OLSO, NORWAY — According to a recent study, our planet's fresh water may be at risk unless drastic changes are made to preserve and protect existing ecosystems throughout the world, according to a March 30 report by Reuters news service.
The study, by 1,360 experts in 95 nations, said a rising human population over the past 50 years has polluted or over-exploited two thirds of the ecological systems on which life depends, ranging from clean air to fresh water, the report said.
The ecological assessment urged for changes in consumption, better education, and new technology to help service areas in need of improvement, the article said.
According to Reuters, future changes could bring sudden outbreaks of disease. For instance, warming of the Great Lakes in Africa due to climate change could create conditions for a spread of cholera.
Furthermore, a build-up of nitrogen from fertilizers washed off from farmland into seas could spur abrupt blooms of algae that choke fish or create oxygen-depleted "dead zones" along coasts, the report said.
According to the study, more land has been changed in croplands since 1945, than in the 18th and 19th centuries combined.
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