Monday, 1 July 2013

Hungry Species

Earth; Gaia; Terra (Host)


Earth, with the mass of 5.9736 × 1024 kg, it hang itself some 149,597,890 km from the sun (3rd Planet closest to sun) making it the only planet known to sustain live within the solar system. At the age of 4.54 billion years it is struggling to host more than 7 billion of its dominant species; Homosapiens or Human.



As of year 2013 the world population is estimated at a staggering 7.093 billion and the population graph is still climbing upward with estimation of 8 billon and 10.5, in year 2040 and 2050 respectively.  Unlike any other sentient being, the survival of human is getting more complex and hard to live with, not only we need clean water, food, sanitation facilities, clothing and shelter but we also crave for unprecedented indulgence such as branded clothing, digital entertainment, imported food, and cutting-edge communication& transportation. This consumerism behaviour is more profoundly detected in advanced country where it has become a basic need on top of the traditional necessity.

Hungry Species; Homosapiens AKA Human

To effectively formulate the antidote in handling or rather to overcome the carrying capacity, we must study the demography of each nation in order to have better understanding the trend and root-causes. Overpopulation occurs when the area does not have enough resources to cater for the amount of population.


By looking at human history one can notice that human lifestyle has change radically and dramatically with new ideas pop up out of human brain. Perhaps it’s the ability to create, invent, reinvent and innovate that make human different from the rest of the sentient beings and thus set us apart static lifestyle patent.

 Demography

Overpopulation occurs when the resource capacity of an area reach its threshold to sustain the population growth. Increment of population can occur by immigration from another area, growing population, low mortality rate& etc. To ensure sustainability of ever growing population, study of demography& anthropology pattern is essential to unlock the information ingredient into the solution for effective action to be taken. Every solution come with time and cost implications which then translate into constraints in formulating the solution. Geography has a fair share of factors to be considered; climate condition, altitude, day-time, epidemic, political restriction to immigration, richness of soil condition& etc.

Crunch on the facts, world population tilting to Asia with China as the most populated country and catching up fast is India. These two giants alone make up hosts 50% of world population in Asia. Indeed as of 2010, about 60% of world population live in Asia and that was 4 billion mouths munching on earth with equivalent amount of human’s waste output. People also seems to be shifting to live in the city since there are more job opportunity, more opportunity to earn better income, more in things hip hopping around and off course more opportunity to meet up with breeding-mate. No wonder the world now have 194 cities with more than 1 million people on the continent Asia, 56 in the Americas, 43 in Europe, 37 in Africa and 6 in Oceania.

