Coral reefs: why they are wonderful, and why they are withering

Coral reefs are familiar biodiversity hotspots – sites of unusually high species diversity, under severe threat from human activities. We have all seen the explosion of coloured corals and reef fish on television – some cute, some weird, some bizarre, some breathtakingly beautiful. The second part of the definition has only come to our attention in the past decades, but research has shown that coral reefs have been degrading over hundreds of years, since the beginning of the industrial era. Yet, with the recent outbreaks of coral diseases and bleaching induced by climate change, the coral reefs are in greater danger than anyone could have imagined. 

Coral reefs are teeming with productive corals and active fish. 

Picture from: http://www.hdwallpaperstop.com/coral-reef-wallpapers/

Coral reefs are among the largest life-created (biogenic) natural structures on Earth, and make up their own ecosystems. Most are concentrated near the coasts of warm tropical waters, but some coral reefs exist in the deep oceans. Making up only about 0.1 % of the total ocean surface, they still sustain 25 % of all marine species, of all sorts of types.

The array of fish living in coral reefs is stunning. 

Image from: http://bailiffafrica.org/video-survey-assesses-east-africas-coral-reef-fish/

Corals make up the bulk of the reefs. They are anthozoans, members of the animal phylum Cnidaria, which includes jellyfish on the other end (yes, corals are animals!). Cnidarians basically have two main body forms: the medusoid – free-swimming – and polypoid – attached to a surface. Jellyfish are medusoid, corals are polypoid. Now, the funny thing about cnidarians is that the same species can have both medusoid and polypoid stages in their life cycle: for example, many corals have a medusoid larval stage, which swims around and, when it finds a suitable site, it drops an egg that hatches into a special type of larva (a planula larva), which attaches to the bottom and transforms into a polypoid. This is not very different from how seed plants reproduce.

The Cnidaria. Top left: jellyfish (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jelly_cc11.jpg), 

top right: coral (http://answers.wikia.com/wiki/File:Coral-6566.jpg), 

bottom left: a completely different type of coral (http://www.mbgnet.net/salt/coral/animals/cnidar.htm), 

bottom right: another completely different coral form (http://1234dive.com/gallery.html#!prettyPhoto[2]/8/).

The simplified, general cnidarian life cycle. Diagram from: http://www.oceanlink.info/biodiversity/ask/cnidaria.html

Corals produce hard external skeletons by secreting calcium carbonate, which solidifies and hardens. Since corals are colonial animals, and the calcium carbonate is not recycled soon after the animal has dies, the new corals grow on top of the hard remains of their predecessors, thus building up a reef.

Many modern corals live in symbiosis (mutually advantageous association) with photosynthetic microbial algae (i.e. single-celled organisms that grow on a surface and produce organic molecules using sunlight in photosynthesis). These algae are colloquially called zooxanthellae (yup, that’s a colloquial word all right…). They live in very tight partnership with corals, which provide living space (surface to grow on) and protection (from grazing fish or other plant-eaters). In return, the zooxanthellae share the nutrients they produce from photosynthesis with the corals, helping them grow. Both win!

Transparent corals showing the symbiotic algae growing inside them. 

Image from: http://serc.carleton.edu/eslabs/corals/2b.html

This symbiotic relationship means that coral reefs need sunlight, and therefore thrive best in shallow waters, where there light can reach. The corals living in deeper waters do not have symbiotic algae, so they are less restricted in their choice of habitat – yet, they are less productive. It is the symbiosis of corals and zooxanthellae that make coastal reefs the most productive marine habitat on Earth.

But the really amazing thing about coral reefs, from an ecological point of view, is that they seem to thrive in nutrient-poor waters! And yet, they are teeming with life, of great abundance and variety.

Part of the explanation to how this is possible is that the tight symbiosis with the zooxanthellae helps the coral reefs recycle their nutrients very efficiently, so they make the most of the little they have got.

Also, few of the other inhabitants actually feed on the corals; rather, they use them as sites to live, hide or reproduce. So, the corals are mostly left alone. (Tropical storms, however, are a different story!)

Another factor is probably the sheer diversity of organisms, which will depend on different resources, meaning that there is less risk of one or a few resources running low and becoming a limiting factor. So, instead of asking how these nutrient-poor ecosystems can sustain high diversity, perhaps we should consider the diversity a crucial factor allowing these ecosystems to function at all under these conditions. If we lose this diversity, the reef systems are likely to collapse!

