The foremost environmental issues in the coming year revolve around air pollution, especially the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions that serve as a catalyst for global warming. But what about the longer view? What are the most pressing environmental challenges facing humanity for the duration of the 21st Century?
There are six that made my list.
Climate Change: This category includes the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel burning in stationary and mobile sources. The objective is to slow and eventually stabilize global warming, thereby mitigating drastic climate fluctuations and rising sea levels that would cause havoc. Success in controlling the increase of carbon dioxide concentrations and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere would also help to curb the acidification of the oceans and destruction of coral reefs.
Energy Transition: This is closely related to climate change and involves gradually replacing polluting finite fossil fuels (like coal and oil) with clean renewable energy such as solar, wind , biomass, and if scientists can ever figure it out, nuclear fusion. Transportation is a subheading here, as we try to shift automobiles (and other modes of travel) away from dependency on oil to a reliance on cleaner natural gas, hydrogen, and in the distant future, perhaps solar power.
Family Planning: This relates to stabilizing the human population through education, contraception, and spacing of births that history shows lead to smaller family size. The idea is to avert population exceeding the capacity of the planet's natural resource base to provide us with an adequate food supply.
Land Use Planning: Under this category, I would include preservation of the earth's remaining biodiversity, wetlands, and prime agricultural acreage. Restoration of degraded natural resources, where possible, would be an important subheading. So would creating livable cities by providing potable water, sustainable clean energy delivery systems, adequate housing, and ample open green space while eliminating sprawl.
Reducing Global Poverty: This scourge jeopardizes a healthy sustainable relationship between human beings and the earth's biological life support system on which we all depend. Desperation is the enemy of conservation. Poverty can be effectively combated through universal education (that leads to societal stability), technology transfer from developed to developing countries, and a modest redistribution of wealth through foreign aid that is structured as a hand up, not a handout.
Preventing the introduction and reducing the presence of industrial produced toxic chemicals in the environment: Effective regulation, technological innovation that provides benign substitutes to toxic chemicals, and rigorous enforcement play pivotal roles in cleansing a global environment plagued by widespread manmade pollution.
I think that just about covers it.
Edward Flattau's fourth book Green Morality is now available.
Follow Edward Flattau on Twitter: www.twitter.com/greenmorality
Rabbi Or Rose: Life on Planet Eaarth: An Interview with Environmental Activist Bill McKibben
Matt J. Rossano: The Pope, The Environment and Religiously Inspired Self-Restraint
Strong regulations against poisoning the environment are needed and enforcement is needed. It is only political corruption that allows polluters to go unpunished.
The Company who got 43 million from the Gov of Mass. in assistance to build solar panels is moving to China!
It was always a risk because it was well known at the time, that China could sell the panels below any US made panel but the stimulus went out to other panel makers even with that information.
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/business&id=7763956
A large body of evidence supports the conclusion that human activity is the primary driver of recent warming. This evidence has accumulated over several decades, and from hundreds of studies. The first line of evidence is our basic physical understanding of how greenhouse gases trap heat, how the climate system responds to increases in greenhouse gases, and how other human and natural factors influence climate.
The second line of evidence is from indirect estimates of climate changes over the last 1,000 to 2,000 years. These estimates are often obtained from living things and their remains (like tree rings and corals) which provide a natural archive of climate variations. These indicators show that the recent temperature rise is clearly unusual in at least the last 1,000 years.
The third line of evidence is based on comparisons of actual climate with computer models of how we expect climate to behave under certain human influences. For example, when climate models are run with historical increases in greenhouse gases, they show gradual warming of the Earth and ocean surface, increases in ocean heat content, a rise in global sea level, and general retreat of sea ice and snow cover. These and other aspects of modeled climate change are in agreement with observations.
“Global Climate Change Indicators”, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Climatic Data Center
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/indicators/
http://hubpages.com/hub/Quote_of_the_day_060507
The little recognized threat of solar flares is real and can attract broad support once understood.
See Green Light and other articles on: www.aesopinstitute.org for an outline of the potential problem and a few surprising ways it might be addressed.
We are at the edge of both a climate disaster and a new age of low-cost, decentralized energy.
If we are quick enough to accelerate radically new science and technology, there is still time to avoid the worst.
The technology is out-of-the-box and needs independent laboratory validation before it will gain acceptance by most scientists.
But, with strong support, cost-competitive new energy products that provide electricity could begin to enter the market in 2011.
Ironically, a truly adequate initiative to maximize the probability of that prospect could provide large numbers of jobs and help revive the economy.
The difficult is sometimes done immediately. The seemingly impossible may surprise many skeptics and take just a little longer.
Work emerging from laboratories all over the planet suggests that will prove accurate.
Cost-competitive alternatives will be the most realistic way to end the need for carbon fuels.
Why not see that they do!
With a determined effort, future cars can become power plants when parked, selling electricity to pay for themselves.
The Brooklyn Project, on the Aesop Institute website, is intended to inform the public about new ways to accelerate urgently needed changes.