Our esteemed editor has asked me to contribute a few thoughts on the way the environment might change in the next ten years.
I suppose the first thought that enters my head is that, in many ways, where we are now is better than any time in the last 150 years, at least in industrialised countries. Rivers are cleaner and the air is purer. This has perhaps given a false sense of confidence.
The "problem" with global warming is that it is not a readily perceived threat. An approaching asteroid, for example, could be shown on tv and everybody would understand. Climate change however is more nebulous, especially after the winter Europe is experiencing. It needs to be taken on trust, and when that trust is apparently abused to raise taxes or commodity prices, people become cynical. It will indeed be very interesting to see what happens in this area in the next 10 years.
So, should I make a prediction for the next Big Thing over this decade? Frankly, only a fool would attempt to see that far into the future, so here goes. We've cleaned up the environment around us, we're starting to address changes in the atmosphere, but one area is nicely out of sight - the ocean. This has already been touched on by sann2282. For centuries everything we pour into our sewers or rivers has ended up here, not to mention the dumping of solid waste. As pressure on landfill sites increases, the later is likely to increase. Cleaning rivers is easy, you just stop adding junk, and what's there flows away, but rubbish in the ocean has nowhere to go. Of course it is very, very, big, and degradation does takes place. But so does concentration, as has been seen in the Sargasso sea and the Pacific Trash Vortex. Eventually we will have to address this.
Saturday, 6 February 2010
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Ecoratorio by Sarah Stephen, Ruth Stephen, and David Buss is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
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This blog is published by Sarah Stephen and Ruth Stephen, and reflects the personal views of the contributors, in their individual capacities as a concerned citizen of this planet. The term 'Ecoratorio', as well as every graphic, opinion, comment, and statement expressed in this blog are the exclusive property of the blog publishers and contributors (© 2009 - present), unless explicitly stated otherwise, and should not be disseminated without the written consent of the author(s). The views expressed in this blog are not necessarily representative of the views of any school, college, University, company, organisation, city, town, state, country, or church where the author(s) have studied, worked, worshipped, or lived, and is not sponsored or endorsed by them.
This blog and its contents does not receive any sponsorship, financial or otherwise, neither is it aimed at generating any money.
The matter on this blog has been prepared for informational purposes only, and the reader(s) should not solely rely upon this information for any purpose nor should he/she assume that this information applies to his/her specific situation. Furthermore, the matter on this blog may or may not reflect the current and future trends/developments, may or may not be general or specific, accordingly, information on this blog is not promised, or guaranteed, to be correct or complete. The publishers and author(s) explicitly disclaims all liability in respect to actions taken, or not taken, based on any, or all, the contents of this blog. Thus, the reader(s) is/are reading the posts and arriving at conclusions about the information, or about the author(s), or otherwise, at his/her own risk.
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The publishers and author(s) are not responsible for translation and interpretation of content. Occasionally, the blog might contain subjects which may be considered offensive from certain individuals’ points-of-view, and the author(s) refuses to accept any liability for any psychological, physical, and emotional reactions, short-term or long-term, which the posts might generate in the reader(s). However, each post in this blog is the individual opinion of the author(s) and is not intended to malign any city/town/village, state, country, continent, faith, religion, practice, ethnic group, club, organisation, company, or individual. Neither are the publishers and author(s) responsible for any statements bound to government, religious, or other laws from the reader(s)’s country of origin.
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1 comment:
Climate change, unlike an approaching asteroid, is not that perceptible unless one looks around for the evidence.
I’ve enjoyed the air and water quality maintained in developed nations due to their strict regulations, although I must admit that I often wailed about London being polluted. But developing nations are becoming industrialised at the expense of the environment and regulations are, more or less, nonexistent.
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