In addition, various types of organisms may help sustain the corals, and the ecosystem as a whole. Some fish eat unwanted algae that grow on top of the corals, which would be blocking sunlight for the zooxanthellae. Other fish, and sea urchins (echinoids), feed on seaweed, which would otherwise crow tall and also block sunlight. Cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) can fixate nitrogen from compounds in the water, and thus provide the ecosystem with organic nitrogen, a crucial component in proteins. Sponges help recycle nutrients, by filtering organic material produced by corals and algae and converting this into tiny food particles that the corals and algae later eat. Corals are filter-feeding animals, usually eating plankton or suspended food particles in the water, which they combine with the nutrients given by the zooxanthellae; with two main sources of nutrients, it might not be as difficult as one would think to subsist in an overall nutrient-poor environment.

Finally, the main reason why the coastal coral reefs are not found in nutrient-rich waters, along the American and African west coasts, is not a matter of competition, as I first imagined. The thing is that corals are very sensitive to changes in water temperature, mainly because their production of calcium carbonate depends strongly on temperature.

The most nutrient-heavy waters are found at the depths, because that is where most of the decomposing organisms live, and where most dead organisms sink to. The nutrients are therefore released to the near-bottom waters.

This nutrient-rich water goes up to the surface during upwelling, which occurs when currents circulate the bottom water to replace the surface waters, and vice versa. Proper upwelling occurs only in certain coastal zones, where strong winds blow parallel to the coastline. Upwelling typically leads to massive algal blooms, which I first suspected would be the reason why coral reefs would not do well in such regions: the algae would cloud the waters so much that the corals below wouldn’t get the sunlight.

However, the real problem is that the bottom water is much colder than the surface layer. Therefore, upwelling causes a surge of cold – a rapid change in temperature, which the corals would not cope with. This is probably the big, decisive reason for finding coral reefs in the nutrient-poor coastal waters.

On a side note, I guess the deep-living corals can live in the deep bottoms because there are plenty of nutrients in the water, so they do not need symbiotic microbes.

However, to understand the ecology of coral reefs, one should also look at the surrounding habitats. For example, nearby sea grass meadows and mangrove forests can help provide nutrients, especially since many fish species move between the two habitat types, usually foraging for food among the sea grass, and coming to the reefs for protection against predators. This help is mutual: the coral reefs can help their surroundings by protecting them from waves and currents, or by providing sediment where the plants can root.

A sea grass meadow near the edge of a coral reef (I think…). 

Image from: http://marinepbl.weebly.com/interactionsrelationships.html

I think we can now appreciate what a wonderfully rich and complex ecosystem a coral reef is, and understand that this complexity is part of what makes their richness possible, just as much as the richness is needed to achieve this complexity. It is a beautiful interplay between these main components, and I hope it is clear how removing one will undermine the other as well.

Today, it is not radical to state that all coral reefs are threatened, and most have been in steep decline since before the 1900s. Most likely, the main cause is overfishing. As we have seen, fish are important in ‘cleaning’ the reefs, maintaining a healthy environment. Pollution is probably a large contributing factor, disturbing the delicate ocean chemistry and inhibiting carbonate secretion, if not directly poisoning the metabolisms of reef animals.

It seems to me that these factors are inhibiting coral growth and development rather than directly killing them, which, when you think about it, is a much bigger problem! If human activities were only killing corals, more would appear to replace them, as long as there are enough corals left to produce sufficient offspring. But if you undermine their ability to reproduce and grow, they will soon die of natural causes without being replaced by new, fresh corals.

Cnidarians are capable of regenerating destroyed body parts, so, in natural conditions, coral reefs are able to self-repair after catastrophic events, such as tropical storms, and maybe even from destructive commercial fishing methods, such as trawling and dredging. However, human activities interfere with their self-recovery, meaning that these catastrophes will leave permanent damage, accelerating the decline of coral reefs.

However, these effects, and the overall degradation of coral reefs was barely noticed, until the relatively recent onset of wide-spread coral diseases and coral bleaching, which have devastated many reef communities. I have not read much in-depth about these, but the term coral disease is rather self-explanatory, and I can imagine they are caused by pollution or the introduction of non-native species. Coral bleaching is the loss of zooxanthellae, due to conditions rendering the corals unable to retain them. These symbionts are what give the corals their remarkable colours, which is why the corals appear bleached when they are lost. Factors causing bleaching include changes in water temperature, chemistry and/or salinity, starvation (due to disruptions of the food chain), excessive sedimentation (blocking sunlight and/or filtration pores), and changes in sea level (which affects how much sunlight reaches down through the water to the algae ).

