Considering how short of a time frame humans have been on this planet, we have left the largest, and perhaps, ugliest ecological footprint. By the work of humans, about 97% of the earth's biological land has been seriously tampered with, especially rain forests. Rain forests in the Amazon have been burned town for charcoal, land has been over used, and hunting has increased. However, according to Professor Bill Laurence from James Cook University, even though the global human footprint expanded by 9% from 1993-2009, it did not increase as fast as the human population, which increased by a quarter. Developed countries seem to be improving in slowing down their expanding footprint while poor countries cannot due to a week government. The developed countries though, have a higher per capita footprint due to the substantially larger amount of consumption. In general terms, the professor's blanket statement suggested that developing countries need to slow population growth as well as wealthy nations consuming less.
This may seem like a fairly simple task but will possibly take generations. The developing countries need health education as well as medical attention in order to slow down the birth rate. Without knowledge, these countries will continue to expand their families. Concerning the issue in wealthier nations, that is a large obstacle to overcome. It will sacrifice and lifestyle changes over a slow progression of time.
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CO2 emissions in the earth's environment have continued to increase, leaving the question of how plants would react to this photosynthetic change. Professor Gail Taylor at the University of Southampton described the rising of atmospheric CO2 and believed that to the knowledge of his colleagues, the short term effects would be positive. However, long- term impacts were unknown because the accessibility of plants exposed to large quantities of CO2 was not obtainable, until recently. Plants were taken from a spring in Bossoleto, Italy, where there have been naturally high levels of CO2 for hundreds of years and research on these plants was conducted. Results of this test were compared to a similar plant species, and the plants grown in Italy were larger and had a higher rate of photosynthesis. The scientists predict that in the future, the gene expression date won't switch off but instead continue to increase respiration. Additionally, an increased amount of stomata were found on the under side of leaves, higher than the amount of the compared plant. Although scientists to not have a definite answer to how the plants will change over generations, there is proof that plants have been able to adapt to environmental factors such as CO2 and perhaps other climate changes. This discovery is important because as our climate and environment changes, our food web relies on crops as a source of food. This adaptation provides hope that plants will be able to adapt to our ever changing planet. Logging has been, and continues to be a significant industry across the nation. Although it is a main focus to regenerate trees, after a many year long process, the quality of soil density snd water infiltration within forests has been neglected. Soil water infiltration is the ability of water to be absorbed through soil and be dispersed through different soil layers, a crucial factor in forests, especially those undergoing logging. However, after research was done at the University of Missouri, researchers have discovered that along the logging roads and landing areas, soil is dense and compacted, preventing rain water from being soaked in, causing water run off, leading to erosion. This runoff can capture fertile soil, removing it from forests and carrying it to streams. Negative effects of this include the inhibition of forest regeneration and pollution of surface water sources.
The largest problem with dense forest soil is that companies rely on the regrowth of forests to maintain their business, but with inadequate soil and poor water infiltration, regeneration is no longer possible. It is important that soil quality is checked routinely because not only does it effect the forest life, but created pollution in nearby water sources due to runoff. If the problem is made a ware of, industries across the nation will be more aware of the consequences at hand if soil qualities are neglected. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160817132059.htm |
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April 2017
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