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<title> Whay do not people listen? </title>
We have a big environmental problem in the world today. The tempo, at which we are using the Earth's natural resources, is currently far to fast for effective control or thoughtful management. Control is especially needed in three areas: 1) hunting, 2) Deforestation, and 3) Water pollution. The environment is changing at a rate that is slipping from our control. When you speak about this, you often hear comments like, "you are so negative, we have always dumped things in the oceans, and people in Africa needs the ivory trade to survey". I agree that we should be able to use nature resources. In South America we have the big cotton fields and coffee fields, but is it right to cut down trees and kill animals for financial interests?

Attempts have been made over the years to stop rustlers and protecting endangered animals, such as Gorillas, Rhinos, and Elephants. Many of these efforts have been ineffective and more frightening still, some restrictions are even being lifted or removed, leaving the animals once again unprotected. One example of this is the Ivory trade in several African countries. A few weeks ago, the United Nations announced that several countries in Africa are allowing the ivory trade again, after many years of restrictions. The restrictions were an attempt to protect the few African elephants that had survived the ruthless hunt by rustlers. For many years the African elephants have manage to increase in numbers, but according to distinguished scientists, such as Cynthia Moss, they have not fully recovered. Elephants are still endangered, and will probably be extinct in about five years, if the ivory trade starts again. The governments in Africa will not be able to keep the ivory trade in organised forms. Rustlers will kill all elephants in their way to get the ivory.

A second threat to Earth's ecosystem comes from deforestation. Deforestation not only kills the plants and animals that live in the forests, but has far-reaching effects on the global climate.We are cutting down the rain forest not knowing all the animals living there. A soccer field of trees is disappearing every minute, every day. The forest is necessary for our survival, not only because of the oxygen that it provides us, but also because of its absorption of pollution. The lack of the forest also gives us climate changes, increasing numbers of El Ninos and El Ninas have been registrated. Temperatures rise, the ice at the North and South Pole's begin to calf. Calving at the Northpole is displacing the gulfstream, and indirect giving us a colder climate in the north of Europe, and a warmer climate in the south of Europe. The green house effect has not only raised the temperature on the planet, but has also been linked to incidence of skin cancers. 

Water pollution is a third behaviour desperately in need of regulation.For the whole century, big corporations have been dumping toxic waste in the oceans. This waste is killing all kinds, of sea mammals and fish. Unfortunately it is cheaper to dispose the waste this way than to rebuild the factories, or recycle the waste. The polluted water provides us food. Are we just going to accept that the salmon we eat is full of mercury? The toxics that we eat through the polluted food are known to cause cancer and other diseases.

The things that I have described are not a bedtime story. The facts that scientists report have not significantly altered our attitude toward the resources of the world. The problem is that people do not listen, or do they not care? We can not ignore these issues. But what could change peoples attitude? My attitude changed when I read about these problems and relacied that I could make a different by choosing what products I would like to buy. You can do it to and please do; it is needed to save the Earth.There is an old Indian saying: " We have not inherited the earth from our parents; we are just borrowing it from our children".
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