The Russians used the scorch and burn technique against Germany in World War II. I think we are having a similar effect based on the need to fuel our economic growth and consumerism.
Were you ever curious about seeing some tangible evidence of what we are doing to the environment?
Check out this short video presentation of beautiful but troubling pictures captured by Edward Burtynsky of Canada at www.ted.com - http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/edward_burtynsky_on_manufactured_landscapes.html.
As China starts to join the ranks of high consumers, similar to ourselves, they unwittingly provide clear examples of what is being done to the environment in order to support their ever expanding economy.
Many of Burtynsky's photos show what is happening in China, but they can easily be extrapolated to what we have done and what we continue to do to our own environment right here at home. Of course what we did happened over a much longer period of time which made it potentially less noticeable. Or perhaps people just cared less or no one thought to capture it in photographs. Of course technology has accelerated the speed at which we can defile things as well.
Whatever the reason, if we don't make changes soon we may pay some high costs to recover what we took for granted. That is assuming we even can.
For additional information, check out the documentary, Manufactured Landscapes, which followed Burtynsky along on many of his shoots in China.
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