Innovation and Sustainability: Devastation after 2030?

One thing that is talked a lot about is the need to buy American in order to boost our economy.  This is very true, but what is the impact on our country and the world as a whole if we only continue to support mega-corporations like Monsanto?  Has innovation really helped sustainability, or has it harmed it?  Do we really need everything that we consume as a country?

Two of the biggest problems today regarding the environment are overproduction and over-consumption.  These two actions by humans, the dominant species of our planet, are causing our resources to deplete at an alarming rate and are causing an imbalance in our world population’s ability to sustain itself world-wide.  Using projections surrounding the year 2030, this article will show how over-consumption of food and groundwater, along with overproduction of consumer goods and mass crops to sustain these over-consumptions, are putting human life in a cycle that is destroying our planet.

Consumption in general is expected in any species population; in order to truly see how consumption affects our environment, we must divide it into over-consumption and under-consumption, and then look to see if there is an imbalance and what causes it.  Concerning the human population as it stands now, there is major over-consumption found in rich countries such as the United States and France; where under-consumption is found is in poor nations such as those in Africa.  In currently developing countries such as China and India, there are new trends starting where the “wealth of a sizable minority is permitting them to acquire the consumption habits (e.g., eating a lot of meat and driving automobiles) of the rich nations” (Turk & Bensel, 2011, Sec. 2.3, para. 13).  In overpopulated nations such as those in Africa that are experiencing under-consumption, or the inability to meet their basic consumption needs, this creates a large number of people who are unable to help create sustainability that could help the entire world; it takes everything for them to just survive.

According to the I = PAT equation, in overpopulated nations such as China where the economy is beginning to accelerate and over-consumption is becoming a habit for those who have the means to do it, it is only a matter of time before these large populations will over-consume and begin to devastate the entire planet. The equation is that if one takes into consideration the population size (P), the affluence factor that leads to more consumption (A), and the technology increases to meet the increased consumption (T), the impact on our planet will be greater (I) (Turk & Bensel, 2011, Sec. 2.3, para. 2).  The projected population in 2030 in China is 1,393,076,000 (United Nations, 2010).  The projected economy of China for 2030 is that the gap will be close to closing between China and America, with a 6% per capita income increase in China.  Population increase (P) + an increase in per capita income (A) + increase in technology to meet the demands of a better economy for a large population of people (T) = an extraordinarily large impact on the environment from the world’s largest population.

Food and groundwater for populations such as the example above will need to be immense.  One answer to the issue meeting the consumption demands of such large affluent groups of people is mass crop and livestock production.  Mass crop production has been introduced to the U.S. and other countries in the form of genetically modified organisms.  One example is Monsanto’s Roundup Ready Soybeans. 

Roundup is an herbicide that is highly toxic; unless a plant is genetically modified to withstand the herbicide, it will be killed by it.  While testing has yet to be done on the safety of these crops for consumption, there is the issue of toxic chemicals being put on the crops and into the soil.  Roundup is made with glyphosate.  “Glyphosate poses a danger to wild and native plants from aerial spraying of fields. When sprayed from the air, the herbicide can drift 1,200 to 2,500 feet past fields or other target areas where it quickly kills plant life and settles in water. Studies have shown that Roundup added to ponds will result in a 50 to 100 percent death rate of all tadpole life within the water, according to Scientific American. Trees exposed to Roundup show dieback and lack of winter hardiness” (Sharpe, 2012, para. 5).  As of right now, 90% of soybeans in the U.S. are Roundup Ready.  The increase in demand for these and other large production crops are leading to a large amount of chemical application to our soil, with more toxic chemicals being created due to weeds becoming resistant to the current treatments. 

If we continue to over-consume and allow poorer countries no choice but to under-consume, the imbalance of the planet will eventually destroy it.  The U.N. predicts that food production must increase by 50% by the year 2030 just to meet increasing demands of those already consuming average or above average amounts, with the under-consumption of poor nations being considered an emergency (AP, 2008, para. 1-4).  We must change things now before it is too late and the only way that we can save our planet will be to starve.

 References:

AP. (2008).  UN: 50 percent more food needed by 2030.  Associated Press.  Retrieved from:  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24942035/ns/world_news-world_environment/t/un-percent-more-food-needed/#.UJhinMXA-_4

Sharpe, K. (2012).  Roundup weed killer safety.  Garden Guides.  Retrieved from:  http://www.gardenguides.com/131167-roundup-weed-killer-safety.html

Turk, J., & Bensel, T. (2011). Contemporary environmental issues. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

United Nations, Department of Social and Economic Affairs. (2010).  Probabilistic projections (total population).  Retrieved from:  http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/P-WPP/htm/PWPP_Total-Population.htm

© 2012 Anita Brown, do not copy without permission.