Bleached coral reef. Image from: http://theresilientearth.com/?q=content/comforting-science-earth-day

I would claim that, overall, the big big issue with coral reefs, as with the vast majority of ecosystems today, is the loss of biodiversity. Ecosystems with plenty of diversity are in general more resistant to any kind of disturbances, simply because if a part of the system gets knocked out, there is an abundance of organisms to replace that lost connection. The Great Barrier Reef, the most well-protected reef community, still has a decent amount of biodiversity preserved, albeit still substantially reduced. On the other hand, many coral reefs in the Caribbean sea have been so degraded by human activities, overfishing and pollution in particular, that many critical ecosystem functions are fulfilled by only a handful of species, leaving very little room for replacement if any should fail.

A well-known example of such a scenario is the demise of the echinoid Diadema antillarum, the single species of echinoid in charge of keeping seaweeds in check. When a disease wiped them out in the early 1980s, there was nothing that effectively grazed on seaweed, which bloomed rapidly, resulting in a complete ecosystem shift. And they still persist today.

Diadema antillarum, a.k.a. the long-spined sea urchin, or the black sea urchin. Image from: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/Pix%20Of%20The%20Day%20Marine/POTD%20SW%20Arch%20300-329/swpotdarch317.htm

Normally, herbivorous fish would be able to take on the role of controlling seaweed growth, but overfishing had depleted fish population to such an extent that they were unable to help.

I wrote this post based on my basic research on coral reef degradation and conservation. It was partly for my own sake, to summarise the information and my thoughts in a way that (hopefully) makes sense, and partly to inspire you to appreciate the beauty – and frailty – of these incredibly rich and diverse ecosystems.

And, I hope you understand why I personally try my hardest not to buy commercially fished seafood: because that is the main thing that is destroying these unique and fantastic sites, where life can thrive in spite of the adversity of scarce nutrients. This is why I strive to always buy MSC-certified seafood, and I hope you will now have that goal too!

Ages ago...

I know it has been ages ago since I wrote anything for either of my blogs. I didn't even get started with the promised weekly quick essay training posts.

I don't have any good enough excuse other than not having had the time to dedicate to the blogs. This unfortunately only means a lack of motivation, because if you want to do something real bad, you will find the time. I think my motivation has been largely drained by the course material being utterly uninspiring: the only thing I truly enjoy reading at the moment is statistics, and I'm not going to write blogs about that, for the love of god...

I have also had a major rethink about career choice, which has taken much of my attention from pretty much everything else work-related. I might write about my thoughts at some point, probably will, but won't disappoint you with another promise to be broken...

Part of me really wants to pick up blog writing again, though. And I do have some ideas... But I won't reveal them, because of a TED talk by Derek Sivers, who presented the idea that if you have a new goal or idea that you are excited about, you should resist the first impulse of telling everyone. The reason is that if you do tell someone, you will feel happy or even proud of the idea – without even having carried it out – and the contentment will make you less likely to actually do it!



I have indeed been watching a plethora of TED talks these last weeks, because (most of them) are simply amazing! Maybe that is another reason why I haven't felt inspired to write for this blog? I have been filled with so many other inspirational thoughts!

Anyway, we will see what happens next!

A break

Lately, I have been thinking about taking a break from blogging now until university starts again in mid-September.

First of all, I want to prepare properly for the second year of university, because now the grades are really important, and I suspect it will be harder than last year. I want to analyse the mistakes I made in the first year, research what they will expect of us this time, and design a strategy to meet those expectations as efficiently as I can. First year was more about testing how far I could reach with only half-hearted efforts; I came really close to a so-called two-one grade, which is the second highest, but now I want to be serious about excelling.

Second, from mid-August, my good friend Hanna will come back to Sweden, so I want to spend as much time as possible with her and Tim, because they will stay here the whole of next year, so will see even less of them than I did last year. Therefore, I basically have until mid-August to make most of the preparations for university.

Third, I want to make a serious effort to get my creative writing started again. I have been half-thinking about some ideas since last summer, but barely got started. But, with my plans to study more intensely and to exercise more, I won’t have much time left for creative writing if I also keep two blogs running. However, I will probably leave the writing to commence for real until after the start of university, so I can judge if I really have the time.

