Analyzing the Pressing Issues Described in Ehrlich's Article

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“We’re all scared. But we must tell the truth about what’s happening and challenge people to do something to prevent it” – Paul Ehrlich. (Leahy,2013) The future of our planet has been a great concern for the global community for many years. In their article ‘Can a Collapse of Global Civilisation be Avoided?’ Paul and Anne Ehrlich explore the current ecological and socio-cultural trends that they believe, if left untreated, will lead to the inevitable collapse. Unlike past civilizations, the modern global community has the knowledge, skills and technologies to solve the several pressing issues Ehrlich presents in this article. So what are those issues? Since the agricultural revolution, technological developments and advancements have allowed the industry to attempt to catch up to the unparalleled exponential growth of the global population. These advancements, however, have come at a great cost to the environment that supports them. Fossil fuels, whilst essential to several areas of the agricultural industry, are producing excess carbon dioxide; rising sea levels are impacting irrigation systems and aquatic ecosystems and global warming is affecting the stable climate needed to grow crops. Mass extinction of animal and plant species is leading to a loss of biodiversity and farming land is being lost to rapid urbanization. (Ehrlich, 2013) With the average global temperature expected to rise by 2.4°C (Schellnhuber, 2008), Ehrlich (2013) suggests global efforts must be undertaken in order to curb the effects, including a large reduction in fossil fuel emissions, undertaking much more research into sustainable agriculture and adopting the already known environmentally friendly methods, in spite of political and economic concerns. ... ... middle of paper ... ...the future. References Ehrlich, P. and Ehrlich, A. (2013). Can a collapse of global civilization be avoided?. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 280(1754), p.20122845. Leahy, S. (2013). Experts Fear Collapse of Global Civilisation - Inter Press Service. [online] Inter Press Service. Available at: http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/01/experts-fear-collapse-of-global-civilisation/ [Accessed 3 May. 2014]. Schellnhuber, H. (2008). Global warming: Stop worrying, start panicking?. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(38), pp.14239--14240. World Wildlife Fund, (2012). Living Planet Report 2012. Costanza, R., d'Arge, R., De Groot, R., Farber, S., Grasso, M., Hannon, B., Limburg, K., Naeem, S., O'Neill, R., Paruelo, J. and others, (1998). The value of the world's ecosystem services and natural capital. Ecological economics, 25(1), pp.3--15.

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