How are humans endangering our earth and species?
139731
Just to add a little to the middle school science teacher's answer ... we are also using up the fossil fuels of the earth at an alarming rate, which is contributing to global warming.  This means that the Arctic ice cap is melting at the rate of about 75,000 square kilometers a year, and has been melting at that rate for about 30 years now, which is about the size of Lake Superior every year.  This means that the level of the oceans will rise, causing erosion of many coastal areas.  Many species of wildlife are endangered because of us, including whales, polar bears, and many tropical species that live in rain forests particularly. \n\nWe are endangering other people because we have a great division in the world between those who have plenty of everything and those who are starving.  If the world's food was shared in a fari way there would be plenty for everyone.  The same applies to all of the world's resources, not just food.\n\nWe are also endangering the world when we don't recycle and use products that are so over-packaged.  We throw pop bottles, all kinds of paper and containers and organic stuff into our landfills instead of recycling.\n\nWe over-use many medications, especially antibiotics, which means that many bacteria are becoming immune to the antibiotics that used to be able to treat them.  We see this in the many infections people can now get just by being in a hospital.  We also make this worse by using products such as antibacterial soaps in our homes, which we don't really need.\n\nFor the most part the western world, those of us who have enough of most things, ignore the poverty, starvation and disease in the poor parts of the world so we are endangering the peoples of many countries when instead we could help them much more than we do.  Also, we tend to ignore the wars in many parts of the world unless we think they will have an effect on us.  For example, nobody pays much attention to a lot of the bad stuff that happens in many parts of Africa because it we think it doesn't have much connecton to us.\n\nHope this helps.
47389
- There is possiblities to overpopulate on the earth.\n- But think more population always leads to more destruction.\n- The nature will become imbalance because of over population and often tragedies like tsunamies, earth quakes might kill scores of peoples.\n- Wars and Malnutrition also will become a major cause for the destruction of human lives.\n- So There is possibilities to control overpopulation of human beings to balance the earth.\n- Scientific figures might say what will be population after 100 years or thousand years.\n- But the God and the nature decides what to be on the earth and what should not be.\n- Dont forget there is also the possibilites to exist no human life in this planet.
634043
The overpopulation of the planet is the biggest disaster ever. We are just now beginning to experience the horrific consequences.
60411
We are pretty enduring.  \nMankind can do things to the planet no animal as far as we know, has ever done.  If you look at the ice cores from Greenland, you will see the variance in temperature before man is significant on the earth, is greater than man has seen while being on the earth.  Is it possible to overheat something that will heat itself far beyond any heating we could do?  While we can influence the earth's climate, we can not stop it or start it at will.  We party because as inhabitants we pale in comparison to the natural cycle the earth can and has gone through.  I only hope we are smart enough to manage the climate the earth can throw at us.
733065
humans- stress,health, emotional effects, financial effects, humanity comes intoplay here with people helping people\n\nenviroment- new growth, polution(the ash in the sky), migration of wildlife(have 2 move to find food),
1154315
Don't worry about this cos human race will be wipe out on this planet a long long before the sun will be blow up!
154228
Humans doesn't have the ability to destroy the atmosphere. We can only polute it. The only way to destroy the atmosphere is to blow up planet earth.
920647
Humanity is the cancer of the earth
247868
Not only biologists but everybody must feel concerned about the vanishing species on earth.This is  because nobody lives in isolation.We are all ( The plants,animals and man) related and dependent upon each other.)\n With every extinction an important link in the life on the earth is broken and gone. It has a cascading effect.\n In Australia, with the disappearance of Dodo ( A bird since extinct) the trees that were dependent on Dodo for germination of their seeds also disappeared. It was established that the seeds must pass through the digestive system of the bird before germination as the hard cover used to get digested by the bird.Scores of insects and bees bring about pollination in plants.Disappearance of these bees due to indiscriminate use of the pesticides will undoubtedly affects those plants.\nLife on this planet is like an intricate web, damage to any of its part will destroy the web and even man will not be spared.
409354
the industrialized world is going to continue to extract, refine, chop down, pave over, and pollute everything in sight, until most land, water, and species have been destroyed and mankind can no longer survive.\n\nonce people have died off and a few thousand years have gone by, nature will begin to heal from the destruction we have caused, and any species that have survived will be better off.
720934
The Earth is in danger of becoming almost totally inhospitable for most higher life forms.  Unless we start being more intelligent and get population and resource management under control, the Earth will do if for us.
