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Deforestation and erosion, along with changing weather patterns, have led to the fastest-growing regions on this planet—deserts. All the while, populations are exploding worldwide and the proliferation of deserts means there is less arable land to feed the increasing number of people. Starvation on a massive scale will run rampant, and whenever a noted ecologist or environmentalist sends out warnings about such dangers to human life, very few consider giving up any of their conveniences. For instance, they insist on using aerosols and traveling one-to-a-car, thus adding to the emissions, which cause the ozone holes to expand, leading to more cases of skin cancer—a vicious cycle, indeed.
To make matters even more critical, global warming is becoming an ever-increasing threat to the existence of humans and animals. Polar icecaps are melting, and sections, the size of the state of Rhode Island, are breaking off. Traveling toward the Temperate Zones, they begin to melt, placing an inordinate amount of fresh water into the oceans and causing an imbalance.
Humans further complicate their lives by allowing businesses to release pollutants in urban areas, in the name of profit. “Accidents” often take place at refineries where toxic fumes are released into the air that people and animals breathe. Pesticides are so widely used and pose such a threat that it is amazing all of them haven’t been banned.
Governments, anxious to appease money-hungry corporations and their stockholders, have allowed timber companies into National Forests to cut virgin-growth trees. Most of these businesses clear cut vast areas and often wait an inordinate amount of time to replant.
Burning questions never cease: When will governments—local, state, and federal—corporations, and the rest of the human race realize what is happening to this planet? When will the race for profit cease to consume them? Perhaps it will come about when there is no land left to farm and feed the burgeoning population, or there is no clean water left to drink, or wildlife to balance the ecosystem, or, more importantly, when their children start dying. By that time, however, it probably will be too late.
（编辑：徐老师）
