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1)Is winning important in sports? <32)Express your views on Iraq war <3
3)Environmental suffering <3
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April 2008
Reference
For QUESTIONS 1 & 2 refer to MARCH 2008 archive For QUESITONS 3 refer to APRIL 2008 archive
Destress
Environmental Degradation
One of the ill effects of modernisation is environmental degradation. This issue has always been present but in recent years has become a serious issue faced not by one nation but the nations of the world.
Such a serious problem exists mainly because many countries in the world have made economic development and progress one of their top priorities. Resources are needed to fuel the economies of these nations and also to support its development. Hence resources are being used at a non sustainable rate which results in the destruction of the environment.
One of the problems faced by environmentalists and ecologists is the destruction of the world’s forests. Forests cover about 30 per cent of the world’s total land area. During the 1990s, the world lost about 14.6 million hectares of forest. 94 million hectares of forest was lost over a ten-year period. It represented about 2 per cent of the world’s total forest cover, or an area larger than Venezuela.
Most deforestation occurred in natural tropical forests, which lost 14.2 million hectares a year over the last decade as these forest contained many hardwood trees which are valued by many industries worldwide.
Dr. Edward O. Wilson of Harvard University estimates that if 1% of the world's tropical rain forests are destroyed each year—a conservative estimate based on current rates of deforestation—then over 100 years there would be a loss of at least 20% of all species, assuming extinction rates remain constant. Based on a total of 10 million species, the current annual loss has been calculated to be 20,000 to 30,000 species.
Humans not only threaten the existences of other species we put ourselves at risk as well. With the current rate at which oil is being extracted, the world’s oil reserves will be depleted in 40-50years.
As such the human race is self destructing, just as we required the resources the earth provides to sustain ourselves we also have a responsibility to protect the earth to ensure that the resources is provides can last us for a long time.
Bryan 27/08
i screamed at
11:59 PM with
0 piles of homework left