Bird Calendars
Current Currents
By Elliott Bedows
Wrapping it up: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. This is the last time I will be writing a Meadowlark editorial as ASO President, because my term of office ends in June. So I thought I'd look back over the past three years and give you my opinion of how the natural world has changed for the better or worse during that time.
The Good. The majority of the people of the planet— and their governments—have caught on that global warming and its consequences are in urgent need of attention. This certainly represents a success story.
Even the United States' stubborn refusal to ratify the Kyoto treaty articles will soon be a thing of the past.
In California an encouraging grassroots effort seems to be underway. This is the fight of the State of California and the Environmental Protection Agency to require tougher antipollution laws for motor vehicles than the Federal mandate.
Also, Congress overrode a Presidential veto this year requiring that the average fuel efficiency of U.S. automobiles reach at least 35 mpg by the year 2020.
Additionally, industries are leading the way in this massive effort. Power plants across the country are lowering their carbon dioxide emissions and developing carbon capture technologies. Admittedly these are still in their infancy, but nonetheless they are being considered and acted upon.
A special 15-page report in the June 2, 2007 issue of The Economist magazine directly addressed this matter, not singling out the power industry, but showing how a wide range of notorious industry polluters are now cleaning up their respective acts.
Further, the realization that the Earth's resources are limited has increased the amount of recycling of more materials ranging from aluminum and paper to plastic grocery bags.
The Bad. Unfortunately, the above stated efforts currently must move along slowly as the world's economy lags. And the resistance that bureaucracy in general and special interest groups in particular bring to the table would likely slow these united efforts to a near grinding halt, even with a healthy world economy.
For example, the last time I checked, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration still could not decide on the number of portions of fish—actually the acceptable levels of mercury in the fish—a pregnant mom should eat each week.
An especially and increasingly difficult issue to deal with is that an ever-growing human population is pressuring the world's ecosystems from all angles. Most attempts to limit population growth in all but the two most populated nations (China and India, both with populations topping one billion people) have failed to gain appreciable momentum.
The Ugly. Emerging countries, particularly China, refuse to adhere to established guidelines designed to limit toxicity-tainted exports. And excessive levels of carbon dioxide are being released into the atmosphere as a result of China's extremely aggressive coal-burning plant initiative.
Overcrowding in large metropolitan areas such as those in eastern Asia are also out of control. In countries such as Japan where there is no longer room to bury garbage, shiploads of waste are being dumped into the world's oceans. As it is taken out to sea, it causes an immense plastic pollution problem that threatens albatross colonies as far away as Midway Island. In Thailand, space is so precious that almost all of its garbage gets burned, causing air pollution and increased carbon emissions into the atmosphere. So what is a poor environmentalist to do?
In essence, I defer to the wisdom of E.B. White, who said, "I arise in the morning torn between the desire to improve the world and the desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day."
04/22/08