Your Questions About Green Living

The Expert answers:

The Earth isn’t facing any issues at all. It’s just doing what it’s always been doing.

It the humans that are having issues. They think the Earth should stay the same, but it doesn’t.

Probably the number one gripe of the humans is “global warming”.

The Expert answers:

Question: How does meat consumption contribute to rainforest depletion?

Answer: The United States imports roughly 200 million pounds of beef from Central America every year. Aside from the fuel used in transport, grazing land is needed for all of these animals. Where does all that land come from in a densely forested region? The answer: from clear-cutting forests and rainforest A Smithsonian study estimates that the necessity for more grazing land means that every minute of every day, a land area equivalent to seven football fields is destroyed in the Amazon basin(1).
For each hamburger that originated from animals raised on rainforest land, approximately 55 square feet of forest have been destroyed. And its not just the rainforest. In the United States, more than 260 million acres of forest have been clear-cut for animal agriculture (2). With increased per capita meat consumption, and an ever growing population, we can only expect to see more deforestation in the future.

——————————————————————————

see links below for more topics…………

The Expert answers:

They aren’t the best thing for the environment (but neither are animals themselves; they breath out CO2)

Fact of the matter is there are a million others things that cause more pollution than planes.

The Expert answers:

Size can hit home – the magnitude of losing something wonderous (only one species of bananna is all anyone in the US will ever eat, because of farming practices – this is true, look it up) or the growth of something hideous (eating songbirds is so popular in Europe that soon the skies will be silent – also true)
So, big numbers can be very impressive if used wisely. One pointer I ‘d suggest when working with abstract statistical numbers is to make it concrete for your audience by using metaphors and such. For example – if the subject is about species loss you can draw a comparison: “it’s like taking ten-thousand fish out of the ocean on the hour, every hour, for two years.” That’s always helpful.

The Expert answers:

Environmental issues are negative aspects of human activity on the biophysical environment. Environmentalism, a social and environmental movement that started in the 1960s, addresses environmental issues through advocacy, education and activism.

A recent major report was the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, with input from 1200 scientists and released in 2005, which showed the high level of impact that humans are having on ecosystem services.

Main findings

1. Over the past 50 years, humans have changed ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than in any comparable period of time in human history, largely to meet rapidly growing demands for food, fresh water, timber, fiber and fuel. This has resulted in a substantial and largely irreversible loss in the diversity of life on Earth.

2. The changes that have been made to ecosystems have contributed to substantial net gains in human well-being and economic development, but these gains have been achieved at growing costs in the form of:

the degradation of many ecosystem services
increased risks of nonlinear changes,
the exacerbation of poverty for some groups of people.

These problems, unless addressed, will substantially diminish the benefits that future generations obtain from ecosystems.

3. The degradation of ecosystem services could grow significantly worse during the first half of this century and is a barrier to reducing global poverty and achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

4. The challenge of reversing the degradation of ecosystem while meeting increasing demands for ecological services can be partially met under some scenarios considered by the MA, but will involve significant changes in policies, institutions and practices that are not currently under way.

Many options exist to conserve or enhance specific ecosystem services in ways that reduce negative trade-offs or that provide positive synergies with other ecosystem services. The bottom line of the MA findings is that human actions are depleting Earth’s natural capital, putting such strain on the environment that the ability of the planet’s ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted. At the same time, the assessment shows that with appropriate actions it is possible to reverse the degradation of many ecosystem services over the next 50 years, but the changes in policy and practice required are substantial and not currently underway.

The largest international agency, set up in 1972, is the United Nations Environment Programme. The International Union for Conservation of Nature brings together 83 states, 108 government agencies, 766 Non-governmental organizations and 81 international organizations and about 10,000 experts and scientists from countries around the world.. International non-governmental organizations include Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and World Wide Fund for Nature. Governments enact environmental policy and enforce environmental law and this is done to differing degrees around the world.