Some Asian cities that pass a million population marks are as enumerated in the table below;
Ranking
City
Country
 Population
1
Seoul
S.Korea
                23,400,000
2
Mumbai
India
                21,600,000
3
Delhi
India
                21,500,000
4
Shanghai
China
                17,500,000
5
Calcutta
India
                15,700,000
6
Manila
Phipine
                15,600,000
7
Jakarta
Indonesia
                15,100,000
8
Karachi
India
                15,100,000
9
Guangzhou
China
                14,700,000
10
Beijing
China
                12,800,000
11
Dhaka
Bangladesh
                12,600,000
12
Tehran
Iran
                12,100,000
13
Shenzen
China
                  9,150,000
14
Bangkok
Thailand
                  8,650,000
15
Wuhan
China
                  8,650,000
16
Tianjin
China
                  8,000,000
17
Lahore
Pakistan
                  7,950,000
18
Chennai
India
                  7,850,000
19
Bangalore
India
                  7,350,000
20
Hyderabad
India
                  7,150,000
21
Hong Kong
China
                  7,100,000
22
Taipei
China
                  6,700,000
23
Baghdad
Iraq
                  6,250,000
24
Chongqing
China
                  6,200,000
25
Ahmedabad
India
                  5,650,000
26
Dongguan
China
                  5,500,000
27
Chengdu
China
                  5,450,000
28
Ho Chi Minh
Vietnam
                  5,450,000
29
Shenyang
China
                  5,050,000
30
Riyadh
Saudi Arabia
                  4,775,000
31
Yangoon
Vietnam
                  4,700,000
32
Xian
China
                  4,657,000
33
Pune
India
                  4,625,000
34
Singapore
Singapore
                  4,600,000
35
Nanjing
China
                  4,575,000
36
Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia
                  4,525,000
37
Chittagong
Bangladesh
                  4,350,000
38
Harbin
China
                  4,250,000
39
Hangzhou
China
                  3,925,000
40
Shantao
China
                  3,925,000
41
Pyongyang
N.Korea
                  3,675,000
42
Busan
S.Korea
                  3,575,000
43
Kanpur
Bangladesh
                  3,475,000
44
Dalian
China
                  3,375,000
45
Jinan
China
                  3,275,000
46
Qingdao
China
                  3,200,000
47
Bandung
Indonesia
                  3,175,000
48
Fuzhou
China
                  3,125,000
49
Jiddah
Saudi Arabia
                  3,125,000
50
Faisalabad
Pakistan
                  3,100,000
51
Taiyuan
China
                  3,100,000
52
Kumming
China
                  3,075,000
53
Jaipur
India
                  3,050,000
54
Zhengzhou
China
                  3,025,000
55
Rawalpindi
Pakistan
                  2,975,000
56
Surabaya
Indonesia
                  2,950,000
57
Amman
Jordan
                  2,850,000
58
Lucknow
India
                  2,800,000
59
Kaohsiung
China
                  2,775,000
60
Kabul
Afganistan
                  2,750,000
61
Nagpur
India
                  2,700,000
62
Daegu
S.Korea
                  2,675,000
63
Medan
Indonesia
                  2,650,000
64
Changsha
China
                  2,575,000
65
Meshed
Iran
                  2,550,000
66
Colombo
Brazil
                  2,450,000
67
Suzhou
China
                  2,450,000
68
Patna
India
                  2,350,000
69
Tashkent
Uzbekistan
                  2,350,000
70
Shijiazhuang
China
                  2,325,000
71
Guiyang
China
                  2,275,000
72
Urumiqi
China
                  2,275,000
73
Zibo
China
                  2,275,000
74
Lanzhou
China
                  2,275,000
75
Taichung
China
                  2,250,000
76
Anshan
China
                  2,225,000
77
Hanoi
Vietnam
                  2,200,000
78
Quanzhou
China
                  2,175,000
79
Nanchang
China
                  2,175,000
80
Ningbo
China
                  2,125,000
81
Bhilai-Raipur
India
                  2,025,000
82
Nanning
China
                  2,025,000
83
Isfahan
Iran
                  1,960,000
84
Xiamen
China
                  1,960,000
85
Sana'a
Yamen
                  1,950,000
86
Zhongshan
China
                  1,930,000
87
Tangshan
China
                  1,920,000
88
Taoyuan
China
                  1,920,000
89
Wenzhou
China
                  1,910,000
90
Gujranwala
India
                  1,900,000
91
Baku
Azerbaijan
                  1,890,000
92
Hefei
China
                  1,870,000
93
Indore
India
                  1,870,000
94
Vadodara
India
                  1,870,000
95
Damman
Saudi Arabia
                  1,860,000
96
Coimbatore
India
                  1,830,000
97
Baotou
China
                  1,820,000
98
Bhopal
India
                  1,810,000
99
Multan
Pakistan
                  1,740,000
100
Kuwait
Kuwait
                  1,730,000
101
Cebu
Phipine
                  1,730,000
102
Ludhiana
India
                  1,730,000
103
Palembang
Indonesia
                  1,730,000
104
Changzhou
China
                  1,720,000
105
Agra
India
                  1,700,000
106
Kochi
India
                  1,660,000
107
Semarang
Indonesia
                  1,660,000
108
Vishakapatnam
India
                  1,610,000
109
Meerut
India
                  1,600,000
110
Xuzhou
China
                  1,590,000
111
Asansol
India
                  1,580,000
112
Bhubaneswar
India
                  1,560,000
113
Taejon
S.Korea
                  1,550,000
114
Chandigarh
India
                  1,520,000
115
Dubai
UAE
                  1,520,000
116
Gaza
Israel
                  1,520,000
117
Yantai
China
                  1,520,000
118
Gwangju
S.Korea
                  1,500,000
119
Peshawar
Pakistan
                  1,500,000
120
Qiqihar
China
                  1,500,000
121
Luoyang
China
                  1,490,000
122
Mecca
Saudi Arabia
                  1,490,000
123
Varanasi
India
                  1,470,000


The immigration to concentrate in one favourable place is not new. Human is social animal and once lead a nomadic lifestyle hunter turn into community dweller, harvest the benefit of co-existence between human and rear pet for more efficient living. People started to realise their vegetable& prey does reproduce and bless with the arithmetic mind, the idea of farming ignited. As community grow larger the need for leader manifest hence tribe head, lord and king emerged. Territories were drawn to warn intruder. When resources are insufficient, warrior was created to steal from the nearby land and when enjoyment of others possession turn into greed it become a lust. The strong dominate the weak and so this is how human can’t cut off from our animal instinct, what more we are bless with superior genius brain, limbs that enable to make tools, larynx (voice box) that enable to craft our language, and the fear of death that very much associated with religion. All these ingredients coincide together form the so call civilization and technology advancement ensue. There is no lack of oppression from the strong to the weak but the only thing is it evolves into another forms. 

