Plan B 4.0

Advancing Deserts. Photo by: Treehugger.com

"Advancing deserts in northern and western China have forced the complete or partial abandonment of some 24,000 villages and the crop-land surrounding them." (Brown, 7)

This is just one more example of how the way we live affects the world and environment around us. When we change one little thing about the environment, many more things are completely changed as well. In this example, the advancing deserts are because of humans overusing the land. This could be because of plowing or farming too much. There are many examples in which people have changed nature to benefit themselves. Such as filling in rivers to make more land to build on or destroying habitats and area to sell. These changes affect many things such as the animals, organisms, and the physical land. Many people do not think about these things when they are destroying the land, they only think of the benefits for themselves.

Lack of water. Photo by: blog.strauss-group.com

"With the vast majority of the 2.4 billion people to be added to the world by 2050 coming in countries when water tables are already falling, water refugees are likely to become common-place." (Brown, 53)

I think it's completely crazy that there are so many water shortages in the world but I rarely ever hear about them. Often I hear of these types of things when the area is in extreme drought or when people say it is happening in other countries. I do not understand why it is not brought to our attention how bad the future could be. I never knew Florida was having a water shortage until last week when we heard about it in class. I live in this state and had no idea. People should be making this information known. I think this is much more important than which celebrity is pregnant or reality shows about random people. This information and ways to prevent loosing all of the water should be shown to people instead.

Wake up call. Photo by: fojailnohel.wordpress.com

"Many social changes occur when societies reach tipping points or cross key thresholds. Once that happens, change comes rapidly and often unpredictably." (Brown, 257)

Like in most situations, people need a wake up call or an intervention before they will realize that their habits are wrong. People don't understand what they are doing wrong until they see the actual proof. I think people should be more informed on what is going on around them. Maybe providing the information will help before it is too late. Often when you reach the wake up call moment with the environment, there is no turning back. We should work the information into the television shows and social media that our society is so obsessed with. If they can do it with advertisements
 of things they want people to buy, they can do it with information about the environment.