The Problem

We are in serious environmental trouble as a result of human activity and thoughtlessness. It's hard to know where to begin to explain why I make this statement, not because the statement is difficult to justify, but because the choices are so many. Consider our use of energy derived from fossil fuels. The daily operation of more than 600 million automobiles¹ (240 million in the US alone), thousands of large airliners, and oil-fired electric power plants is rapidly draining the planet dry. Our massive demand on these resources has occurred only since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. What took billions of years to create, we have nearly completely consumed in approximately 150 years.

But our rapidly dwindling reserves of fossil fuels are only part of the story. The exhaust gases that are the by-products of burning these fuels on such a massive scale are themselves creating multiple problems. They introduce toxic substances into the air we breathe, such as particulate matter, oxides of nitrogen, benzene, etc. All are capable of creating serious respiratory problems, including lung cancer.

Then we have the even more serious issue of climate change - global warming - thought to be caused (with growing unanimity by the foremost climate scientists world-wide) by the carbon dioxide in exhaust gases. The effects of global warming are potentially catastrophic. The melting of massive glaciers and polar ice-caps will cause ocean levels to rise, with obvious consequences for coastal population centers. Rising temperatures can bring disease. Our climate will become less stable, more volatile. See [2] for discussion of the potential effects.

Global warming has begun, and we are already seeing the effects of its early stages, such as increased climate volatility. Snow is almost a thing of the past in places like southern New England. The temperature in Alaska, has risen 7 degrees Farenheit in the last 25 years. There are now insects in Alaska for which the Eskimos have no names; they have never seen them before. The migration patterns of birds have changed; many no longer bother flying south, since it is now warm enough where they are. Giant squid are dying off, polar ice-caps are melting, the snows of Kilimanjaro, written of so famously by Ernest Hemingway, are melting and expected to disappear by 2020. And this is only the beginning.

I could continue for many pages making this case, but I think you get the idea. So what can we, as individuals do²?