Читать книгу Practical Sustainability Strategies - George P. Nassos - Страница 14

Using the compressed time scale, the earth was formed at midnight, the beginning of the first day, Monday. There is no life until Tuesday about 8:00 A.M., and millions of species begin to appear and disappear throughout the week. Photosynthesis begins and it gets into high gear by Thursday morning, just after midnight. By Saturday, the sixth and last day of creation, there is sufficient oxygen in the atmosphere that amphibians can come onto land, and enough chlorophyll manufactured for the vegetation to begin to form coal deposits. The giant reptiles appear around 4:00 P.M. and primates show up at 10:00 P.M. on this last day, but Homo sapiens don't appear until 11:59:54—just six seconds ago. In other words, if we compress the age of the earth to six days, or 144 hours, “man” is not created until the last six seconds. A quarter of a second to midnight, Jesus Christ appears. One-fortieth of a second ago is the beginning of the industrial age, and one-eightieth of a second ago, we discover oil, thus accelerating the carbon blowout started by the industrial revolution.

Scientists have predicted that this 4.5 billion year old earth will be around for another “week.” But look at the damage that has been done in just the past one-fortieth of a second. Almost 90% of the major fisheries have been depleted or are at their biological limit [3]. It is estimated that the forest cover has been reduced by as much as 40% worldwide [4]; 50% of the wetlands [5], and more than 95% of the US grasslands have been lost [6]. By 2025, two-thirds of the world's population may face water shortages [7]. The big question now is how long will we last, another one-fortieth of a second—about five generations? Or will we be able to survive for another quarter of a second—about 2000 years? Or can we make a difference to extend a healthy world to some indefinite period of time? Or is it too late, and are we in the midst of a period of overshooting the carrying capacity of the earth, followed by a rapid collapse?

God did not create the natural environment for the benefit of the people so they can use and misuse it. The environment can be used indefinitely as long as it is replenished. It has the capacity to support the needs of living creatures—plants and animals, including humans—but only a finite number. If this carrying capacity is exceeded to the degree that it cannot be replenished, the population that it is supporting will decrease significantly. This can be demonstrated by a real experiment conducted by scientists a number of years ago.