The Biggest Threat to Human-Kind

I could not identify one single threat apart from ourselves, humans. If you go on Netflix, you will see in popular culture that every film seems to be a world-ending, sensational apocalypse from a zombie causing the virus to an alien invasion, a natural disaster super-volcano eruption, nuclear war or a power mad man with his finger on the button and I mean there is it none of those in the world right! (Beard, 2019)

According to the Royal Meteorological Society, February 2019, on a serious note, calculated the likelihood of catastrophes, including the chance of a volcanic eruption, solar flare, nuclear war, and a 1.5% chance of a serious pandemic (Beard, 2019).

The World Health Organization has top-10 threats to global health in 2019, and the first one is pollution and climate change.

They consider it a high health risk and suggest that 9 out of 10 people are breathing in polluted air every day (WHO, 2019).

A global risk report backs this up carried out in 2019 by the world economy forum, and again, the top risk to humankind is climate change (weforum, 2019).

In contrast, the British Government has categorised the risk of biological hazard as the top threat and climate change 2nd to the UK population (Waldersee, 2019).

However, this should not be surprising. In my opinion, a number of factors contribute to climate change caused by the activities of humankind.

Degradation, fragmentation of habitats that cause biodiversity loss by converting habitats (Natural Resources Wales, 2019) are the main feature of industrialisation and wild areas. Furthermore, intensive agriculture, urbanisation by isolating habitat species interrupts species breeding and available food sources.

It also increases diseases and parasites if species cannot move from one area to the next freely (Venkatesh, 2018).

Degradation means a process by which the quality of the habitat is degraded; of course, this can happen naturally, but there is usually a process of renewal and animals moving on, therefore if species cannot naturally migrate or move around due to human’s activities, this causes fragmentation leading to loss of biodiversity (Venkatesh, 2018).

Inequality

According to Neate (2017), “The richest 1% of the population owns half the world’s wealth”, in the 2008 financial crisis, the richest people increased their wealth from approximately 42% to 50%, additionally research carried out by Oxfam states the carbon emission of the richest 1% produce more than double emission of the poorest half of the world population.

The research was carried out by the Stockholm Environment Institute, which assessed the consumption and emissions of different groups of people over 25 years (Oxfam 2018).

Capitalism tends to lead to inequality by exploiting workers and customers, which further exploits and damages the environment (Pettingeer, 2019).

This conflicts with the natural cycles and accumulates assets such as natural resources, which is therefore not sustainable (Reyes, 2019).

Fossil fuel and agriculture

The burning of fossil fuels and agricultural processes, according to NORA (2020), is significant. The global average atmospheric Carbon Dioxide totalled 409.8 parts per million in 2019, which is an increase of 2.5 ppm from 2018.

This not only causes climate change it also changes the ocean chemistry through ocean acidification.

Ocean Acidification affects calcium carbonate base organisms and their ability to produce shells. (Lindsey, 2020).

One of the biggest concerns is the agricultural carbon released; according to Dr Ellis William (2018), this suggests changes to agricultural practices could hugely reduce the carbon in the atmosphere (Farms, 2018).

For example, worldwide, Cigarette smoking contributes to 84 metric tons of emissions that is approximately 0.2% of the global total; it impacts health and affects the environment (Dunning & Wilson, 2018).

I recommend watching kiss the ground: regeneration agriculture documentary on Netflix 2020 https://vimeo.com/450273993.

Human population

The Increases in the human population as a finite on natural resources creates mass urbanisation of the planet, which creates a big effect on biodiversity as either population needs to be smaller or each human needs to use less (prb.org, 2021).

Increases in Zoonotic diseases

Many scientists agree that habit destruction and fragmentation caused by urbanisation brings people closer to wild areas.

The decreased space constructs the situation where people come into contact with wild animals, parasites, etc. (Wilkinson et al., 2018).

Furthermore, according to Misra (2018), when animals and habitats are under stress, they produce and share viruses.

Over the last decade, 75% of new diseases that affect humans were caused by pathogens originating from animal origins (Cuthbert, 2020). In the last 50 years, there has been an increase of Zoonotic pathogens; HIV was caused by eating primates, herpes B was carried by monkeys, yellow fever, Hong Kong flu, the last 20 years SARS, bird flu, swine flu, MERS, Ebola, zika virus, Sars-CoV-2 and the ongoing COVID-19 (LePen, 2020).

According to some scientists, environmentalists and conservationists, we are now in the;

"Beginning of a six Mass extinction Anthropocene Epoch" Rafferty, 2020

There seems to be a correlation between an increase in human population and disease, capitalistic societies, climate change and habitat loss. Additionally, human attributes such as Bad habits, ignorance, greed, and inequalities.

