Consumption

In 2005 there was a report made by 1360 scientists from 95 countries. They warn that almost two-thirds of the natural machinery that supports life on Earth is being used up. Reports show that in 50 years, all the oil will be gone. In almost every part of our daily lives we rely on the support of oil. We wear oil every day, we also eat oil. Actually, oil is not only important for transport, but it is also in our clothing, food, medicine and energy systems. We are so dependent on oil. We know the day when we have drained up all the oil will come, but will we be ready? I think we must prepare. If not we will get a huge shock.

The human demand for food, water, fuel, timber etc. has been higher the last 60 years than in the 18^th and 19^th centuries combined. Because of our high consumption, other species on the earth are becoming endangered, and some are exterminated. It’s not only the animals that are affected, but we also destroy the nature. Since 1980, about 35% of mangroves have been lost, 20% of the world’s coral reefs have been destroyed and another 20% badly degraded.

We have a high consumption of timber. It’s so high that the rainforests are being destroyed. Every year an area of the size of New Jersey is cut down and destroyed. The plants and animals that used to live there will either die, or must find a new place to live. It is really dumb to cut down all the rainforests. Only 2% of the Earth’s surface is covered in rainforests, and about two-thirds of all animal species lives there. The forests also help us in our fight against global warming, by producing oxygen.

The government tries to prevent the high consumption. First of all, we have to share more with the third world and the richest have to use less. More than 2 billion people live on less than 2$ a day. The diagram below shows the private consumption of the rich, middle-class and the poor people in the world.

Several agreements have been made to make the world a better place, like the Kyoto protocol. The Kyoto protocol is all about using less to prevent the natural resources. But countries like China and USA didn’t sign the protocol, because they thought that they didn’t have a standing chance to use less to prevent the CO₂ in the atmosphere. An Important person named Al Gore had big success when he made a film about Global issues.

He made a big documentary where he presented some of the most important global issues. This documentary made people realize how big the problem really was, and movies like these can be important, because we need to know what we are dealing with. Other big Medias have also made films about global warming, and the consumption that we have. Movies like: 2012, The day after tomorrow, Waterworld, The day the earth stood still, and an inconvenient truth. In movies like these, you see how the world can end because of our use.

I will conclude with that we need to think about what we use, and if we really need to use it. If every person thought about that, and tried to contain their private consumption, it would have been a really big step for the world.

- Marcus & Mikael