426988
a short account of environmental happenings that are endangering the blue and some possible solutions\n\nthese are some Mega threats that endanger the planet \n\nExstinction,over population,deforrestation,\nexcess carbon emissions,desertification(land...\nbad farming practises(landloss),\nerosian(landloss),watershortag...\nglobal warming,rising seas(landloss).\n\nEXSTINCTION\n\nwe harvest fish faster than they can reproduce,\nAnd habitat destruction,climatic change,\nexpanding populations,overexploitation,\ndeforrestation,desertification...\npolution are responsible for mayor looses \nof both flora and fauna,many for ever.\nwe are now witness to the first mass extinction\nsince the day of the dinosaurs.\nspecies are being lost every hour.\n\nOVERPOPULATION\nthe world population has doubled in the last 50 years \nthe fastest increase ever,since we became homosapian\n\neach year farmers have to grow food \nfor an extra 70 million people,\nmany of whom are taking the forrests place.\n\nDEFORRESTATION \nif it continues ,is that we could end up looking like Mars.Without an atmosphere ,without water,without air,\nwith out life\n\nthe rain forrest and all other forests are getting smaller every day.\nespecially in south America and Mexico.\nvaluable species of plants become lost \nand countles animals are killed into extinction.\n\nthe jungle of Lacadona one of\nthe richest environmental areas of Mexico\nwhich produces 70 %of the countries water,\nis home to thousands of rare species of flora and fauna\nis loosing hundred of hectares daily\n(2 millions hectares per anum)\ndespite nationwide campains on all tv and radio stations.\nnothing can stop the destruction,\nthe same thing is happening in the Amazon regions ,\nand probably in Asia as well,\nand it is also the case in Borneo\n\nthe forrests make most of the water that we can drink \nor use for agriculture(sweet water) \nsome is condensed from the sea but that reaches only the coastel aereas.\nthe bulk ,comes from the forests ,\nand the rivers come from the rainfall\nwhich comes from the trees.\nthe trees with precipitation,\nfeed the rivers when it is not raining\nand keep them running all year round.\n\nIf we kill all the trees,we kill the rivers .\nwe kill the rain. we kill us.\nthe trees also absorb the heat in the day \nand heat up the place in the night ,\nso they keep the temperature confortable to live in.\ntrees evaporate a mist which ,which protects us from the strong rays of the sun \n\nin the dessert the nights are freezing cold \nand during the days you burn up.\n\nCARBON EMISIONS\nthe world is producing more carbon monoxide\nthan the system can accomodate\nthe trees absorb carbon emisions ,\nwhich is poison to us and they leave the oxygen\nwhich we need to breathe.\nin the autemn the colder seas absorb carbon emisions\nthat is produced by rotting flora .\nand in the spring newly growing biomass \nutilises the carbon that is released by the warmer waters\n\nDESERTIFICATION\n\nbecause of bad agricultural practises \nand the resulting land loss \nfarmers are now cultivating highly erodable lands\nand deforresting vast areas\nthe sahara is growing by 7 kilometres every day.\n\ntwo major desserts in northern china \nare growing together making one giant dessert, \ncausing dust storms making thousands of people refugese.\nthe planet is drying out at an alarming rate.\n\nin the days of the dinasaurs this planet was under an aquiferus manta ,a mist that covered the entire earth \nand there were no desserts.\nCount how many there are today,and all of them are as a result of mans actions.\nthe sahara used to be forrests\narabia ,irak ,iran used to be fertile lands in biblical times\nGhengas Kahn burned all the forrests \nand filled the wellS with water and \nso turning vast lands into dessert.\nBAD FARMING\n\nBad agricultural practises is turning \nvast teritories into desserts ,because of \nover grazing ,the exessive pumping of carbon aquifiers. \nthe surface aquifiers alrea
782745
"Are we destroying the earth with technology or is the earth doing business as usual"\nI suggest you track the changes scientists have found in the entire history of the earth, warming, freezing, wet and even effects of smoke from Krakatoa. Then compare what is happening now with pollution and the depletion of the ozone layer and ask the readers to make their own conclusion.
240818
I am very concerned with the rash of natural disasters that are happening and can only really attribute them to global warming. Our planet has the ability to "rebuild" the ozone, but not quickly enough at the rate we are depleting it. I think as Americans and as a consumer nation, we need to get on the clue train about how much we are harming our world by car emmisions and we need to switch to a clean alternative. It's possible, but we fear change.
157711
It is Global Warming.  Geologically speaking we are still coming out of the last ice age.  We are on in a natural cycle which has been accerated by pollution.
957286
The end of the world will be determined by leaders who ignore the fact that human beings are a species of mammal: Homo Sapiens.  The population growth rate of Homo Sapiens is exponential and will soon overpopulate planet Earth.  Since we are a species, we are subjected to the same rules that apply to something as small as ants concerning the carrying capacity of a certain biological niche.  When ants overpopulate a certain area nature kicks in and basically the four following things happen: War, disease, famine, and migration.  The same mechanisms that apply to ants apply to humans as well. \nHomo Sapiens are now engaging in warfare for dwindling fossil fuel supplies worldwide.  Homo Sapiens are now starving to death in certain parts of Africa.  Homo Sapiens are now battling disease such as AIDS, bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics, and a new disease such as CJD, or Mad Cow disease.  Homo Sapiens are now engaging in discussions to travel out into the universe to explore possible planets to conquor and inhabit.  As time marches on, and the population of Homo Sapiens continue to increase exponentially, the Earth's immune system will kick in, so to speak, and try to get rid of the plague of Homo Sapiens, or bring the population level down to a number that is more sustainable for the environment to handle.  Someone at some near point in time will have to play God if the population continues to grow at this unsustainable pace.\nThe sad point in this discussion is that good leaders are out there in the population, but their voices are seldom heard, and the mighty currency is ruling the planet.  I am just going to sit back and watch the inevitable decline of the Homo Sapiens species on planet Earth.
499658
Human beings are the only species that think that they can 'improve' the environment they live in via 'progress' and 'invention' and 'technology'.\nI suppose this mistaken belief springs from the fact that we believe we are somehow 'superior' and it is our 'responsibility' to re-make the earth according to our stupid specifications.\nUntil we change and begin to understand that the real challenge is to live as much as possible 'in accordance' with nature and in harmony with the environment, we will keep on destroying the world we live in.Then, a time will certainly come when we wont have anyplace to live in anymore and that will be the end of us.