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Show Leanne eee aD "REPLENISH'’ ‘TIL IT KILLS US? To ‘Replenish the Earth’ means to fill the bucket, NOT to overfill it. As the world population passes 6 BILLION, Utah continues to breed like there will be no tomorrow... By Alexandra L. Woodruff Planes falling out the sky, power outages, food shortages, water rationing, riots. These are just some of the images that flash through our brains when we think of the clock ticking into the new millennium. Over a year ago, the media and computer experts began making their ominous predictions of what to expect when we tread into the year 2000. Thanks to a media frenzy, the entire nation knows exactly what the dangers of this computer bug will be. Everything from our cars, to our power, to our communications systems are in peril of crashing or malfunctioning. Thanks to ubiquitous coverage we all know about Y2K. of the world's energy. We are also responsible for 22 percent of the world's of industrial carbon dioxide emissions, a leading cause of global warming. With our growing economy and the apparent overabundance of resources, we have become detached from the ways we affect the rest of the earth. “We've purchased the luxury of externalizing the impacts of our actions,” said population and environmental activist, Ivan Weber. The United States is the third most populous country in the world following China and Y6B is an issue that affects every society in the world, with or without computers. Half of the earth's population was born after 1960. It took less than 40 years for our population to skyrocket from 3 billion to 6 billion... We live on a finite earth with finite resources and the USA is probably the worst nation to come to terms with that fact. Maternity Ward, LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City. But another day came and went without too much notice: October 12, 1999 was dubbed Y6B, the day the earth's population reached six billion. The United Nations designated this day to bring awareness to population issues. The media showed up for a few press conferences, the local TV news provided its in-depth two minute analysis on the population boom and that was it. No follow-ups, no special reports examining the many layers or effects of human proliferation that will affect everything from our water supply to food production to natural ecosystem sustainability. Y2K is an instantaneous event that will bring on a few power outages, computer crashes and maybe some bank statement inaccuracies. Once the bugs are fixed, we will move on with our lives. (Author's note: If you are reading this after January first and all the predictions of power outages, famine, riots and Armageddon are underway, I can’t believe you don't have anything better to do than read this article.) On the other hand, Y6B is an issue that affects every society in the world, with or without computers. Half of the earth's population, was born after 1960. It took less than 40 years for our population to skyrocket from 3 billion to 6 billion, and as our population grows, more space is taken up for housing and by the encroachment of lands previously used for food production. We live on a finite earth with finite resources and the USA is probably the worst nation to come to terms with that fact. Americans make up five percent of the world's population, yet we consume 25 percent India. Two and a half million people are added yearly to our current population of 265 million, making us one of the fastest-growing industrialized nations. Humans, here and in the rest of the world, are multiplying at rates unknown to this planet. To the best our knowledge, we have never had 6 billion people living at any one time. As we multiply, we take up more land and destroy natural ecosystems. overpopulation: food shortages, famine and/or disease? And even before we slam into one of those catastrophes, why don't we think consciously of ways to preserve our lifestyles of open space? According to Weber, “If your view of life is simply to cultivate people as though they were pigs or turkeys on a farm, then yes...I suppose, strictly speaking, the carrying capacity of the earth could be much greater than many of us see it to be. I see it as being a world that is populated by the complete variety of species that belong here that have as much fr Chris The Transformation of Dan Rosen... 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Plant and animal lives have always faded out of existence, but in the past, new organisms have replaced the old ones and this natural replacement is no longer happening. Part of our people proliferation comes from our technology that allows for a higher child birth survival rate and longer life expectancies. We use technology to improve the individual aspects of our quality of life, so, why can't we use that same technology and information to improve our communities through planning and voluntarily limiting our population? So we don't hit one of the walls of ..the enduring gift. Custom . WE DO: fabrication dry boxes Boat prop repair Raft frames |