Last month I mentioned that it was an exciting time to be alive.  However after watching Richard Attenborough's "State of the Planet" on TV, I must admit it also a very alarming time for those of us who care about the environment. The irony of the dilemma is that we are just beginning to fully understand the 
building blocks of nature at a time when there is unprecedented environmental destruction. 

We are running out of time to save the planet from becoming a desolate wreck of a place for our grandchildren to live in. That's assuming it will still support life ..

The insatiable demands of an ever increasing world population, multi-national companies hell-bent on profit and politicians without vision will see the Earth depleted of it's variety of plants and animals that took hundreds of millions of years to evolve. All within the space of a few decades! 

This instant destruction in the geological time scale of our planet, is as powerful as a giant asteroid hitting the earth. The effects of global warming have already unleashed the forces of nature around the world, with floods, hurricanes, fires, droughts and loss of life. Rising sea levels will see the destruction of many coastal environments during this century. 

We need our governments to recognize the urgency of the situation and demand that an exceptional global effort be made to halt the environmental destruction. 

The first important step will be to stop further population growth.  This will ensure that demand on resources will not increase further. This places extreme demands on all leaders both religious and political to give strong guidance in matters of family planning. 

The second step is to place a world ban on logging of all old growth forests. Timber should be only harvested from existing sustainable plantations. Replanting of the land with native species must follow in an attempt to reverse the rate of extinction and re-establish the natural balance of things.

The continued burning of fossil fuels must be drastically reduced in favour of alternatives such as solar, wind and tidal power. The proponents of New technologies such as fusion reactors must be encouraged to hasten their efforts in bringing this replacement source of power to reality.

The internet community can help educate and unite people through communication. It is one of the keys to our survival as a species.

I have never been a "Greenie" but now I am beginning to realize the important work that these people are doing. The least we can do is give them our support, if not join their protests.  Only when enough of us protest, the rest of the world will join hands to demand environmental rights.

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Dr John Flynn publishes a monthly HTML ezine called:
"The Xerostar Times" and his motto is:
"caring for creative people"
You can subscribe at: 
http://www.xerotron.com/cgi-bin/mail/mail.cgi
The free eBook "The Xerotron Story" is available at:
http://midi-ebooks.com  mailto: xerostar@iinet.net.au

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