220;Vital Resources are stressed by the dual demands of increasing population and increasing consumption per person. Around the world we see groundwater supplies being depleted, agricultural soils being degraded, oceans being over-fished, oil reserves being drawn down, and forests being cut faster than they can re-grow,” (Nebel and Wright, 2000, p. 6). The largest percentage of the world’s population lives in developing countries. These developing countries oftentimes have not established environmental controls in their manufacturing and farming techniques. For example, the use of DDT, long since banned for use in the United States, still sees widespread use in many developing Nations. The use of DDT is dangerous not only to insects, but also to the entire food chain, of which man is unavoidably a part. This is not to say that developed countries are not polluting. In fact, many times it is the developed countries that are exploiting the environment intentionally for personal or commercial gain. The U.S., for example, is the world's number one producer of garbage and industrial waste. "The 6% of the world's population living in the U.S. uses an estimated 25 to 50% of the world's nonrenewable resources and produces about 15 to 40% of the world's waste. (Sustainable America, 1996:143) Despite the fact that most countries do have constraints and limits set for pollution, they are still a long way from being environmentally friendly. Pollution comes in many forms: air, water, and land. Air and water resources can and should be considered global resources. The misuse of these is not localized due to the fluid nature of air and water which are constantly circulating and affecting not only the producer of the pollution, but also its global neighbors. While creating these pollutants, many times there is also a negative impact on sustainability in that there is a consumption of non-renewable resources, such as fossil fuels. The curre...
