The Future of Life

The Future of Life

In the book The Future of Life, Edward O. Wilson tells us environmentalism is a large-scale lesson in sacrifice. Some people will think when humans protecting the environment, they always need to give up something. When humans need to protect an endangered species, some people will lose their money, jobs and even their home. People will think the Earth's gain is human's lost and stop to protect the environment. However, they forget humans are themselves a part of nature. Humans cannot survive without the natural environment. Wilson follows with a cogent outline of how the environmental crisis is threatening the Earth, focusing on the rapid destruction of species we have not even begun to classify. He points out that humans' rapid growth is an unnatural cause for the demise of biodiversity. At six billion, as of October 1999, the global population is reaching a breaking point. Humans spread to everywhere in the world and cause huge damage to the environment and the native species.

In chapter two, Wilson tells us that the human population has an exponential growth over the past several decades. Because of scientific and technical advancement, people can have better food and health care. The result is that people are living longer and children are more likely to survive. After the industrial revolution, many countries' productivity increased rapidly. Therefore, countries can produce more food to support the population growth. The result is that the global population has reached six billion and is on the way to eight billion. Now, the world's population is growing by 200,000 people a day; within 25 years 2.5 billion people will be added to current population. Human population exceeded earth's sustainable capacity around the year 1978. By the year 2000, the population had over shot by 1.4 times the Earth's capacity.( Population Growth Rate) As a result, Earth loses its ability to regenerate; the sustainable resource become non renewable. Population crash -- a massive decline that can lead to extinction -- will occur when the population exceeds its capacity. If humans want to solve the problem, 12 percent of land should be set aside to protect nature environment. Moreover, humans should reduce global consumption and production; otherwise the resources will run up soon.

Overpopulation and environmentally ignorant development are destroying natural habitats and biological diversity. Hawaii is a good example of how human beings destroy natural habitats and eliminate other species. Before the arrival of humanity, Hawaii was biologically diverse and unique. There were at least 125 and as many as 145 species of birds that could be found there. However, now there are only 35 of the original species of birds still alive, and 24 of them are endangered. (Nature's last stand) The developments and human activities destroyed the natural habitat, and only one quarter of the land remains untouched. Humans transform forest into farms and houses. Many species disappeared since they lost their living place. Moreover, the immigration of non native species was another reason for habitat destruction. Humans carried non native species to Hawaii. Those non native species do not have any predator and competitor, so they can develop their population rapidly. Those non native