ABSTRACT
For the last 200 years, largely through human activity, unprecedented environmental challenges and irreversible mass extinctions have been occurring on the Earth. Owing to this signicant damage, some estimates suggest that not only are more than 100 species a day becoming extinct, but also our natural resources that sustain life on the planet-air, water, and soil-are becoming polluted or depleted on an alarming scale together with exponentially increasing human population growth (Desjardins, 2001). This means that as the prospects for continued degradation and depletion of natural resources multiply as a result of this population growth, natural resources on the planet such as clean water, clean air, and clean soil will become a luxury and resources for the survival of future generations will become scarce.
