You pride yourselves on your creativity, by which

you set yourselves above the rest of creation. Yet you

alone of all creatures destroy more than you create.

What impact have humans had on the

environment, and what legacy are we leaving for future generations?

WASTE LAGOONS

PESTICIDE SPRAYING

This child was born with severe mental retardation and birth defects from being exposed to pesticides before he was born.

Doctors say Juan Carlos Picado, 23, was severely affected by toxic pesticides used on banana plantations in Nicaraugua before he was born. He cannot walk, talk, feed or bathe himself, and his days are spent propped up in a chair. (Photo by Oswaldo Rivas, via San Francisco Chronicle)

These fish died when their habitat was contaminated by pesticide

runoff.

Over 400 pelicans died in Apopka, Florida, as

a result of DDT infiltration of the

environment. Some of the pelicans literally fell from the sky and died after suffering exposure to DDT.

AIR POLLUTION

Scientists estimate some 60,000 people die each year in the United States alone from the effects of smog.

In 1991, a London smog episode was linked to 160 deaths in just four days.

Each year diesel engines in the United States alone spew out 246,000 tons of

soot containing over 40 different possible, probable or known

carcinogens, and 2.2 million tons of smog-forming nitrogen oxides,

causing 125,000 cases of lung cancer, plus other potentially deadly

respiratory diseases such as asthma.

MINING

Tin MiningWaste

Heavy equipment is used to move soil in the pit at the Zortman gold mine near the Fort Belknap

Indian Reservation in Montana. The area, known as Spirit Mountain, was once the most sacred site of the Gros Ventre tribe, who long

ago made it the burial ground of spiritual leaders and a place for sun dances. It was the best place to find deer, bighorn sheep, herbs and natural medicines. It was also the most

dependable source of pure water for the reservation.

But no more - over a 20 year period, more than 200 million tons of waste ore and rock were torn from the mountain in the largest

cyanide-leach mine in the world. The pristine water of Spirit Mountain is now heavily

contaminated, as it was tainted with cyanide and heavy metals such as lead, arsenic and

cadmium.

Lead Slag Mountain

“Submarine tailings”

DEFORESTATION

Satellite images of roads and deforestation of the Amazon rainforest surrounding the Rondonia Development Project in Western Brazil in the 1970's. Dense vegetation appears in red. The same region 20 years later. Much of the cleared land is now abandoned or under-used grazing land

due to soil exhaustion.

This deforestation was due to the construction of ski slopes

DOWNTHE

DRAIN

TRASH

IMPACT ON ANIMAL LIFE

Many hunters and poachers still use

leg hold traps, which often catch innocent animals that the hunters

have no interest in.

Many fishermen have begun using thinner fishing line, which is almost impossible for dolphins to see. As a

result, many of them get trapped in the nets and consequently drown.

One of 16 whales that stranded on Bahama beaches following testing of a new Navy sonar system in the area, March 15, 2000. Autopsies on the whales found bleeding

around their brains and ear bones caused by exposure to the extremely loud blasts of noise used by the sonar system - at close range, the noise is millions of times more

intense than considered safe for human divers and billions of times more intense than the level known to disturb large whales. The Navy still plans to continue deploying the

sonar system in 80% of the world's oceans. (photo by Kenneth Balcomb)

There are only 5 species of tigers

left in the world, yet

poachers still hunt them for

their skins, teeth, and

claws.

Electricity poses a preventable hazard to many animals. These elephants died when they came in contact with electric lines

that had been strung too low.

These Harris Hawks were killed when they landed on un-insulated power lines.

We hear a lot about the dangers of land mines to humans,

but wildlife is also in danger. This

elephant lost part of her leg when she stepped on a land

mine.

There are currently 759 species that have been

classified as recently extinct. How many more animals will

be added to this list in our lifetimes?

Syrian OstrichDeclared Extinct

In 1935

The Blue PikeDeclared Extinct

In 1983

The last Tasmanian tiger, or Tasmanian wolf, died in captivity Sept. 7, 1936

The Quagga became extinct in the early 1900s.

The Caribbean Monk Seal Declared Extinct in

1996

The Yunna Box Turtle

Became Extinct

Sometime Around

1930

Miss Waldron’s Red Colubus Monkey was declared extinct

in 2000.

The Tarpan became extinct in

the early 20th century.

The Dusky Seaside Sparrow - Declared

Extinct in 1987

The Passenger Pigeon became extinct in 1914.

OTHER IMPACTS ON

THE ENVIRONMENT

This archeological site in Blythe, Nevada, shown first in 1932, and again in 1975, has suffered obvious damage from off-road vehicles. Ancient peoples made these designs, which are now

in danger of being destroyed by “modern” man.

Accidental "venting" of radioactive dust during Baneberry

underground nuclear test, Nevada Test Site, December 18, 1970

(yield: 10 kilotons). The bomb was buried 900 feet beneath the surface

of Yucca Flat and the radiation release resulted in a cloud of

radioactive dust 10,000 feet tall. The Department of Energy acknowledges 86 test site

employees were exposed to radiation, but still denies any off-

site exposure. (from Rural Alliance for Military Accountability)

This portion of the Great Barrier Reef has been bleached white by abnormally warm ocean waters. High ocean

temperatures caused by global warming could destroy the world’s coral reefs in the next 30-50 years.

Bottom trawling, or dragging heavy nets across the bottom of

the ocean, has destroyed much of the under-sea habitat, as

shown in these before and after photographs of one section of the

ocean floor.

If the radiance of a thousand suns

Were to burst at once into the sky,

That would be like the splendor

of the Mighty One...I am become Death,

The shatterer of Worlds.~ The Bhagavad-Gita

IS IT WORTH CARING ABOUT?

YOU DECIDE.

WE HAVE ONLY ONE

EARTH, AND ONE CHANCE. WHAT WE DO WITH IT IS UP TO US.