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Environmental Perils
The world is currently facing various environmental perils that are threatening human life on earth. Some of these include the climate crisis. The issue of climate change is turning out to be a significant issue in human life. It has come to be realized that the modern lifestyle of man puts a large amount of stress on the earth “that nature can not simply handle” (“Climate change” para 1). Some of the issues that arise from the problem of climate change such as ozone layer depletion, El Nino, and global warming will soon have a severe effect on human life around the world.
There is powerful scientific evidence on the urgent need “to achieve a peaking of global emissions before 2020 and a steep decline to less than 50 percent of 1990s emissions levels by 2050 if we are to avoid catastrophic climate change” (“Climate change: a global problem requiring a global solution” 2).
Many people have been lamenting over the issue of the climate crisis, For instance, Mindy Lubber, a former regional administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, delivered a speech in October 2008 at a Deutsche Bank conference during the financial downturn that followed the subprime lending crisis, in which she pointed to the fact that we are about to leave behind an environment that is imperiled to the future generation.
She further pointed out that the major problem that is facing the world is, global climate change. She blames society for presenting the claims that it is taking action to deal with the situation but in the actual sense, it is not doing something close to this. We should care about future generations by taking the appropriate measures to protect them against the effects of the climate crisis and environmental destruction.
Everyone in the world should go green to improve our environment and impact our planet positively. In the current day, the number of people who are not aware of the meaning of the phrase “going green” is not large. It is an expression that has started becoming common in the last decade and will continue to be popular among people in the future. With the world facing problems such as global warming, ozone layer depletion, and the extinction of a large number of animals as well as plant species, it is time to take appropriate measures.
Thomas Friedman points out that thinking about how to live and work in a greener fashion – with cleaner electrons, greater energy, and resource productivity, and an ethic of conservation, is being popularized and democratized (Friedman 290). According to him, at the present, this is “no longer an elite issue for those people who live in the West and East coasts or the backyards of Vermont or Colorado” (Friedman 290). This point is further stressed in the article by sensibleguides.com in which it is pointed out that; “our carbon footprint has taken its toll on our planet and going green is not a choice any longer, it is a responsibility” (“The importance is going green” 1).
According to Friedman “it is all about being green and everyone is a winner” (Friedman 291). One example of a group of people who are going green is American farmers. They are winners because they are going “green”. They get to grow ethanol and garner immense government subsidies for doing so even if it makes no real sense as a CO2 reduction strategy. More so, coal companies are going green and they are doing this through renaming themselves “energy companies” and stressing how sequestration of carbon dioxide will offer us “clean coal” (Friedman 291).
It is also pointed out that the most difficult facts are these “if we sum up the easy, cost-efficiency measures we should all embrace, the best we get is a slowing of the growth of environmental damage … obsessing over recycling and installing a few special light bulbs won’t cant it” (Friedman 293). We are supposed to be considering the basic change in our energy, transportation as well as agricultural systems instead of looking at the technological tweaking on the margins, and this implies changes and costs the present and future leaders tend to be afraid to discuss (Friedman 293).
The use of renewable energy and measures to reduce carbon emissions should be taken to effectively deal with the problem of the climate crisis and to preserve the environment. America’s Automobile industry should be helped to convert quickly to plug-in hybrids which can run on renewable electricity which will be there as the rest of this plan comes to maturity. Al Gore points out that “in combination with the unified grid, a nationwide fleet of plug-in hybrids would also help to solve the problem of electricity storage…..with this sort of grid, cars could be charged during off-peak energy-use hours; during peak hours, when fewer cars are on the road, they could contribute their electricity back into the national grid” (Gore 303).
Another measure that is proposed by Al Gore is that there should be embarking on nationwide attempts to retrofit buildings with improved insulation and energy-efficient windows and lighting. About 40 percent of the CO2 emissions in the U.S originate from buildings and trying to prevent such pollution saves a lot of money for those who own homes and businesses. This measure is supposed to go hand in hand with the proposal in Congress to assist the American people who are overburdened by mortgages that are more than the value of their homes.
Mitigation and Adaptation strategies are supposed to be used as interventions to bring down the level of climate change crisis. Mitigation concerns minimizing the GHG emissions in the atmosphere and it occurs at the policy level (Oli, Dhakal, and Pradhan 88). There is a need to put in place policies concerning climate change. As an initial step, government action is required. To limit the climate change impacts, there is a need to reduce global warming pollution by a minimum of 25 percent by the year 2020 and by 80 percent by the year 2050 (“Climate change: a global problem requiring a global solution” 2).
