What Is Happening to Our Planet?
Sometimes humans kill animals indirectly. Few places on the planet are untouched by humans. The ever-increasing human population needs more space. Industries use more and more of the Earth's natural resources. The result: in less than one hundred years, as many as two hundred known species of birds and mammals have vanished.
How? Many natural habitats are disappearing. The Earth's rainforests are being destroyed, along with their inhabitants. Toxic wastes, air pollution, and radiation take terrible tolls on wildlife. Changes in the planet's ozone layer and in its climate threaten all animals, including humans.
In 1977, President Jimmy Carter asked for an official study of the environment. What, he asked, would our planet be like in the year 2000 if present trends continue? This study was done by several U.S. government departments at the direction of Dr. Gerald Barney. Published in 1980, the Global 2000 Report to the President provided startling warnings and predictions about the fate of the Earth if we do not make changes in the way we treat it.
The report predicted, among other things, that "between half a million and 2 million species - 15 to 20 percent of all species on earth - could be extinguished by the year 2000." It warned of more hardship for the Earth's human inhabitants as well - more starvation, for example.
This report strongly urged the government to take immediate action. It gave recommendations for change. But by the time the study was completed, Ronald Reagan had been elected president and his administration ignored the report.
The 1980s were not a good decade for the environment. It is likely that a global report now would be even bleaker than the one published after the 1970s. Many environmentalists wonder if we can stop the destruction of our planet before it is too late. When, they ask, will humans realise that they are not meant to be masters of the Earth, only one of its guests?