Science has grown a lot lately and scientists have discovered that the planet where we live had a lot of changes during the history. But, our planet’s history is very long, so, there were changes in a history which is 4.5 million years long. In the last 10.000 years, there were no such big changes as before that. Thanks to that, we are still living here. But, there is something that is happening to Earth that could start another big change. Industrialization. Until machines weren’t discovered, people couldn’t exploit that much resources and couldn’t pollute the environment that much as they do that nowadays. When we got machines, we became more productive and we started using more resources at the same time. Life standards have grown, population rises and needs are growing very fast. It requires more resources, and so on, until we touch the bottom, when we say that there is no more. Our planet might seem large enough so we don’t have to worry about those things, but, if you take a look at some recent information about resource exploitation, you will see that they are very close to the end if we keep using that much of them. Everything has boundaries. So has the Earth. And, if we cross those boundaries, there will be no way back. We will need to watch not to cross them and we will live on this planet for a long time. If we don’t respect the power of nature, we will be doomed. Stockholm Research Center has discovered nine boundaries and seven of them are quantified.
We are aware that we mustn’t keep living in a way we used to, because there are boundaries.

1. climate change,
2. ozone depletion
3. ocean acidification
4. biogeochemical flows
5. biodiversity loss,
6. land-use change
7. global freshwater use.
8. atmospheric aerosol loading
9. chemical pollution

The first three, as you see in the picture, are critical and have already reached boundaries. If we don’t do something to stop it, we will have a great problem. People exploit many resources and the amount is just rising. By converting those resources into final products, we create many substances that pollute the ecosystem. It affects species which are adapted to living somewhere with certain conditions. If we reach the breaking point, we will start some irreversible changes which also cannot be predicted precisely, but, there is a great risk that our planet won’t be good place to live then.

Today, we can say that we came into a very dark tunnel, a tunnel which we created. But, there is a small, shiny thing that we see far ahead. That is the light at the end of the tunnel, that is the solution. It is a fact that we are the first generation that is actually aware of problems we created. We know that we harm our environment by our activities. Because of that, we know the importance of saving our environment. We know that it is not enough just to control pollution. We need to reduce it to minimum. And the key for that is ecological literacy. This problem requires a lot of people with knowledge, it requires creative people who will find a way out.

There is a thinking that says that there is a problem with transforming global production and industry into green production. Many think that it will harm their business if they changed their business into a green business. But, also, many people, with American President Obama, see this as a great chance, because there are examples of how going to green production can lead to increasing profits and productivity.

Recently, we have celebrated the birth of the 7 billionth inhabitant. One new baby is always something what makes us happy, but, it is also something that opened many questions. It showed that Earth’s population is growing very fast and that soon we will have population of more than 9 billion people. That is really a lot of people. All those people need to eat and drink. All those people have needs, they need to dress, they need transport, medicines,… And, resources we have on our planet are not growing, they are reducing every day. Because of that, what we need to do is to try to use resources more efficient, with less waste. Implementing Kaizen methodology is one way to do that.

All these people need a place to live. Because of that, urban planning is also important. Space is also something that is limited. This is one possible solution how to use space better. The space we don’t use to live, we use mostly for food production. It is impossible to survive without food, so, we really need that. But, once again, the space is limited, so, we need to improve our agricultural techniques. We need to innovate our agriculture and produce more food at smaller space. There is still unused space for improvement. We will and we must use it in future.