The only way through which this can be realized is by putting in place strong government policies that set the compulsory limits of CO2 emissions, which implies placing a price on carbon emissions (Lubber 318). Al Gore proposes that the U.S has to be in the lead regarding putting a price on carbon within the country, and should also take the lead in the global efforts to substitute the Kyoto treaty with a treaty that is more effective which curbs global CO2 emissions and gives encouragement to countries to invest together inefficient ways to reduce global warming and pollution rapidly, through such ways as greatly reducing deforestation. Indeed, as pointed out, “the best way, and possibly the only way, to secure a global agreement to safeguard the future is by re-establishing the U.S as the country with the moral and political authority to lead the world toward a solution” (Gore, 303).
However, individual Adaptation is very important than what takes place at a policy level. This is about individual people preparing themselves “to cope up with the impacts of climate change to minimize climate change risks (Oli, Dhakal and Pradhan 88). In his forecast, Al Gore points out that he has great hopes that Americans, as individuals, will have the courage to embrace the changes that are vital in saving the country’s economy, the earth, and eventually people themselves. In his speech that he presented in July 2008, Al Gore called upon people to take the necessary measures to overcome the climate crisis.
According to Al Gore, the world authority on the climate crisis, “the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, after two decades of detailed research and 4 unanimous reports, currently indicates that the evidence is “unequivocal”. To those people who are still tempted to engage in dismissing the increasingly urgent alarms from scientists all over the world, do not seriously consider the melting of the north polar ice cap and all of the other apocalyptic warning from the earth itself, and “who roll their eyes at the very mention of this existential danger to the future of the humankind are supposed to wake up” (Gore 301).
Al Gore, in the speech, raised awareness among people that they should care about the future generations by taking the appropriate measures to protect the future generations against the effects of the climate crisis.
The bold steps that are supposed to be taken to deal with the climate crisis are similar steps that are supposed to be taken to deal with the problem of the economic crisis as well as the energy security crisis. Since the unchecked carbon emissions will bring about great damage to this world, we have to commit now to “building long-term shareholder value and creating new high paying jobs that do not revolve around oil and coal” (Lubber 317).
There is agreement among economists that huge and quick investments in a job-intensive infrastructure initiative are the best way to revive the economy rapidly and sustainably. According to Al Gore, a large number of people as well agree that the American economy will fall behind in case the country goes on spending billions of dollars on foreign oil every year. Besides, national security experts in the two parties have come to agree that America faces a dangerous strategic vulnerability in case the world suddenly loses access to oil from the Middle East. (Gore 303).
Lubber stresses that the near-collapse of America’s economy has got people’s attention and therefore, as one pays attention, there is a need to talk about people’s exposure to climate risk, as well as the opportunities which await those that lead on this critical issue (Lubber 317).
The dangers that climate change poses to the profitability of companies are very immense and “even if we weren’t the “good guys” who want to save the planet for the planet’s sake and our children’s, we had better pay attention as business leaders whose enterprises are at risk” (Lubber 316). Lubber points out that people are aware that ignoring the subprime lending disaster led to a stunning financial collapse on Main Street and Wall Street. If a similar mistake is made regarding the climate, very human survival is put in danger in addition to the capital markets. She concludes in this regard that it is now time to be attentive and cease to think of climate change as an “off-trade” balance sheet risk. This is a risk which is supposed to appear on the balance sheet.
Conclusion
We should care about future generations by taking the appropriate measures to protect them against the effects of the climate crisis and environmental destruction. To protect the future generation from facing environmental perils, appropriate measures should be taken. One of these measures is going green. This, even if it may not reduce carbon emissions to a substantial level, will play an important role in slowing the growth of environmental damage and this will eventually save the future generation. Besides, there is a need to use renewable energy and take the necessary steps to protect the environment.
While appropriate measures are being taken to deal with the climate crisis, it should be realized that these measures are related to those taken in dealing with such problems as economic and security crises because these three issues are interrelated. Dealing with the climate crisis should be both at the national and individual levels. Nations should educate their people on suitable ways to deal with the issue of the climate crisis and environmental damage.
Works Cited
“Climate change”. reef.edu.au. Reef, n.d. Web.
Friedman, Thomas. “205 easy ways to save the earth”. Writing and reading across the curriculum. Eds. Laurence Behrens and Leonard J. Rosen. London: Longman Publishing, 2009.
Gore, Al. “Climate for Change”. Writing and reading across the curriculum. Eds. Laurence Behrens and Leonard J. Rosen. London: Longman Publishing, 2009.
Lubber, Mindy. “Balance sheets and the climate crisis”. Writing and reading across the curriculum. Eds. Laurence Behrens and Leonard J. Rosen. London: Longman Publishing, 2009.
Oli, Krishna, Dhakal Devi Tara and Pradhan Navraj. “Dealing with climate change crisis”. The Initiation 2.1 (2010): 79 – 90.
“The importance of going green”. Sensibleguids.com. sensibleguides, n.d. Web.
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