Motts 1

Amanda Motts

Parker

English 12

17 March 2017

Research Paper = Death

On April 20, 2010 two hundred million gallons of crude oil spilled into the Gulf of

Mexico because of pure economic greed (11 Facts). Lasting eighty days, the spill nearly wrecked

the Gulf and thousands upon thousands of ecosystems. Over eight thousand animals (birds,

turtles, mammals etc.) were reported dead just six months after the spill, including many that

were already on the endangered species list (11 Facts), further endangering biodiversity life

everywhere. Biodiversity refers to the whole set of life forms that exist on this earth from the

genetic level as well as the species level. In this complex jigsaw puzzle kind of framework, if

one tiny species in an ecosystem becomes extinct, the human race not notice or think it is

important, yet this is not the case. The biodiversity of that ecosystem will be altered, and all the

ecosystems that the species belonged to will be affected (Speech on Biodiversity). However,

global natural resources provide commodities necessary to sustain human life; yet the rapid

depletion of these resources leaves a wake of broken ecosystems which has caused activists to

look for a compromise to balance need and preservation.

Beginning in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the industrial revolution completely

changed the way people worked, lived, and operated their daily lives. It began first in Great

Britain. From the technological side all the way to the transportational side, ...steam-powered

ships were making their debut, the steam locomotive was also coming into use (History.com).
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In the early 1800s, British engineer Richard Trevithick constructed the first railway steam

locomotive...By 1850, Britain had more than 6,000 miles of railroad track (History.com).

Eventually the spread of the revolution made its way over to America leading it to become one

of the biggest industrial economies in the twentieth century. However, even by the mid-1990s,

there began to be a downfall to all the new technology, ...the Institute for Economic Democracy

calculated that as much as half the American economy constituted of wasted labor, wealth and

resources (Why Is Biodiversity Important? Who Cares?). Moving toward the twenty first

century, nearly half of the countries around the world all depended on the daily natural resources

around them because of the spread of industrialization.

Technologies ranging from cars to cellphones all began to depend on other things such as

cellphone towers to give us cell signal and roads that lead us to our destinations. Even smaller

things became interdependent on natural resources such as oil and water, that helps supply the

absurd amounts of foods that countries like America are producing. However, at the same time

there are also huge economical benefits to providing natural resources for not only a home
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"Pioneer Natural Resources." Pioneer Natural Resources - Economic Impact. Texas Tech

University, 2014. Web. 17 Mar. 2017.

country but other countries around the world. Pictured above in Fg.1, an economical impact

spreadsheet was created simply to show the important economical factors that Oil Mining has for

America alone. Not only has the Permian Basin Oil company raked in $137 billion dollars in

output from selling oil, it also provides over 500,000 jobs for citizens all across the country,

lowering unemployment rates across America. Even though a country such as America may

seem like it could provide many of its own resources for itself, it is among one of the many

countries that are largely economically serviced based (based off of a census found on

Wikipedia). This becomes a very big problem once natural resources become more and more

limited. Yet at the same time humans all across the globe really dont know when enough is

enough, The relationship between resource abundance and economic growth is not clear-cut; it

could be either positive or negative (Roy, Bimal Chandra).

Besides the fact that countries all across the globe could run into a scarcity of resources,

which could lead to huge wars, there are also seriously extensive issues to using up the earths

natural resources. Wide scale deforestation and global climate change due to increased pollution

levels are two prime factors that are linked with the disruption of changed ecological systems.

The climate is one of the Earth's fundamental life support systems. It determines whether or not

we humans are able to sustain life on this planet. It is generated by four components: the

atmosphere: the air we breathe; the hydrosphere: the planet's water; the cryosphere: the ice sheets

and glaciers; and the biosphere: the planet's plants and animals (Emmott, Stephen). By now, our
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activities have already started to modify every one of these components. We emit wastes as a

product of our consumption activities, including air and water pollutants, toxic materials,

greenhouse gases, and excess nutrients. Some wastes, such as untreated sewage and many

pollutants, threaten human health for obvious reasons such as bacterias that could lead to large

epidemics like the Plague. Other wastes disrupt natural ecosystem functions: for example, excess

nitrogen in water supplies causes algal blooms that deplete oxygen and kill fish (Unit 5). Take

deforestation for instance, if it keeps happening, there is a huge problem of exploitation of

ecosystems due to immoral activities like poaching, hunting for sport, or destruction of natural

habitats for our own existence. For James Rissi, such things have been noticeable for him in the

fairly short amount of time that he has lived on the earth, Invasive species have changed a lot, I

saw zebra mussels invade the Great Lakes which then destroyed the game fish. Ive also seen

Ash and Birch Trees die out because of shifting climate change [higher].