My intention is not to stop writing for any of these blogs, not at all! I will probably throw in a few casual posts per month, writing when I feel inspired or when something noteworthy happens. What I am taking a break from is the efforts to write regularly. So, in a sense, the posts in the near future will only be special ones, haha!  

A thought on corruption

Briefly skimming through the website of Sida (Sweidsh International Development Cooperation Agency), I mostly noticed what is written about their policy against corruption.

Expecting some genius method to prevent or detect corruption, I was quite struck by the simplicity of their measures. Basically, their policy seems to involve nothing more than firm non-acceptance. Or, as they put it:

Always prevent

Never accept

Always inform

Always act

This got me thinking: maybe that is the most sensible way of dealing with corruption? Maybe an absolute policy of non-tolerance for such fraud is effective enough?

I have not given the issue of corruption much thought, so I have no musings to share, but this idea grabbed my attention. From the top of my head, I would link corruption with personal gain – unfair personal gain – which is something I strongly believe is the purpose behind far too many actions of far too many people, influential or not. As such, I think corruption is yet another of those bad bad things that need to be prevented; another one added to the list that seems to never end…

(I have to end this post here, because we are suffering an awful heat wave here, so I cannot think straight, even less write anything sensible…)  

Inspiration spiral!

As I was looking through inspirational pictures on a Facebook page called El Tren de la Vida, I thought why not share some of them on this blog? They are in Spanish, but I hope to be able to translate them well enough to spread their essence. The page is full of pictures, and (although most don’t say much, really) maybe I’ll share some more another time. As for the name of this post, Inspiration spiral, I thought it sounded nice and with the potential for a nice metaphor to develop out of it… I have no particular idea in mind, but I’ll take the chance and maybe something will come up eventually, haha!

Many of these thoughts may seem obvious to you. When I present something that is obvious to my mom, she loves to exclaim, arrogantly sarcastic: ‘Oh, my son has discovered lukewarm water!’ I understand it makes you feel wise and good about yourself to say things like that, but it really just makes you obnoxious to us ‘less experienced’, who actually gained useful insights from things like these. Don’t judge others for their lack of experience; instead, try to share your invaluable experience with them!

The first picture is about engagement and personal development, the latter being something I hope I have emphasised the crucial importance of already (e.g. see the second post on open-mindedness).

The text reads: Never stop because you think it is too late… … it is never too late to improve. I can read two main messages here. First, being short of time is no excuse to stop trying, but rather a reason to try to do it faster, i.e. to work harder. Second, you can always improve, always change – there is no time when it is futile to strive to be a better person.

Although this is mainly cheap rhetoric, I agree quite strongly with the message. Although I have thought many times that ‘I don’t have time’, lack of time is really only a signal to get started right now! Unfortunately, it takes tremendous self-discipline to realise this and follow the principle. I only hope that having had my eyes opened now, the thought will come to mind whenever that silly excuse is trying to ruin my productivity and drag me down into a swamp of laziness and self-satisfaction.

The second one relates to this as well.

 

It says: There is no lack of time, there is lack of interest. Because, when people really want, dawn becomes day. Tuesday becomes Saturday and a moment becomes an opportunity. The first sentence is really what captured me. We often say we don’t have time about things we are not keen on doing, but when it comes to things we really are interested in, we can make time for it, usually by skipping something else, usually something we should be doing instead, but just don’t want to. It is about how we prioritise in life, and that is up to you and only you. However, depending on what we prioritise, there will be consequences, and when we decide on what to do, we should really weigh the pleasure of doing what we want against the consequences of not doing what we should.

Nothing strange, right? But it is worth thinking twice about this before falling to any temptation. We tend to be dangerously biased toward short-term gains, and have an impressive ability to ignore – or simply not see – long-term costs. (And we still scratch our heads in surprise when the capitalist economy collapses, or when the friend you always put on hold to play with others suddenly doesn’t want to talk to you anymore.)

The message of the third picture may be interpreted in several ways.

The sign the tree is holding reads: Asking for help for my family in the forest. I think the main message is that the forests are in danger. Deforestation is a serious problem in the world, not only because it accelerates global warming by releasing carbon dioxide (when the wood is burned) and destroying the things that can sequester the carbon dioxide from the air, but also because it devastates natural environments for more animals and other plants than we can imagine – in other words, throwing the areas into ecological chaos.

