Sci 207 - What Are We Thinking

What are we thinking?

Pamela Smeltzer

SCI 207 Dependence of Man on the Environment

Dr. Valencia Williams

October 24, 2011

What are we thinking?

The consumption and production of are land is very important in order for us to strive as we like to in today's time. We use land that should be used for farming for condominiums, witch effects are food sources, but we use land that could be used for housing for landfills. We make a huge pile of garbage for are waists and move on to the farmlands to build house this does not make since. Just the damage we cause make since. The production and consumption of are land is very important, we need land for both, are resources are falling and yet we have not stopped yet.

Most of the country's prime farmland is located within the suburban and exurban counties of metropolitan areas. Such "urban-influenced" counties currently produce more than half the total value of U.S. farm production; their average annual production value per acre is some 2.7 times that of other U.S. counties. However, gloomily, the population growth is also unreasonably high, over twice the national average (Turk, J., & Bensel, T. ,2011). The counties with prime and exclusive farmland found to be threatened by particularly high rates of current development collectively produce some 79 percent of our nation's fruit, 69 percent of our vegetables, 52 percent of our dairy products, and over one-fourth of our meat and grains(Turk, J., & Bensel, T. ,2011). As farming land is being took over by aribin devolpment are cattle and fruit and vegtable price rise.

Writer Tony Hiss defines research, documenting strong human preferences for green landscapes with water, winding paths, long and sweeping vistas, and hidden natural places. Similarly, in a recent public opinion poll, 63 percent of respondents cited "the beauty of nature" as a reason for wanting to protect the environment (Turk, J., & Bensel, T. ,2011). A New Jersey survey reports that 78 percent of respondents supported changes in development patterns in order to preserve farmland (Turk, J., & Bensel, T. ,2011). Land use and land management are prevailing forces on the Earth (Meyer & Turner ,1992) Humans alter ecological processes directly and indirectly through land use, management, and policy decisions regarding natural resources (Brookfield 2001). In the United States, food production uses about 50% of the total land area, 80% of the fresh water, and 17% of the fossil energy used in the country (Pimentel and Pimentel 2003). Land degradation is removal of vegetation, soil erosion, salinization, and soil compaction is also severe, but it is difficult to estimate its extent or cost. About 60% of the historical wetland area in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States has been drained, largely for agriculture, causing a decline in flood abatement, water quality improvement, and bio- diversity. Human activities on the land are pervasive in all types of ecological systems on Earth, even those typically thought of as "pristine" and not inhabited by Homo sapiens. Furthermore, rural land use and man- agreement affect all ecological processes, often in several ways that together induce changes to ecological com- position, structure, and function ( Dale. V, A. 2005).

Over time more and more of the Earth's human population moves to urban areas, there has been a rapid increase in what are known as megacities urban areas of more than 10 million people. These megacities put a large amount of stresses on the environment for resources such as water and food, and generate mammoth amounts of waste in the process. Yet, because they are relatively intense in size, megacities also offer the possibility of reducing overall