How long can we bury and burn the things we don't want, and keep taking the things we do want from the earth ?

Answer 1

Not for as long as many people would like to believe. We're running out of "wide-open spaces", landfills are filled to overcapacity, and there is NOT an infinite supply of natural resources as so many want to believe. Consider these thoughts:

If we continue to asphalt over rich farm land so we can build more housing additions and glitzy shopping malls, we will eventually run out of rich farm land. Farmers won't be able to raise cattle or grow crops such as corn, fruits, wheat, barley, vegetables, and soybeans. Contrary to the majority of Americans who believe food comes from a supermarket, when farmers can't grow anything, food manufacturers, processors, and distributors will be our of business. Supermarkets shelves will be empty. Without food, we can't eat. Without eating, we will DIE.

If we continue to allow oil companies to drill for OIL in oceans and the Alaskan tundra, their activiites will ruin the habitats of many creatures that live in the seas, including whales, dolphins, tuna, seaweed, and coral reef (yes, it's a living marine animal, not just a bunch of pretty-colored rock). So, the day might come when your family can't enjoy a simply tuna casserole, shrimp cocktail, or a McDonald's fish sandwich. If we destroy the caribou mating paths, small tribes of Eskimos who depend on caribou for food, clothing and shelter will become extinct. But what does that matter as long as we have gasoline for our $60,000.00 SUVs? Oil companies' drillings destroy the fragile ecological balance between human beings, plants, and all other animals on Earth. If Nature (or a universal intelligent designer, or a coincidental series of "big bangs", or God) put a lowly species of frogs in the Amazon rainforest, it was probably put there for some cosmic reason, not intended to be made extinct by man's greed and arrogance. Perhaps its saliva might have the cure for cancer - but if McDonald's continues to chop down the rainforest so it can graze more cattle and sell us billions and billions more cheap hamburgers.

If we continue to ignore the consequences of global warming, cities on both coasts of both major oceasn will eventually be flooded, hit with horrendous hurricanes, and subjected to all kinds of other natural disasters.

But, all that probably won't happen in our lifetimes, so we'll just let our grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren worry about how to deal with it. We're just too damned comfortable throwing stuff into landfills without having to REuse, REcycle, or REturn.

Like lobsters languishing in a pot of lukewarm water, we won't start screaming until the water starts boiling. Then, as always, our government will take its REactive approach (instead of a PROactive planning project) and we'll all be in a panic trying to save the Earth when we should have started saving it decades ago! We'll be screaming in agony over our own apathy.

THAT'S HOW LONG WE CAN BURY AND BURN THINGS WE DON'T WANT, AND KEEP TAKING THINGS FROM THE EARTH WE DO WANT! -RKO- 07/14/06

Answer 2

A very long time remember those things we are burying most of the time didn’t come from outer space and there are very few elements are man made although some of those are very bad so when people complain about us using mercury remember that it was mined in the first place and therefore existed naturally in large enough concentrations for us to extract a very long time ago so if we pull it out and use it industrially assuming that we dispose of/recycle it responsibly we are acutely making that part of the environment it came from cleaner that’s important to remember when the environmentalist tell you drilling for oil is bad go ahead at let them tell you that burning it is bad cause it is but dont try tell me that if I spill 5 gallons of this stuff in the soil in California I should get a huge fine but some how its beneficial to have millions of barrels of it pollute the soils of a wildlife refuge plus I grew up in mining country and have seen first hand what the mines do to land these day and with all the regulation on them they move in strip the land of anything of value for as long as is profitable and then move out by tearing shop and reclaiming the environment with animals and plants indigenous to the area leaving the place cleaner they found it some place require these companies to make a deposit for the price that it will take to reclaim the land when they are done before they are even aloud to move in so the only concern is of an accident and when looking at oil the oil companies are still required to clean up their spill if it happens the current pipeline in Alaska has caused no problem and those silly little Eskimos that haven’t joined the modern world yet oh no wait they have and they like the pipeline and the jobs it brings (I know this cause I chill with them ha ha) so basically its all a cycle man so if we can keep the cycle going were good in other words oil for recyclable plastic good oil for energy bad and that pretty much goes for everything as far as plowing over good farm land goes we’ve already proven that we can get better crop yields using no soil at all and many hydroponics greenhouse around the country are showing this each day using organic fertilizers and don't worry about those guys who tell you about deforestation for cattle farming they are usually the same people that complain about the poor living conditions and pollution caused by slaughter houses in the states if you want this cycle to go forever just try to be responsible and follow the laws about disposing of things and well work on the rest as we go better to try and move forward than lie here and lament about were we are

Answer 3

Considering the fact that we currently only actively USE a small percentage of the total earth's usable surface area, my guess would be for a VERY long time... IE, once we screw up one place we can just do what the simpsons did on the Garbage Man episode, and just move the town 5 miles down the road...

Not saying it's a good idea, just, yeah, lots of wide open spaces nobody's using. So it could go on for a long time. Of course it would utterly kill the planet, but hey, who's counting?

Answer 4

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Answer 5

We can only continue doing such things as long as our world governments permit it. Eventually we will use up of some of our resources, which will cause us to look for sources elsewhere in the solar system. In regards to polluting our environment, escalating costs to our personal health and the environment will drive us to recycle more. Increasing rates of extinction and the resultant loss of biodiversity are pretty good motivators, as well.

Answer 6

Forever. Earth may run out of things we want.

Answer 7

How long is a piece of string?