An additional interpretation may be that the lone tree in the middle of what looks like a shopping street of a city, pleading for help, may represent a beggar or a vagrant (homeless person) – the forest equivalent of a beggar or vagrant. The forest its his home, where its family and friends are. The forest was taken from it when the humans built the city street; or the tree was taken from the forest as a seed and planted in this unfamiliar environment.

A third message, one that might conflict with the second, comes out when you ask why the tree is asking for help for its family. Does it have a good life in the city, but is concerned for its family; or does it know that it there no hope for itself, but it can at least ask for a good life for its family?

Picture number four relates to Hanna’s and my open-mindedness project.

The text says: Before you judge people you should first know their motives for acting that way. The message of the text is clear and, of course, extremely important. However, what really excited me was the message of the picture (also in relation to the text under it). Whoever sees her standing with a paper bag pulled over her head, with the words “Don’t judge” written on it, will instinctively ask why is she doing that. A few might just think ‘bah, she is just crazy!’ and not thing more about it, but I think most would try to understand the reason behind this rather unusual demonstration. The words on the bag give one straight answer, but then you wonder: if she doesn’t want to be judged, why is she doing something so silly? Why not just wave the words on a wooden plank? Why do something so out of the ordinary? To get more attention? Is she an attention-junkie? But we cannot see who she is, and she cannot see if we are paying attention to her. Why is she doing this?

You understand, that gesture cleverly invites you not to judge her. By doing something so confusing that it is difficult to judge without trying to comprehend the motives, she is making the people seeing it be subconsciously open-minded – or at least, staring to get there. 

The final one is something I definitely ought to take to heart myself, for the purpose of this blog and these messages I want to reach out and inspire with.

It says: The world changes after your example, not your opinion. Trying to convince people to act in some way only because you think it is the right thing is not at all as persuasive as if you would show that it is right by acting that way yourself, so that others can see for themselves why it is a good thing. By showing, rather than telling, that it really works, people will trust you more. If they too follow your example, and share it with their community, also they will take it up, and spread it further.

Many people might say they don’t believe what they have not seen with their own eyes. At least you can hear that a lot on television. (By the way, that is a rather hypocritical statement, since I can bet my right hand that these people believe the Earth is round, that it revolves around the sun, that tiny microscopic organisms and viruses make you ill, that the clouds thousands of metres up in the sky are made of floating water particles, and many many more things we take as common knowledge in this era of science. They probably also accept that 1 + 1 = 2 without having a clue of how it is proved… I think you can see where I am going. People who say they only trust the evidence of their own eyes usually do it to deny the existence of God and other supernatural beings, but don’t realise how limited our eyes really are… not to mention how easily our eyes can be fooled by illusions or drugs!) Although I doubt many go to that extreme, I believe that most of us would trust actions above words, especially when it comes to motivating others.

I know from own experience with instructing beginners in karate that they are far more willing to struggle with a difficult exercise if I do it with them. Of course, I always try to combine display with encouraging words, but judging from the difference from when I only talk to them, I am confident that it is the actions that spur them the most. In addition, when they see that I usually struggle less with the exercises than they do, I include words to explain that it is because I have done the same thing many times before, and it gets easier the more you do it; this encourages them even more!

So, rather than nagging to your peers about how you think they should live, live that way yourself until they realise what a good idea it is! But be careful not to think yourself to be a paragon in everything. Be open to find good examples in other people as well, and be open to learn from them too!

Open-mindedness: Post 5

 The next post in our project about open-mindedness, written by Hanna, and, as usual, also published in her blog: A Little Blog About Words.

In this post I would like to talk more about the opposite of open-mindedness: Ignorance. Why does ignorance exist? What causes a person to become close-minded and why do we develop prejudices? I think that we need to understand the answer to these questions to be able to prevent that we ourselves become close-minded and to have a chance to try to get rid of any negative pre-conceptions we might have.

I think that the core emotion behind close-mindedness is fear. The majority of our attitudes and beliefs are created during our childhood, before we have many personal experiences to base our opinions on. We become open to things we are familiar with, while our attitudes towards other things to a large extent depend on what people we look up to have told us about them. If we are told by our parents, the media or other authority figures that something is dangerous or bad, we will in most cases accept this and incorporate it in our own ideas.