Although many governments are aware of the rising issues above, there was little effort

to be done to fix all of them in the very beginning and even know many countries are still not

doing all they can to slow down the destruction of ecosystems. James Rissi believes that a main

reason to this is none other than the fact that there is no immediate economical advantage to

fixing the Earth, The opportunity for immediate payback isnt there- if they were to use a

billion dollars to fix climate change theyre not going to see an immediate change or payback, so

therefore, no reason to go and spend all that money. However, as time goes on, the issues at

hand have become more upfront and countries are starting to do their best to reduce the

catastrophe, Germany has put biodiversity, alongside climate change, at the top the agenda for

its G8 presidency...Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel says failure to address the loss of
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species will make the world a poorer place - both naturally and economically (Gabriel Sigmar).

Local groups even around America are joining hand in hand to prove that there are huge

biodiversity issues at hand. Pictured below in Fg.2, a group of college students created a visual

representation to display that a dying portion of biodiversity, invertebrates, are being used for

economical greed every day. The college students allowed each species of invertebrate to hold a

sign that allows viewers see a more ethical side. For other nations such as China and India, who

are very

Goldstein, Miriam. "Octopi Wall Street!" Deep Sea News. N.p., 10 Nov. 2011. Web. 17 Mar. 20

underdeveloped in a most of their nation, there are new ideas sprouting that could help avoid a

lot of the climate change and deforestation issues that well developed countries are seeing today.

The system is called leapfrogging, If fast-growing nations like China and India can leapfrog to

clean technologies, they can reduce the environmental impacts of their large and growing

populations (Perman, Roger). Things that are already happening are Protected area networks
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such as national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, help provide habitats to the plants and the animal

species and thus conserving ecosystems appropriate to their survival.

Naturally, nature can survive without humanity, however, humanity cannot survive

without nature. In Cranfield Universitys video clip this is often talked about and as well as the

economical side of things (AppSciCranfield). As natural resources have become very important

in our daily lives its easy to forget that, as a world, taking too much for our own enjoyments and

growth, it can become a bad thing. However, activist are doing their best to make sure this

doesnt happen.
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Works Cited

"11 Facts About the BP Oil Spill." DoSomething.org | Volunteer for Social Change. Web. 09

Mar. 2017.

AppSciCranfield. "Economics for Natural Resource and Environmental Management MSc at

Cranfield University." YouTube. YouTube, 02 Nov. 2010. Web. 14 Mar. 2017.

Clark, Duncan. "Why Can't We Quit Fossil Fuels?" The Guardian. Guardian News and Media,

17 Apr. 2013. Web. 10 Mar. 2017.

Emmott, Stephen. "Humans the Real Threat to Life on Earth." The Observer. Guardian News

and Media, 29 June 2013. Web. 14 Mar. 2017.

Gabriel, Sigmar. "Science/Nature | Biodiversity 'fundamental' to Economics." BBC News. BBC,

09 Mar. 2007. Web. 14 Mar. 2017.

History.com Staff. "Industrial Revolution." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web.

12 Mar. 2017.

Perman, Roger, Yue Ma, Michael S. Common, David Maddison, and James Alisdair

MacGilvray. Natural Resource and Environmental Economics. Harlow, England:

Addison-Wesley, 2013. Print.

Roy, Bimal Chandra, Satyaki Sarkar, and Nikhil Ranjan Mandal. "Natural Resource Abundance
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and Economic PerformanceA Literature Review." Current Urban Studies 01.04 (2013):

148-55. Print.

"Speech on Biodiversity - (663 Words)." YourArticleLibrary.com: The Next Generation Library.

19 Feb. 2014. Web. 14 Mar. 2017.

"Unit 5: Human Population Dynamics // Section 5: Population Growth and the Environment."

Annenberg Learner. Web. 10 Mar. 2017.

"Why Is Biodiversity Important? Who Cares?" Global Issues. Web. 13 Mar. 2017.