According to Stephen Hawking, “humans are still greedy, a stupid threat to Earth” however, I am optimistic that I feel that we may (highly likely) have to go through some painful things before we change.

We must control our behaviour, change our habits, reduce our population in the ethical and caring way, adopt changes to our selfish ways, prevent greedy associations within the social structure, and reduce inequalities in society.

We need to move away from capitalism, which I feel embellishes selfishness and feeds inequality, which is a significant threat to humankind and our way of life as crafts practitioners.

Impact on own practice

Ceramic pottery, according to Muthu (2014) within the production of ornamental earthenware the estimated carbon footprint is 1.22kg CO2e per piece this is based on the more intensely industrialised manufacturing process of ceramics and includes the excepted international standards (ISO:14040).

The study looked at the whole Carbon contribution of the process from the mining operation, Biscuit firing to the end purchase of the ceramic piece. In comparison, one plastic water bottle produces 82.8g of carbon dioxide (Plastic Recycling Library, 2021) which at first seems to be a surprise that a plastic bottle produces less carbon than clay pottery, as clay is a more natural product.

However, that’s based on one plastic bottle and in the UK it is estimated that 38 million plastic bottles are used in the UK every day, 1 million per minute worldwide and 16 million are thrown away and then allowed to leak into the environment and oceans (Laville and Taylor, 2017).

On reflection of my own practice this uses a lot of raw material such as minerals for glazes and clays are mined usually from opencast mines which incorporates various industrial processes.

The Creative Carbon Scotland organisation suggests to-be mindful of your activities and to actively reduce the impact on the environment which incorporates an element of evaluation and review of process.

I actively look for alternatives where there are limited materials to see if the source material conforms to sustainable practices; fair trade standards and holds certification such as the Carbon Trust label and Soil Association (creativecarbonscotland.com, 2021).

I could reduce my carbon footprint significantly if I source my clay locally, for example Ewenney pottery, Bridgend have for centuries source their own red clay from the mudflats of the river Ogmore (Jenkins, 2020).

Additionally, I employ design processes such as human and environmentally centric design thinking and further investigations into different technique of glazing such as Raku glazing which uses additional organic waste materials to colour pottery.

---

References

Fig 1. Martinez Monsivais, P. (2018, July 16). U.S. President Donald Trump, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin pose for a photograph at the beginning of a one-on-one meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland. Cognoscenti . https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2018/07/17/helsinki-summit-rich-barlow

Fig 4. Threat to the UK. (2019, February 11). https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/inlineimage/2019-05-29/globalhealth1_edit-01.png

Fig 5. Weforum.org. (2019). The Global Risks Report 2018 13th Edition (14th ed., p. p4). World Economic Forum. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Global_Risks_Report_2019.pdf

Fig 6. prb.org. (2021). Climate Change Impacts And Emerging Population Trends: A Recipe For Disaster? – Population Reference Bureau. Population Reference Bureau. https://www.prb.org/climatechangeimpactsandemergingpopulationtrendsarecipefordisaster/

Fig 8. Manternach, T. (2020). Human Population Growth And Climate Change.

Biologicaldiversity.Org . https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/population_and_sustainability/climate/

Fig 9. LePen, N. (2020, March 14). Visualizing The History Of Pandemics. Visual Capitalist. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/history-of-pandemics-deadliest/

Beard, S. 2019. What Are The Biggest Threats To Humanity? Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-47030233 [Accessed: 17 February 2021].

Cuthbert, L. 2020. What Are Zoonotic Diseases? Available at: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/how-do-animals-pass-dangerous-zoonotic-diseases-to-humans-zoonoses-coronavirus [Accessed: 19 February 2021].

Dunning, H. and Wilson, J. 2018. Cigarettes Have A Significant Impact On The Environment, Not Just Health | Imperial News | Imperial College London. Available at: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/188406/cigarettes-have-significant-impact-environment-just/ [Accessed: 19 February 2021].

Farms, J. 2018. How Tilling Is Killing The Atmosphere: A Year Of Carbon Dioxide Accumulation. Available at: https://joyce-farms.com/blogs/news/how-tilling-is-killing-the-atmosphere [Accessed: 19 February 2021].

LePen, N. 2020. Visualizing The History Of Pandemics. Available at: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/history-of-pandemics-deadliest/ [Accessed: 19 February 2021].

Lindsey, R. 2020. Climate Change: Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide | NOAA Climate.gov. Available at: https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide [Accessed: 19 February 2021].

Lüthi, D. et al. 2008. High-resolution carbon dioxide concentration record 650,000–800,000 years before present. Nature 453(7193), pp. 379–382. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature06949 [Accessed: 19 February 2021].