Sometimes we are aware of our attitudes and have reasons for them; For instance, my parents don’t drink any alcohol and when I was little I was told about the negative sides of drinking from a young age. This resulted in that I formed a very negative and judgmental attitude towards drinking and anyone who devoted time to this activity. I knew why I had this opinion and I took pride in it, but as a consequence I became more close-minded. This scenario is applicable on any type of prejudice, although in many cases the attitudes are formed subconsciously. If you for instance grow up in an environment where everyone comes from the same country and the only things you hear about foreigners are negative, the risk is high that you will feel intimidated when you meet someone with another background. Whether you are aware of it or not, you are likely to develop racist attitudes.

The way I see it, becoming open-minded involves a process of reconsidering your childhood outlook on life. To be able to do this you need to educate yourself and challenge as many of your prejudices as possible. Doing this will both allow you to base your attitudes on informed decisions and hopefully show you that many of your deeply rooted childhood fears are irrational. Acknowledging this is only the first step of course, if you have believed in or been scared of something during the majority of your life, you won’t be able to change that over a night.

However, if you on a rational level know that you don’t need to feel the way you do, that it doesn’t make sense, then you will eventually be able to defeat your close-mindedness! My negative attitude towards drinking remained for many years until I was in my mid to late teens. What made me finally change this idea was seeing that my own friends were drinking. At first this made me feel uncomfortable, but then I realized that it wasn’t as scary as I had always thought and that drinking alcohol didn’t automatically make you a terrible person. I think understanding this has given me a much healthier attitude towards drinking.

When we are trying to make sense of the world, especially as children, it is easy to organize the world into good things and bad things. Such “black and white” thinking is detrimental to open-mindedness. After all, name a group of people who have never done anything bad!? And who is perfect? NOBODY! … Or everyone… depending on how you see it. In this matter I am in total 100% agreement with the excellent musician and comedian Tim Minchin who illustrates this exact point in his song “Cont”:


With that I would like to finish this post by reinforcing Mr Minchin's point: Try to base your opinions on how people act towards you rather than on which group in society they belong to!

Here we go again!...

It is about time to start writing regularly for this blog again. I have been lacking inspiration for a long time, as I had feared would happen, but now I have to shake up and get down to writing something. The golden rule for all writers that are short on inspiration or motivation is to just write something down; staring at a blank sheet of paper, or empty Word document, is rather pointless. 

For some time, I have been thinking about changing the focus of this blog slightly – not turning it in a different direction, but narrowing it down a bit. The more I consider it, the more I am convinced that the main reason we have all these global issues is that humans are selfish – by nature, some would argue. Therefore, I want to write to inspire selflessness, solidarity and sacrifice (not in the ritual sense!).

I believe many problems could be solved or eliminated by just changing our ways. We have already achieved wonderful things by starting to think and act differently, such as abolishing slavery, reducing colonialism, and, to some extent, disarmament (at least compared to the 20^th century), in many countries. Of course, there is still much to be done, but we have fought for it successfully, as many are now fighting against poverty, famine, sanitation, etc.

Most of the good we have achieved has not come from scientific advances, I believe. Indeed, science has granted us many wonders, such as incredible medical development, and extended global communication through computerised technology. But, oppression and violence has been reduced by combined efforts to change the then-present order of the world. In the past centuries, slavery and war was how the world worked, but we realised that this is wrong, and fought to change it. Today, money-hungry companies rule the world instead of armed forces. This is still far from ideal, but an improvement at least, I would say. A simple metaphor would be that we have changed the currency from bullets to coins; but we should keep striving until it is love that makes our world go around.

I think poverty and famine could be broken by sharing. Easy to say, I know, but it is really not that difficult to do either, not at all as difficult as it might seem to us. If you find it hard to share, think about how much you probably already are throwing away for nothing. The less we waste, the more we can afford to give. (Cheap rhetoric, but it works!)

Less waste also means less strain on the environment. We humans put enormous pressure on our environment, not only by inefficient use in the poorer areas, but also by excessive use in the richer countries. Maybe the rich do not have to give their earnings to the poor, but if they devoted some of their resources and knowledge to helping the poor develop their lives, and at the same time refrain from excess, we might be on to something that works well for both parts and the planet we share!

This is what I want to convey to you, out there. This is a mentality I want to share and inspire, a way of life I believe to be sustainable and good for everyone. I want to do this because I believe it can be done, and I hope you share my thoughts and hopes. I hope we are all willing to keep changing to make this world a better place.