The Human Footprint Map shows that man has influenced approximately 83% of the earth’s land surface. This is very disheartening and does not give me much encouragement that my children will not be severely impacted by this. It worries me that when looking at the map, Canada is one of the few remaining places where there is a significant amount of untouched land. Whether the land is hospitable or not today is irrelevant. I don’t know when the breaking point will occur but with overpopulation, any land is going to be attractive. Because land = resources. I already see today a disturbing trend that Canada is taking on to sell valuable resources to the US, especially freshwater. There is a point of no return on our water resources that we are not even near, but it can creep up quickly given the exponential and irreversible damage that can occur with dropping water tables.
It may still seem like science fiction, but is it too far-fetched to see the US forcibly demand our resources should we begin closing the tap on some of these valuable commodities? What would happen in the event this ever occurred?
Back to the map, looking closely at the equatorial regions, the rainforest areas are way smaller than I had hoped them to be. This is the other major concern that leaves me troubled.  With China pushing into a modern age, the strain of close to a billion new 1st world consumers (well, let’s say 300 million to start with)  is going to hit the already dwindling resources hard.  What is the solution going to be? It is clear the reserves for oil, lumber and freshwater are realistically well defined and the limits are closer than first imagined.
We have very intelligent people that are working on alternatives, but things are going to change for better or for worse. Â
I learnt today that 1 million hectares in New Guinea’s rainforest is currently untouched by man. This is encouraging. Perhaps there are some species of frogs and birds that were thought to be extinct still living in this region. The discouraging part in this is that this made big news. 1 million hectares is not that large. But as the human footprint shows, it’s one of the few remaining gems in an overpopulated world.
I’ll be scanning the news forever looking for signs of optimism.
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