Transcript Are You Aware… - Newton Middle School

CAUTION
SOME VIEWERS MAY FIND
FACING REALITY
UPSETTING!
It’s the sequel to
“Did You Know?”
Are you aware…
…every time your
heart beats once…
…three new hearts begin to
beat for the first time…
…adding seventy million to the
burgeoning human family of
6,800,000,000…
…each year!...
…nearly all of which are born in
countries least able to support
them...
…creating failed states where
governments are no longer in
control.
How many failed states will it
take to reach a tipping point
for a civilization?
Are you aware…
…failing states are an early
symptom of a failing
civilization…
…and in failed civilizations of
the past, such as Sumer, the
Mayans, the Romans, the
Anasazi, and the Egyptians …
…the first to go
were the trees…
…followed by the soil…
…then finally by the
civilization’s collapse.
Are you aware…
…it took all of human history up
to 1800 to add the first billion
people to the planet…
…and only 130 years to add the
second billion by 1930…
…and the third billion was
added in just 30 years by
1960…
…amounting to less than half
the number of people alive
today when John Kennedy
was inaugurated…
…and it took 14 years to add
the 4th billion, 13 years to add
the 5th, and only12 years to
th
add the 6 .
Are you aware…
…that nearly half of the human
population…
…subsists on less than $2…
…per day…
…and that human civilization
has overshot the carrying
capacity of the planet by…
…at least two billion...
…and yet we are loathe to
discuss this root cause of all
our problems.
…“Any cause is a “lost cause”
without population growth
control.”
-ZPG, 1960s slogan
Are you aware…
…that a majority of the world’s
people are 27 years old or
younger…the so-called “youth
bulge”…
…whose young men, with not
enough to do, constitute a
volatile population…
…responsible for more than
three-quarters of all
…violent crimes...
…including rebellion and
civil unrest…
…and caring very little about
developments in new
technology…
…or education.
Are you aware…
…there are too many of us…
…using too much of
too many resources…
…too fast!..
…yet, if everybody consumed
natural resources like we
North Americans do, at least
two more Planet Earths would
be needed to maintain our
lifestyles.
Are you aware…
…the human population is the
cause of most of the global
devastation of the twentieth
century, including…
…deforestation of temperate
and tropical forests…
…to the tune of one football
field-sized area of forest…
…every second!...
…and the acceleration of soil
erosion, where one-third of all
cropland is losing topsoil
faster than new soil is
forming…
…drastically lowering the
productivity of the planet’s
arable land.
…and global climate change!
Are you aware…
…deforestation has resulted in
the loss of all original forests
in 70 countries, and 95% of
original old-growth forests are
already gone in the
United States.
Are you aware…
…water tables have been falling
due to over pumping…
…on every continent…
…and that rivers like the
Colorado and the Yellow are
drained dry or reduced to a
trickle…
…before they reach the sea.
Are you aware…
…some of the world’s best
known lakes such as Lake
Chad, the Aral Sea, and the
Sea of Galilee…
…are disappearing…
…because of excessive
diversion from their feed
waters to meet human needs.
Are you aware…
…the world needs 85 million
barrels of oil…
…daily…
…of which the U.S. requires
21 million barrels…
…(1/4 of the world’s supply)…
…burning most of that fossil
fuel legacy in transportation…
…even though it’s irreplaceable
as a chemical feedstock.
Are you aware…
…that a country that
runs on oil…
…can’t afford to…
…and that soaring world
demand, high prices,
and the inaccessibility of
marginal new supply…
…are indications that world
oil production has already
peaked…
…or soon will...
…creating a new world where
oil extraction is no longer
expanding…
…where one country can get
more oil only if…
…another gets less.
Are you aware…
…that only two countries have
developed plans to deal with a
diminishing supply of oil…
…Sweden and Iceland.
Are you aware…
…if the ignored hidden costs of oil
production, including tax
subsidies, burgeoning military
costs, and health costs due to
pollution-induced respiratory
stresses,…
…were added to the current
pump price of $3 per gallon
gasoline…
…motorists would be paying
$15 per gallon at the pump...
…making gasoline an
exorbitantly expensive
transportation fuel for all but
the rich.
Are you aware…
…that if the global market
continues its historical policy
of ignoring the hidden costs of
goods and services,…
…i.e., “cooking the books,”…
…our fate will be similar to…
…Enron’s...
…but on a far larger scale.
Was Adam Smith’s “invisible
hand of the market place”
blind to externalities as well?
Are you aware…
…our global economy (and the
survival of civilization) is
dependent on earth’s
biogeochemical cycles…
…and
a climate system friendly
to agriculture…
…not the other way around…
…and that global human
demands are currently met by
over-consuming our
ecosystems’ natural capital…
…a known precursor to the
decline and ultimate collapse
of other “high-tech”
civilizations.
