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atmosphere more disturbed than any time in living memory. Desertification is also on the rise across the globe. To illustrate the effects of this it is worth noting that Lake Aral in Asia and Lake Chad in Africa are almost dry for most of the year, lakes that should be comparable with the Great Lakes of North America.

The destruction of forests, tropical and otherwise seems to continue unabated, wiping out indigenous cultures in their entirety and putting at risk of extinction potentially half the fauna and flora of the planet an outcome unprecedented since the extinctions of the dinosaurs and other species about 65 million years ago.

In the oceans things are no better. If present rates of sea pollution continues one of the most immediate effects will be on the destruction of plankton. The knock on affect of this will be on fish stocks as plankton is the bottom rung of the marine food chain. The unseen affect will be on the planets oxygen/CO2 balance, which may be irrevocably altered. Also the Nino current of the Pacific Ocean, as well as the Atlantic Gulf Stream have become dislodged with consequences already showing up in unusual and extreme weather patterns for California and Europe.

Having already touched on nuclear testing, we must also look at the waste product of nuclear solutions as well other toxic chemical products. Although testing for toxicity has become more rigorous recently the list of Chernobyl's, Rocky Flats and Love Canals is getting longer and the funding for cleaning up after such problems ranges from inadequate in the richer countries to non-existent in the poorer ones. The International atomic Energy Agency was predicted that there are dozens of more Chernobyl's waiting to happen and it has also noted that fifty years into the nuclear age we still have not found a satisfactory way of disposing of nuclear waste.

Chemical fertilizers and pesticides are entering our food supply and contaminating our aquifers and drinking water, yet we are growing more dependant on seeds that require such chemicals, this is because many of the seeds have been developed and marketed by the same companies that make the chemicals needed to grow them.

Whilst some of the above issues may have natural interventions as partial causes there is one factor that is purely a human issue and that is the exponential growth of the human population itself. The population of the planet has actually doubled in living memory and with such a growth rate problems can only be on the increase. About 93% of the growth is now taking place in developing countries where environmental restraints are the weakest but where consumption and waste are fortunately twenty to thirty times less than they are in the western world. When the first world criticises the third world for their laxity in controlling environmental pollution, we should remember that it is the developed world that is responsible for most of the problem, we may have more stringent rules but we do have much more damaging lifestyles.

Learn more about this author, Dave Franklin.
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