Monthly Archive for September, 2006

Last time I mentioned an article published in SMH as a review of the new Al Gore film An inconvenient truth. Today I would like to address this article which, with one short statement, discounts 30 odd years of work by countless environmentally aware organisations, governments and people.

The suggestion of the piece is confusing, in one part it takes the stance that we shouldn’t let people know about the coming crisis caused by releasing Greenhouse gases because it will bring despair and people won’t be able make the changes neccesary to avert the crisis.

In the next breath the article suggests that there is no real crisis;

Funnily enough, the other eco catastrophes so confidently predicted 30 years ago – acid rain, nuclear winter, species extinction, the population bomb – never did eventuate.

I was shocked to think that there were people out there who assumed that these problems just went away. When in effect they were solved by people making decisions to alter the course of human history to overcome these global crisis.

Most significantly was the suggestion within the article that because these problems turned out to be the over-reactions of the environmental movement – that therefore we should treat the current issue of climate change with scepticism.

The outcomes of these issues in fact give us hope that we are capable of solving wide reaching issues like climate change and taking the opportunities they give to improve our place in the world. Let’s look closely at these “never eventuated” memories;

Acid rain, caused by release of sulphur and nitrogen oxides. Had it gone unchecked it would have devestated many parts of the world. Policies established in response to the scientific evidence of the damage acid rain continues to cause and the struggle of the environmental lobby has seen a reduction in this problem in Europe and North america.

Nuclear winter has been averted to date because peace activists convinced governments that the Russians loved their children too and so not to initiate a nuclear war. With the nuclear arsenal still available to world leaders this outcome is still not permanent. The doomsday clock and population counter

Species extinction – It is difficult to believe that in light of ongoing reporting that anybody could believe species extinction didn’t and isn’t happening? A little research will uncover lists like this one which contains the Australian animals extinct since 1788, and here the list of endangered animals. Remembering these are only Australia’s lists. Digging a little deeper will uncover the treaties now established to limit the trade in endangered wildlife, limit the loss of habitats, and protect populations of commercial species.

Population bomb – we don’t need to look very far to realise that we are surrounded by populations facing severe problems due to population approaching environmental limits.

The population bomb as envisaged by Ehrlich

requires only three things:

A rapid rate of change
A limit of some sort
Delays in perceiving the limit

This may be the only time we can thank the Chinese for their one child policy instigated to protect against the rapid rate of population growth. In other areas of the world populations continue to increase with many reaching limits placed by nature.

We see everyday the devastation of populations across Africa that have reached the limits their environments can support. We may have dodged this bomb but others have not been so lucky.

None of the issues mentioned in the closing of this article are solved, we are combating them – in the same way we are combating the ozone hole – by doing something about it. All of these things are the result of work done by the same scientific community that is working to highlight the issues of global warming and to provide solutions. This is the struggle we all face everyday to make choices that will protect our future.

There is hope, because more than ever humanity is capable of seeing the coming problems and searching for solutions that will be effective in minimising our greenhouse contribution. Across the world, and Australia governments, businesses and individuals are working to reduce their greenhouse emissions setting trading schemes in place to make change viable and economic. It’s only a start but it is a start.

As the Australian author Ian Lowe points out in his book Living in the hothouse;

There is no justification for despair. The situation is serious and demands our attention, but it is not hopeless.