Are you aware…
…the Millennium Ecosystem
Assessment, a four-year study
conducted by 1,360 scientists
from 71 countries,…
…reported that “15 of 24
primary ecosystem services
are being degraded or pushed
beyond their limits,”…
…including oceanic fisheries,
the Amazonian rain forest (the
“lungs” of the planet), the coral
reefs, wetlands, grasslands,
carbon sequestration, and soil
fertility.
In fact, are you aware…
…every living system in the
biosphere is in decline, and
the decline is accelerating...
…leaving not a single system
that is stable or improving.
Further, there is not a single
peer-reviewed article in the
scientific literature of the past
20 years that contradicts that
statement.
Are you aware…
…our civilization has reached
the pinnacle of its success…
…riding on the back of a oncein-a-planetary-lifetime
endowment of
the fossil fuels…
…during a relatively short
period of optimum, yet
historically unprecedented,
weather…
…affording world
agriculture the greatest
growing conditions…
…ever!
Are you aware…
…that modern agriculture
uses land…
…to convert …
…petroleum into food…
…and despite the
“Green Revolution” of the 1950s
and new advances since
then…
…a confluence of new trends:
increasing conversion of crop
land to non-farm uses,
extreme weather events, and
depleted aquifers,
have caused world grain
production to fall below
consumption levels…
…in seven of the
last eight years…
…resulting in the lowest
stockpile of world grain…
…in 34 years.
Are you aware…
…exacerbating the shortage,
the U.S. plans to double the
conversion of its grain harvest
going to ethanol fuel…
…to reduce its own domestic
energy insecurity…
…thus pushing the world price
of grain to its oil equivalent
value…
…while driving world grain
prices to unprecedented highs
and causing…
…unprecedented
global food insecurity.
Will a hungry population care
much about technological
advances or education?
Are you aware…
…99.9999% (not a typo) of all
species that ever existed are
extinct…
…and the world is currently
experiencing a sixth wave of
mass extinction involving the
loss of 150 species of plants
and animals…
…each day…
…a massive loss of biodiversity
witnessed and caused by one
species…
…Homo sapiens.
Are you aware…
…more than 3,000
Intergovernmental Panel of
Climate Change scientists have
published more than 1,800 major
papers in peer-reviewed journals
in the past decade…
…providing the “consensus” for
climate change…
…while the skeptics have
published not a single document
in the peer-reviewed literature,
choosing to publish instead in
ultra-conservative think-tank
magazines...
…because there is no
substantive scientific evidence
supporting their side.
Are you aware…
…“We have maybe ten years to
curb global emissions of
greenhouse gases to avoid a
tipping point when warming
will be out of our control.”
- James Hansen, NASA Climatologist
ENTER
CHINA
INTO THE MIX
…Are you aware…
…of the key commodities grain,
meat, coal, oil, and steel,
China consumes more of each
than the U.S. – except for oil …
…using 30% more grain, twice
as much meat, and three
times as much steel;…
…that, if we “fast-forward” to
2030, when China’s per capita
income is projected to be at
the U.S.’s current level…
…its 2030 population of 1.46
billion will need twice as much
paper as is produced
worldwide today…
…depleting the world’s forests…
…and China will need 1.1 billion
cars (compare to the world’s
current car population of 865
million)…
…requiring the paving of an
area comparable to what it
now plants in rice…
…and China will need 98 million
barrels of oil per day,
compared to a probable
ultimate maximum world
extraction rate of
…85 million barrels per day…
…and India is rapidly closing in
on China!
Are you aware…
…glaciers that feed the Yellow
and Yangtze rivers are melting
at 7% per year…
…glaciers that provide fresh
water that irrigates the rice
and wheat fields of China…
…2/3 of which are expected to
disappear by 2060, at current
melting rates.
Who will feed China?
Are you aware…
…the challenge is to build a
new global economy at warp
speed before tipping points
are breached…
…and the fabric of our
civilization begins to unravel.
Are you aware…
…we have the technology to
build a sustainable future but
do we have the collective will?
“We are crossing natural thresholds we
cannot see and violating deadlines
that we do not recognize. Nature is
the time keeper, but we cannot see
the clock.”
– Lester Brown, Earth Policy Institute, 2008
Were you aware?
During the time it took you to
view this,
4,620 babies have been born…
…1,325 football-fields of rain
forest have been destroyed…
… and 294,000 tons of carbon
dioxide have been injected
into earth’s atmosphere by the
U.S.
Dr. Charles Bottinelli
April, 2008