energy consumptions, demographics and much more down to your local US City level…
How Can We Help Save The Earth? : Freelance Folder

October 15th, 2007 at 4:03 am
2

[…] There’s been a lot of talk about this in the “blogosphere” lately, and for good reasons. We’re all in this together, we all live on the same Earth. And it’s the only one we have… […]
Dave Lucas

October 15th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
3

My 2 cents:
http://dave-lucas.blogspot.com/2007/10/blog-action-day-2007-salute-to-al-gore.html
Shane

October 15th, 2007 at 7:41 pm
4

Hi Ed,

Very interesting map. Really shows where progress needs to be made … sort of a “naughty and nice” list. Especially when you look at it in order of per capita.

Hey Dave,

Al Gore has done a lot to promote the cause of global warming. Changes need to be made, and the people ignoring the warnings do so in pursuit of a dollar today at the expense of everything tomorrow. That’s a hardline business strategy and it works. But it only goes so far and there is no merger, buyout, market expansion, IPO, or Chapter 11 that’s going to get us out of it when we’re talking about the planet.
kermit johnson

October 26th, 2007 at 5:38 pm
5

Thank you for participating in Blog Action Day. Thank you for mentioning the rain forests.

Perhaps you would find this post interesting:

BRAZILIAN TEAK FLOORS IN LUXURY HOMES, SLAVE LABOR, AND DESTRUCTION OF THE RAIN FOREST.

You can find it at:
http://www.realestatetwincities.net/blog/

Please share this with your readers. Usually I do not ask for this kind of help, but the topic is that important to me. Anything you can do to promote this link or awareness of this issue would be deeply appreciated.

Thank you.

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Blog Action Day 2007: The Environment

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