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 Environment 

Rocinha - Rio de Janeiro                   

Porto de Galinhas - Brazil                   

Environment is a dramatic, yet well known, issue.
Millions of words are being spent each day on this topic.
Except, very little, if anything, is being actually done, words apart.

To give a perspective of the issue, suffice it to say this:
animals don't have a thinking mind, but if they did and if their behaviour were similar to ours,
then NOW we could not even "talk" about it. The issue would not EXIST anymore, full stop.

The problem is that we can't even start worrying of the enviroment, before we do recognize
and think about such issues as :

CONSUMERISM, emulation, MEDIA's brainwashing, violence, MAN's values, competition, and
a very successfully "self-destructing" society.
(see also the New Commandments,   in  CONSUMERISM )

(An example: 200 Billion cans, bottles, plastic cartons and paper cups, are thrown away each
  year in  the "developed" world)

 Here is just a small list of specific destructive processes we are ever increasingly producing   ( 1):

threats to humans:
-  health: 
        - weaker genome - resistance to antibiotics - resistance to chlorine in drinking water
        - sick city syndrome - lack of sleep - stress - noise pollution - sperm count
        - spread of contagious diseases - new diseases - poisons from mining, transport and industry:
-   food & water:  humans are already consuming some 40% of the terrestrial supply of all animals,
        - poisonous rainwater - poisonous aquifers and groundwater salinated water -river salination
        - water cost - safe water - food cost - food quality - poisonous food - infected food
        - world food demand - paving the best soils
-   climate/ atmosphere:  more severe weather, more storms, heavier rainfall, more cloud
        - air pollution - ultraviolet radiation - monster rains - storms - droughts
-   shelter, cities, buildings, monuments, infrastructure, art:
        - cost of real-estate - expanding cities - shantytowns - decaying neighbourhoods
        - acid rain damage to monuments - acid drinking water damaging pipes and valves
        - libraries - ozone
-   recreation:
        - clean water disappearing  -  beaches disappearing -  beach closures
-   hindrance: as more and more people vie for a smaller piece of the cake, they will hinder oneanother
        - less parking space - traffic jams - less free time
-   social cohesion: Water is more important than any other resource on Earth, and more so 
        - globalisation - social inequality - unemployment - generation gap - dishonesty
        - litigation - water wars - poverty wars - urban wars - proliferation of weapons
        - terrorism - ecological collapse - drug abuse - political power shifts - illegal immigrants
-   wealth:  cleaning the environment becomes increasingly costly, as is space, water and food 
        - higher cost of living - more spending on war - running out of financial resources
        - insurance becomes insolvent

sea, marine threats
20% of the known species are marine, but they comprise 80% of the phyla.The basic nature of water, that
 of dissolving many chemicals, makes water pollution a threat to marine organisms
-   politics/beliefs:
         - Traditional Eastern Medicine - Western health beliefs
-   atmospheric: 
         - global climate change: the conversion of (cool by day) forests into (warm by day) agricultural  land   and                                urbanisation, warms (by day) the atmosphere and causes droughts
           rising sea level: due to the expansion of the water column and the melting of polar
                   sinking atolls -  loss of beaches, mangroves and saltmarshes
           warming seas:  seas have an enormous inertia to warming, and heat moves downward
                   coral reef bleaching -  melting tundras
           nutrient rain:  see nutrient discharge 
       - ozone depletion:  an increase of the level of ultraviolet radiation could affect the plankton
-   (over) exploitation:  The seas have suffered major damage from overfishing, resulting in the collapse of
     - whaling/sealing:  although whaling is by no means as intensive as it once was...
         - fishing:  At least 80% of commercially important marine species live within 300km off the coast
                  pelagic finfish -bottom finfish - coral reef fish - shellfish - other: Most turtles under threat
         - by-catch/ incidental catch -  ghost-fishing  - shrimping  - aquarium trade
         - marine farming/ mariculture - destructive fishing - mining  -  competition for food
-   soil erosion:  the mud from soil erosion is one of the largest threats to the marine environment, in places 
         - sediment:  sediment smothers water-breathing and filter-feeding organisms                                        
                   loss of coral reefs - coastal habitats - eroding beaches -  nutrients
-   habitat loss:
         - reclamation - coastal development -  marine farming - estuary - tourism
         - seabed/ trawling - propeller scouring - disruption of family- and social structure
-   species diversity:  little is known about biodiversity in the seas.
         - loss of endemic species:  little is known  -  introduced exotic species
-   chemical pollution: 10,000 of 65,000 synthetic chemicals are used regularly. Many accumulate in tissues 
    of plants and animals. Some can cause cancer or disrupt endocrine systems. Stunted growth,
        - energy:
                   oil: from ships, transport, pipelines, tanks - smoke:  CO2, contaminants, nutrients
        - transport:  cars leave rubber, oil and lead behind on roads and their margins. Rains wash
        - industry:  PCB, DDT
                        waste water  - smoke
        - agriculture:  USA 135,000 tonnes pesticides applied annually, which reaches waterways.
        - incineration:  under high temperatures, dioxin forms from plastics like PVC (v.potent poison)
-   nutrient discharge:  vastly more nutrients reach the sea today than a century ago, from agricultural 
        - harmful algal blooms (HAB):  loss of light, suffocation, toxicity.  increasing 
                 nuisance plankton blooms - poisonous plankton blooms, Harmful Algal Blooms
        - eutrophication  (dead zones ) -  suffocating blooms  - shading blooms
-   pathogen discharge:
        - sewage
-   debris pollution:  plastics, fish nets, garbage dumping from ships,
-   nuclear wastes:
-   noise pollution:  ships produce high levels of noise- It can affect the navigation systems of whales, and
-   transport:  transport of goods and people is intensifying
         - ship strikes  - ballast water   - diseases
-   long-term unspecific decline:  the causes are not known, but species are seen in continuous decline.
         - mammals - sea birds - coral reefs - plankton -  Black Sea (decline)
-   diseases:  are spreading and increasing in number. Sudden mass mortalities.

www.seafriends.org.nz/issues/threats.htm                                                 (1)

 www.gn.apc.org/newspage.shtml?cmd%5B288%5D=i-288-23962&x=23962   (green net: US are destructing but...)

http://www.uwsp.edu/geo/courses/geog100/SolidWaste-Consume.htm (consumerism & environment)

http://www.verdant.net/society.htm#economicosts  (consumerism- society & environment)

http://www.citizensint.org/article/consumer.htm  (consumer society- environment - Islam)

http://www.culturechange.org/industrial_mind.html  (destroys minds & environment: we are in the last 20 years)

http://forests.org/archive/general/fordisea.htm  (environment destruction creates diseases)