What will you do to save the world today?
Earth Day 1970 proved to American politicians that the
environment was apopulist issue, that people cared about their
planet, and that electedofficials were going to be held accountable
for what they did about protecting the Earth's future.
Today, we face an environmental crisis of far greater,
planetaryproportions.
Climate Chaos is already changing our world. Withinthe lifetimes
of children being born today, it may challenge oursurvival as a
species. Yet the response by governments and industry to date has
been very late, and very little.
"We know so much more about the science of globalwarming now
than we knew about the science of leaded gasoline and autoemissions
in 1970 when we wrote the Clean Air Act," Leon Billings told Christine
Larson in Grist. Billings was staff director for Senator Ed
Muskie, one of the principlearchitects of a number of landmark
environmental laws in the US.
So what's different today? Why is industry able to
strong-armgovernment into putting the brakes on a response? Why is
Exxonable to demand more research and more certainty before the
world takesaction? Why does the US government's willingness to take
actionseem to be shrinking, while the threat is growing? And why is
US inaction slowing down the rest of the world?
Part of it has to do with all of us. Governments need to know
that itisn't just a few treehuggers who are worried about a 7
metersea-level rise, mass extinctions, increasing occurrences
ofKatrina-like storms and hundreds of millions of homeless
refugees.Earth Day in 1970 brought truck drivers and housepainters
out into the streets. It wasn't just ecologists, and itwasn't just
lefties. It was anyone with a stake in the future.
Have a look at this clip from the upcoming film, "An
InconvenientTruth." In terms of the magnitude of what we're facing,
this saysit all:
And if that'
s not scary enoughfor you, perhaps you'd like to see what your
home or your favouritecoastal town might look like in a few decades
if we don't act now.
Ifthe Greenland ice sheet collapses, predictions call for a sea
levelrise of up to 7 meters. If the Antarctic goes, some models
project 12meters of rise. Have a look at these Google Maps, based
onNASA elevation data, of what a sea-level rise of 7 meters could
looklike. Click on the links to lookat the impacts of various
amounts of sea-level rise anywhere inthe world.
This Earth Day, we all need to pledge to do more to get
thisissue to the top of the agenda for governments and industries
aroundthe world. Read up, speak out. If our leaders won't jump,
it's up to every one of us totake positive action to avoid the
worst consequences of global warming. Ifpossible, buy your energy
from a renewable energy supplier. If yourpolitician doesn't act on
global warming - vote for someone else whowill.
And as your gift to your planet this year,why notadopt just a
few of the following tips for making your life a littlegreener?
What's needed is an energy revolution -- one which overturns
theancient fossil fuel regime and brings forth a new vision.
Revolutions don'tcome from the top. They come from the people. The
cost ofinaction is, quite literally, the Earth.
Now,
send this page to a friend. There, you've done something to
save the world already.
(Earth image screen shots © Google.
Thanks to
Alex Tingle for creating the sea level overlay maps.)
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