15 things I bet you did not know about the Earth

Posted on 22. Oct, 2009 by AndrewSmiles in Education

1: Las Vegas was built out of the desert; millions live there with thousands more arriving every month. The inhabitants are of the biggest consumers of water in the world. The Colorado River which brings water to this city no longer reaches the sea and is therefore drying up. How long can this mirage continue to prosper?

2: Water shortages could affect nearly 2 billion people before 2025.

3: In the last 40 years the Amazon has been reduced by 20% by deforestation. With the land used mostly for Soya bean farms or palm oil industries.

4: Almost a third of the world’s population still depend on charcoal.

5: Since 1950 the world’s population has almost tripled.

6: Nigeria is the biggest Oil exporter in Africa and yet 70% of the population lives under the poverty line. The wealth is there but the countries inhabitants don’t have access to it. The same is true all over the globe as half the poor live in resource rich countries.

7: In 50 years the gap between rich and poor has grown wider than ever. Today half the world’s wealth is the richest 2% of the population. Can such disparities be maintained?

8: The city of Lagos had a population mass of 700,000 in 1960 that will rise to 16 million by 2025. Lagos is one of the fastest growing megalopolis in the world. New arrivals are mostly farmers forced of their land for economic or demographic reasons or diminishing resources. This is a new type of economic growth driven by the urge to survive rather than prosper.

9: The icecap around the North Pole has lost 30% of its surface area in 30 years.

10: Greenland’s ice contains 20% of the fresh water for the whole planet. If it melts sea levels will rise by almost 7 metres. There are no industries on Greenland so why is it melting? It suffers from green house gasses emitted from all over the earth from London to Hong Kong. Our Eco system does not have borders, where ever we are our actions have repercussions on the whole earth. 70% of the world’s population lives on costal planes. 11 of the 15 biggest cities stand on a coast line, river or estuary.

11: 20% of the world’s population consumes 80% of its resources

12: The world spends 12 times more on military expenditure than on aid in developing countries.

13: 5000 people a day die because of dirty drinking water. 1 billion people have no access to safe drinking water.

14: 1 mammal in 4, 1 bird in 8, 1 amphibian in 3 is threatened with extinction.

15: There may be about 200 million climate refuges by 2050.

NGO’s (Non Government Organisations) prove that solidarity is stronger than the selfishness of nations. Together we can do our part to knock down walls of selfishness and injustice in our world. We need to create this harmony between humans and nature as there is a great imbalance.

All living matter is linked, water, air trees, and us. Let’s do our best to look after our planet… after all its looking after us.

Source: http://www.zshare.net/video/610012546e1c9c2b/

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