Preliminary challenges

Human beings are the most dynamic entities in our planet and without the proper conditions for life, human life cycles are being altered negatively, then the unhealthy conditions push to affected lifestyles where life expectancy is reduced, originating disease and suffering, sometimes on the massive scale. The actual global framework defines a system that governs by the rule of military, economics and politics, more than concentrating honestly in the interest of society and the individual, setting all of us to a position of lower relevance in our capacity to influence the decisions that set the direction of progress, pushing the world to a state of inequality.

When humans gather in groups it is clear we are capable of achieving huge and monumental creations with the excuse of helping our lives and to push our society into progress but the side-effects have proven to be critical at this point:

A. OVERPOPULATION.
The bigger the human settlements, the harder it becomes their maintenance and organization. Overpopulation has grown into an epidemic since mortality rates have decreased, after medicine has improved and methods of industrial farming were introduced, its effects are severe, the worst being the degradation of the environment.

B. GENETIC MODIFICATION.
Major contributors to the survival and prosperity of humans are genetically modified organisms (GMOs). GMO’s are selected bred crops or crops that have had DNA directly implanted into it in order to give an advantage to the crop, whether that be to sustain colder temperatures, require less water, or yield more product. However, certain weeds have a learning immune system same as ours and have developed a resistance to herbicides, around 249 species of weeds are completely immune, according to the latest scientific report and they have become a threat to farming lands since they chock the outcrops, so to prevent this, the only solutions is to till the land, turning over the soil and later to replenish the depleted soil, fertilizer is used, which introduces a whole new set of problems to the environment and can be disastrous for local agriculture in the long run.

C. POLLUTION.
It is literally, everywhere, from trash thrown out of your window, to the millions of metric tons pumped into the atmosphere every year, at this point, pollution and waste are inescapable. 2.4 billion people do NOT have access to clean water sources; indispensable resources like air, water, and soil are continuously polluted and the problem is they require millions of years to replenish. At all rates, humans are consistently increasing CO₂ levels globally, supposedly increasing the planet’s average temperature, arctic land ice and glaciers melt causing the ocean levels to rise at a rate of 3.42mm per year, allowing more water to absorb more heat, creating a feedback loop that generates climate change and alters the weather patterns, the results are longer growing seasons, places will become barren wastelands as water will deplete in vast areas, turning once floral regions into deserts, hurricanes will be more intense, same as prolonged droughts and heatwaves.

Also CO₂ dissolves into the ocean, bonding with seawater to create carbonic acid, this acidification process reduces the pH levels in the water, depleting the concentrations of calcium, hurting coral reefs (responsible for the natural filtration of the ocean and production of necessary nutrients that are vital for life under the sea) and even the capacity of crustaceans to build their shell. The water is NOT only polluted by solids as plastics and garbage that accumulate in large vortexes across the ocean, trapping animals and tricking them into thinking they are eating food, but also the excessive amounts of fertilizers dumped in it promote the growth of phytoplankton and algae, which excessive growth depletes water bodies of oxygen and causes accumulated poisoning in all life that consumes them, including fish and birds. Water is also polluted when coal is burnt, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are released into the atmosphere where they rise up and accumulate in the clouds until the clouds become saturated, turning rain acidic that later will fall in water bodies, affecting negatively the surrounding soil so trees start to die, even to the point that entire fish species have been eliminated by this cause due to the effect of reduced growth rate, skeletal deformities, and failed reproduction.

Finally, the ozone layer has been affected too, reducing its ability to absorb harmful UV rays that are detrimental to the health of all walks of life; chlorine and bromine find their way up to the stratosphere where they s***p the O3 of oxygen, so crops like wheat and barley that are extremely sensitive to UV light resent the impact too, although most chemicals that deplete the ozone layer have been banned.

D. EXTREME TECHNIQUES OF EXPLOITATION.
Overfishing and overfished stocks globally have tripled in half a century and today fully one-third of the world’s assessed fisheries are currently pushed beyond their biological limits, threatening all aquatic life and leading the cause of reduced biodiversity. On the other side, deforestation is another alarming signal, the exponential expansion in human beings, require more materials and shelter that are being manufactured at fantastic rates, mostly stemming from forestry; forests are cleared to make way for new humans also, the problem is trees are one of the largest producers of oxygen so this becomes a major threat to the survival of species and a big conservation issue, increasing also greenhouse gases which is another source of climate change.