Women and children first!

kinetic

The World Wildlife Fund have just released alarming statistics. It says that since 1970 a third of the natural world has been destroyed by mankind. The Earths forests have shrunk by 12%, fish stocks in the North Atlantic have fallen from 264000 tonnes to 60000 tonnes and a third of all ocean life has died. They also say that 55% of fresh water ecosystems in rivers and lakes have disappeared and the worlds Tiger population is down 95%. Americans are taking the brunt of the criticism for refusing to support the Kyoto agreement on climate change and pollution and according to the WWF the average American uses more than 25 times the amount of food and fuel than the average African. Having been to Florida I think that is a conservative estimate . They conclude that, unless we consume less, extinction is inevitable. The eventual colonisation of distant planets may seem far fetched at this moment in time but at this rate we had better start building the spaceships now!

Zardon

yes mankind has a tendency to destroy everything

DallasStar

I hate people. People suck.

digitalwanderer

I'll second that one, I take no pride in calling myself a human being.

UberLord

We are what we are.
We have created some true wonders - but also some true monsters.

We have to learn through our mistakes
But history teaches us that we never learn from history - and that's our greatest mistake

Ryoko

always take pride in calling yourself a human being. it means you have the ability to change the world for the better.

Ijustwannaknow

who cares

Zardon

I care. If you dont, not much point in doing anything.

if you put a little bit of effort into everything you do, it shows.

[/]boring old fart lecture.

Crash Override

I think humans on the whole are an evil creature with the ability to be noble...

When I watched The Matrix I realized in some ways I relate more to the agents than the "heroes"

Mankind is a plague of the planet........every other creature finds a natural balance and thrives.....we consume...destroy...and spread.

Makes ya wonder are we really mammals or a virus like Smith said?

JavaFox

In the 1970s, there was a widely popular book called "The Limits to Growth" published. My father still has a copy of this book, along with a critique of it written shortly thereafter.

Among the predictions made in this book were:
-Population of 7,000,000,000 by 2000,
-Farm land shortage by 2000
-Unbearably expensive resources such as metals and oil by 2000
-Collapse of industrial civilization by the end of the 21st century

They also argued that, even if we had ample resources to continue growth, pollution would eventually destroy the world.

The book was, of course, off the mark, as 2000 brought the world population to 6,000,000,000, a small increase in farm land usage, and relatively cheap resources.

The point of all this is: read everything with a little bit of skepticism. Humans do bad things to the environment. I know that everytime you see a tree surrounded by a jungle of concrete, you can't help but feel a little sad. But maybe environmentalists are over-exaggerating, and maybe we're not as doomed as they say?

They were wrong in the 70s, that's for sure.