Are humans an endangered species?

• Author: Rizio, Melissa A.
• Position: Thinking Aloud - The work of the World Entertainment-Education Foundation - Brief Article

On a global basis, the expansion of human activity and associated loss of habitat, rising emissions of greenhouse gases, rapid population growth aggravating poverty in developing countries, and scarcity of food and fresh water are real and undeniable signs that humans are at risk of extinction.

The likelihood that humans will become completely extinct is improbable, unless there is a nuclear war or an unpredictable meltdown. Fundamentally, our survival as a race will greatly depend upon our ability, as the most adaptable species, to react with immediate and concerted action to the conditions present in our global environment.

After thirty years of experience in the population field, William Ryerson founded the Population Media Center (PMC), a non-profit non-governmental organization that works with broadcast and print media worldwide to motivate people to use family planning. From its headquarters in Shelburne, Vermont (United States), PMC uses entertainment and news programming on radio and television to educate the developing world on the need to reduce population in order to conserve natural resources and sustain human existence.

Among its strategies, PMC uses a specific methodology of behavioural change known as entertainment-education. Developed and pioneered by Mexican playwright-director Miguel Sabido, these methodologies have been applied throughout the developing world and consist of characters in long-running television soap operas who evolve to become role models for the adoption of health and social development as well as preservation.

Population growth and environmental degradation are not the only threats facing humanity. Both Sabido and Ryerson agree that the loss of culture among nations is just as much a contributor to the extinction of the human race. Mr. Sabido teaches that culture is the real inheritance we have because it distinguishes us from animals. All the cultures of the world form our global community.

Culture is, therefore, also a species, and many traditions--such as the Bali dances, the sub-languages of China, the Mexican Pastorelas, and the greater wisdom of Greece and Egypt--which are no longer valued in societies, have already become extinct. Mr. Sabido strongly feels that "the time has come in which the fight for humankind in culture and environment, at a global capacity, is no] longer for charity reasons but for the sake of survival of mankind".

Issues of necessity, such as water, food and the environment...