Martinez Monsivais, P. 2018. U.S. President Donald Trump left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin pose for a photograph at the beginning of a one-on-one meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland. Available at: https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2018/07/17/helsinki-summit-rich-barlow [Accessed: 18 February 2021].

Misra, V. 2018. Stressed Bats Can Increase Spread Of Deadly Viruses. Available at: https://news.usask.ca/media-release-pages/2018/stressed-bats-can-increase-spread-of-deadly-viruses-.php [Accessed: 19 February 2021].

Natural Resources Wales 2019a. State Of Natural Resources Interim Report 2019: Challenges. Available at: https://naturalresources.wales/evidence-and-data/research-and-reports/state-of-natural-resources-interim-report-2019/challenges/?lang=en [Accessed: 19 February 2021].

Neate, R. 2017. Richest 1% Own Half The World’s Wealth, Study Finds. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/nov/14/worlds-richest-wealth-credit-suisse [Accessed: 19 February 2021].

Oxfam International 2020. Carbon Emissions Of Richest 1 Percent More Than Double The Emissions Of The Poorest Half Of Humanity | Oxfam International. Available at: https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/carbon-emissions-richest-1-percent-more-double-emissions-poorest-half-humanity [Accessed: 19 February 2021].

Pettingeer, T. 2019. Pros And Cons Of Capitalism - Economics Help. Available at: https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/5002/economics/pros-and-cons-of-capitalism/ [Accessed: 19 February 2021].

prb.org 2021. Climate Change Impacts And Emerging Population Trends: A Recipe For Disaster? – Population Reference Bureau. Available at: https://www.prb.org/climatechangeimpactsandemergingpopulationtrendsarecipefordisaster/ [Accessed: 19 February 2021].

Rafferty, J.P. 2020. Anthropocene Epoch. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/science/Anthropocene-Epoch [Accessed: 19 February 2021].

Reyes, F. 2019. Capitalism Is Responsible For Climate Change. Available at: https://www.leftvoice.org/capitalism-is-responsible-for-climate-change [Accessed: 19 February 2021].

Threat to the UK. 2019. Available at: https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/inlineimage/2019-05-29/globalhealth1_edit-01.png [Accessed: 19 February 2021].

Venkatesh, S. 2018. Why Zoonotic Diseases Are Fast Spreading To Humans. Available at: https://www.downtoearth.org.in/coverage/forests/why-zoonotic-diseases-are-spreading-to-humans-at-a-faster-rate-60598 [Accessed: 19 February 2021].

Waldersee, V. 2019. What’s The Biggest Threat To Human Life? | YouGov. Available at: https://yougov.co.uk/topics/health/articles-reports/2019/06/27/whats-biggest-threat-human-life [Accessed: 19 February 2021].

WHO 2019b. Ten Health Issues WHO Will Tackle This Year. Available at: https://www.who.int/news-room/spotlight/ten-threats-to-global-health-in-2019 [Accessed: 19 February 2021].

Wilkinson, D.A. et al. 2018. Habitat fragmentation, biodiversity loss and the risk of novel infectious disease emergence. J. R. Soc. Interface. 15(149), p. 20180403. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2018.0403 [Accessed: 19 February 2021].

Muthu, S.S. 2014. 3. Case study. In: Assessment of Carbon Footprint in Different Industrial Sectors, Volume 2. Hong Kong: Springer Science & Business, p. 127.

Plastic Recycling Library 2021. What Is The Carbon Footprint Of A Plastic Bottle? - Plastic Recycling Library. Available at: https://plasticrecyclinglibrary.com/resource/what-is-the-carbon-footprint-of-a-plastic-bottle/ [Accessed: 26 April 2021].

Laville, S. and Taylor, M. 2017. A Million Bottles A Minute: World‘s Plastic Binge ’as Dangerous As Climate Change’. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/28/a-million-a-minute-worlds-plastic-bottle-binge-as-dangerous-as-climate-change [Accessed: 26 April 2021].

MEC 2021. Clays | Minerals Education Coalition. Available at: https://mineralseducationcoalition.org/minerals-database/clays/ [Accessed: 26 April 2021]

Jenkins, K. 2020. Ewenny Pottery. Available at: http://ewennypottery.com/visit-us [Accessed: 26 April 2021].

www.creativecarbonscotland.com 2021. About Creative Carbon Scotland | Creative Carbon Scotland. Available at: https://www.creativecarbonscotland.com/about/.

Hawkings, S. (2016) Larry King Now – Interview with Stephen Hawkings. Available at: www.ora.tv/larrykingnow/2016/6/25/larry-kings-exclusive-conversation-with-stephen-hawking [Accessed: 26April 2021]