Sub-topics of Demography;
  1. Slum Population

Thirst for H2O

Every living being on earth consumes water, as for our species we suck up 45 billion cubic meter of water (2012) each year. So what is this water that we must consume in our daily life? Water is making out of a covalent bond between 1 atom oxygen and 2 hydrogen which means these atoms share their electron in a way that has achieve equilibrium state.

Earth is coated with 71% of water but only 2.5% is fresh water and 98.8% out of it is hidden underground or reach its maximum density (i.e. 3.98°C) freeze as ice. Less than 0.3% of all fresh water fills up the river, lake and the atmosphere. The fresh water that easier to process into portable water is already very limited yet cost of setting up the facility is not cheap, it’s estimated that 1 billion of people still no access to clean water and 2.5 billion without proper sanitary.

Sub-topics of Thirst for H2O;
  1. Rainwater Harvest

Illusion’s Necessity

Despite the imbalance in resources distribution yet we are far from stop craving in unnecessary consumption hypnotized by irresponsible conglomerates. No doubt the definition of necessity has evolved along with technology.

Sub-topics of Illusion's Necessity;

  1. Branding's Waste


Resurrection of Dinosaur

While scientist is still finding clue to clone dinosaurs or lazarus taxa extinction species to life we have inadvertently resurrect the dinosaurs let along with faunas deposit millions years ago by converting their remaining into usable (petroleum) fuel to feed machines, ingredient for cosmetic, building materials, plastic of all sort and many more. What I have to say is they will never rest in peace! Although there is no exact figure to tell how many of this fossil fuel left but one thing for definite is they are finite.

Fossil energy use increased most in 2000-2008. In October 2012 the IEA noted that coal accounted for half the increased energy use of the prior decade, growing faster than all renewable energy sources. Since Chernobyl disaster in 1986 investments in nuclear power have been small.

Energy use (PWh)[3]
Fossil
Nuclear
Renewable
Total
1990
83.374
6.113
13.082
102.569
2000
94.493
7.857
15.337
117.687
2008
117.076
8.283
18.492
143.851
Change 2000-2008
22.583
0.426
3.155
26.164
1PWh=1000TWh

As of 2010, 84% of energy generation in Malaysia is from fossil fuel which means to say every corner of our house, workplace and public area as long as there is electricity consumption we are burning out this finite resources.


“Resurrection of Dinosaur” will be elaborated further on a post of its own……

Dodo done!


Dodo (Raphus cucullatus ), the famous bird say goodbye to earth long (Year 1626) before I have the opportunity touch or even have a glance at it. Let along with hundreds and thousands of known and unknown (yet to be discovered) species has disappeared from the surface of earth. The six waves of extinction has hit our time as it evident by the unnatural extinction rate of estimated between 1,000 to 10,000 fold of natural extinction rate at 5 species per annum which means every day there are dozens of species face the hard facts of extinction. In fact 90-99% of species ever exist on earth has already become extinct which roughly around 5-11 millions of species!!  IUCN (International Union for Conversation Nature) has shoulder the responsible of providing information on species vulnerability to sustain on earth both in the wild and artificial environment such as zoo.



History of life on the Earth witnessed five mass extinctions (1st - Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, 2nd- Triassic–Jurassic extinction event, 3rd - Permian–Triassic extinction event, 4th- Late Devonian extinction, 5th - Ordovician–Silurian extinction event ) of species as a result of natural calamities. Currently, biologists are talking more and more often about the sixth wave of extinction provoked in many respects by human beings. Human no doubt is the dominant species in this planet evidence by its power to shape the landscape and faith of our surrounding flora and fauna. The exponential growth of human population has not only eat up space and resources share equally previously but ramifications of human activities has also contributing the six wave of extinction with “pollution” as a main contributor. 


Different species live in different habitat and origin from different geographical location. With humid hot climate, Equator has the most favourable condition for most species found on earth. However, it is also where most developing countries located. Expansion of human territory into the wild life habitat is inevitable. Hundreds years old trees disappear in the split of second, make way for human shelter with the cost of others. Some loss their shelter while some herbivores loss their food and shrink in population. Carnivores like the big cat, tiger, leopard& jaguar, in turn loss their prey. The disturbance of whole ecological food chain brings down the subsistence of species on earth surface.

The percentage of disappearing Species from 1990-2004;

·         Bahrain 700%
·         Qatar 333%
·         UAE 170%
·         Taiwan 167%
·         Singapore 144%
·         Oman 127%
·         Hong Kong 125%
·         Thailand -75%



No comments:

Post a Comment