Number one Earth-killer? Need many answers!?

Question

I am doing a research paper for Biology and I need your opinion, as a sort of poll.

The question....

What, in your opinion is the thing in our world that is hurting Earth the most? Be specific and give examples if possible.

I need lots of answers! You guys are my guinea pigs!

Thank you so much!

Answer 1

Specifically, habitat destruction as a concept has the most far reaching affects.

Biologically speaking, for an example, the old growth forest has an interwoven fabric of life-forms from bacteria, fungi, mosses and all to the oldest trees which clear open spaces by their canopies hogging the sunlight from smaller trees.

After about the third cut this very ancient ecosystem is lost, light is blotted out to the forest floor because all the trees are the same size (and hybrid to mature for pulp in 40-years), there are no grasses or sedges so no large game, it's become a tree farm and no longer a forest.

There are too many examples of where a natural balance of life has been not just altered but life-forms are actually erased from the planet, extinct, with no real chance of them to ever happen again, and this caused through habitat loss.

Habitats are organizations of living webs from microscopic to whales, they are easy to alter and hard to restore. Capitalism has created too many cases where the need to make a wage to pay bills ends up destroying the livelihood with over harvesting, causing a steady decline in production, more and more is needed and it all collapses if not regulated.

This is true for farms, forests or fisheries, worldwide. The pressure to catch or harvest for cash has literally turned humans into the worst plague, one that destroys habitat so thoroughly that it can't recover. Life can't go on if this continues, the economies of the world will collapse as costs rise for less and less until there is literally no fish left to catch in the fishery.

Several very large fisheries had to be closed because of this, but that didn't slow down this same thing going on in many other places.

What drives all the above is population growth, and that is the underlying problem with habitat destruction the symptom, for an analogy.

As millions of more people populate the planet daily, the resources to keep them alive become more expensive, it's a reverse relationship. This is because unless great care is taken to maintain sustainable practices, human nature will guarantee that many people will take way more than they need to turn that into cash, and this is the most important cause of habitat loss.

I don't have any easy answers for creating sustainable economies, but know they will develop since they'll make more money than those based on non-renewable practices as time goes on and those resources constantly become more expensive.

Answer 2

OIL and the fight for it thats what will kill earth nukes will probly fly !!!!!!

Answer 3

right now: too many animals, not enough plants.

in a few decades; acidification of the oceans

in 100 years; global warming (i mean that as a specific effect of climate change) and sea level rise.

cause of all? greedy humans.

Answer 4

Man bear pig.

Answer 5

There aren't many possibilities, there is in fact a correct answer and that is over-population. We have entered the 6th extinction which we have caused because of over-harvesting, development, etc., to meet the needs of the people.

Answer 6

the cutting and destroying of rain forest and trees

Answer 7

Population Growth of Humans is the root cause of all environmental damage. Every house built, road made, electric wire, water well, etc. causes damage to the environment.

Answer 8

The Number one Earth killer is natural Heat Dissipation.

When the 9000 degree core of Earth loses all it's heat the Earth will only be a Ball of Ice with NO life.

Scientists don't know how much heat is moving from the core through the crust into oceans and finally into space!

Answer 9

By earth, I assume you mean the life on earth.  The earth is actually a giant rock with an iron/nickel core.  I think humans are definately affecting the ecosystem especially where cities are growing and native habitats are being replaced by farms and ranches.  Essentially it is a matter of preference.   Cows, for example,  do the same thing essentially as native creatures, (i.e eat vegetation, convert it to animal tissue, etc) they just do it for the benefit of their human owners.

Answer 10

I think Tomm has the best answer for the number one most destructive thing effecting the environment.  Loss of habitat.

Pollution from burning fossil fuels is huge in more ways than just global warming.

Pollution from chemicals and plastics in our soil, air and water.

  Plastics;  A huge sea of trillons of bits of plastic stretches from the west coast of the U.S. all the way to Asia.  The clockwise currents and winds create something like the Sargasso sea of the Atlantic, except it is filled with plastic.  Microscopic bits of plastic are being ingested by creatures at the bottom of the food chain, like plankton and krill etc.  This is an area twice the size of the United States

"Most plastic floats near the sea surface where some is mistaken for food by birds and fishes. Plastics are carried by currents and can circulate continually in the open sea. Broken, degraded plastic pieces outweigh surface zooplankton in the central North Pacific by a factor of 6-1. That means six pounds of plastic for every single pound of zooplankton."

"Storms flush plastics down stream and ultimately into the ocean. Plastic debris looks bad, but it behaves worse. Far worse! Plastic pollution negatively effects trillions upon trillions of ocean inhabitants and ultimately humans."

"Synthetic Sea" shows how many marine birds and fishes ingest plastic, because it mimics the food they eat. The program reveals scientific research, indicating how plastic pieces can attract and hold hydrophobic elements like PCB and DDT up to one million times background levels. As a result, floating plastic is like a poison pill. As a result, new research regarding endocrine disrupters in floating plastic debris is being planned by the Algalita Marine Research Foundation.. "Synthetic Sea" is a documentary based on scientific findings backed by published scientific papers. "

DR. Marcus Ericson

http://www.algalita.org/research.html#pl...

http://www.algalita.org/pelagic_plastic....

Chemicals:   National Geographic studied the body of one average American, to test for chemicals.   They looked for about 260 chemicals in his body.  They found 165.  This included dangerous levels of mercury, PCBs, and the chemicals used for flame retardants and plastic softeners.  He had 18 out of 26 pesticides that they tested for.   This guy never worked in agriculture or any industry that would expose him to high concentrations of any of these chemicals.

  I think we have a problem!

Our materialistic consumerism is a root cause of many of our problems, including economic.

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Watch this short video to see what I'm talking about.  We don't have to always have more and bigger, it's nuts.

Answer 11

Well i think people are abusing everything....

Answer 12

Pollution is number 1 through 10. The environment is being polluted by human activity in every nook and cranny on the planet. It is totally avoidable if good engineering was used to develop systems needed for human needs. Pollution is not being addressed by any one other than pointing a finger of blame on some one else and nothing is being done that will in any way lessen the total amount generated. Its a problem of poor engineering and can be fixed to the benefit of everyone by using good engineering and construct new systems.