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POPULATION GROWTH INCREASING RESOURCE USE

DESTRUCTION AND DEGRADATION OF WILDLIFE HABITATS

PREMATURE EXTINCTION OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS

POVERTY
POLLUTION

PULATION GROWTH SOME FACTS

-Has more than doubled in

49 years from 2.5 billion in 1950 to 6.1 billion in 2000.

-Unless death rates rise sharply, it may reach 8 billion by 2028. -9 billion by 2054.
-10-15 billion by 2100
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INCREASING RESOURCE USE SOME FACTS

-Forests are shrinking

DESTRUCTION AND DEGRADATION OF WILDLIFE HABITATS SOME FACTS

Biologists agree that the greatest threat to wild species is habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation. According to biodiversity researchers, tropical deforestation is the greatest eliminator of species, followed by:
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1) Destruction of coral reefs and wetlands. 2) Plowing of grasslands and 3) Pollution of freshwater and marine habitats. Most national parks and other protected areas are habitat islands, many of them surrounded by potentially damaging logging, mining, energy extraction, and industrial activities.

Fresh water lakes are also habitat islands that are especially vulnerable when nonnative species are introduced. Habitat fragmentation occurs when a large, continuous area of habitat is reduced in an area and divided into a patchwork of isolated areas or fragments.

PREMATURE EXTINCTION OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS SOME FACTS

After habitat loss and degradation, deliberate or accidental introduction of nonnative species into ecosystems is the biggest cause of animal and plant extinctions.
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The United States is home for about 50,000 nonnative species, and the number is increasing. According to a 2000 study by David Pimentel, damages and pest control costs for unwanted species amount to at least $16 million per hour.

POVERTY SOME FACTS

According to the United Nations, about 1.2 billion people one person in five- are hungry or malnourished and lack access to clean water, decent housing, and adequate health care.
One of every three people lacks enough fuel to keep warm and
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to cook food and does not have access to electricity. -About two-thirds of humanity lacks sanitary toilets and one of every four adults (1.3 billion people) is illiterate.

Daily life is a harsh struggle for the estimated one of every two people on the earth who try to survive on an income of $1-3 per day.

MANY POOR PARENTS HAVE MANY CHILDREN as a form of economic security to:

-help them grow food

-gather fuel (mostly wood and dung)

-work

-tend livestock

-haul drinking water

-help them survive in their old age (typically their 50s or 60s). Poor people.

-beg in the streets

POLLUTION SOME FACTS

Its any addition to air, water, soil, or food that threatens the health, survival, or activities of humans or other living organisms.

Pollutants can enter the environment: 1)Naturally (for example, from volcanic eruptions) or

2)Through human (anthropogenic) activities for example, from burning coal).

Most pollution from human activities occurs in or near urban and industrial areas, where pollutants are concentrated. Industrialized agriculture also is a major source of pollution. Some pollutants contaminate the areas where they are produced; others are carried by wind or flowing water to other areas.

Pollution does not respect:

-local -state, or -national bounderies.

SOME BAD NEWS:

Recent Studies by researchers at Conservation International suggest that roughly 73% of the earths habitable land surface (that which is not bare rock, ice, or drifting sand) has been partially or heavily distrubed by human activities.

SOME GOOD NEWS: Recently, industrial nations have developed international treaties to phase out production of chemicals that deplete ozone in the upper atmosphere.

MEXICO CITY
About 18.1 million people- about one of every fiveMexicans- live in Mexico City, the worlds second most populous city. Every day an additional 2,000 poverty-stricken rural peasants pour into the city, hoping to find a better life. This adds about 750,000 new people per year.

Mexico City suffers from: 1) Severe air pollution.

2) High unemployment (close to 50%).

3) Deafening noise, and 4) A soring crime rate. 5) More than one-third of its residents live in crowded slums

Mexico City suffers from: 1) Severe air pollution.

2) High unemployment (close to 50%).

3) Deafening noise, and 4) A soring crime rate. 5) More than one-third of its residents live in crowded slums

(called

barrios) or squatter settlements, without running water or electricity. At leat 8 million people have no sewer facilities. This means that huge amounts of human waste are deposited in gutters and vacant lots every day, attracting armies of rats and swarms of flies.

When the fecal snow often falls on parts of the city, leading to widespread salmonella and hepatitis infections, especially among children.

Some 4 million motor vehicles and 30,000 factories spew pollutants into the atmosphere.

Air pollution is intensified because the city lies in a basin surrounded by mountains, and frequent thermal inversions trap pollutants at ground level. Since 1982 the amount of contamination in the cityus somog-choked air has more than tripled. Indeed, breathing the citys air is said to be roughly

Equivalent to smoking three packs of cigarettes a day.

The citys air and water pollution cause an estimated 100,000 premature deaths per year. Writer Carlos Fuentes has nicknamed this megacity Makesicko City.

The Mexican government is industrializing other parts of the country in an attempt to slow migration to Mexico City. Other efforts include: 1) Banning cars fromn a 50-block central zone. 2) Taking taxis built before 1985 off the streets.

3) Having buses and trucks run only on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) 4) Planting 25 million trees 5) Buying some land for green space, and 6) Phasing out use of leaded gasoline.

7) If the citys population continues to grow as projected, these

Problem, already at crisis levels, will become Even worse. CRITICAL THINKING If you were in charge of Mexico City, what would you do?

Hellen_mich@hotmail.com