The environment

Social change can be caused by changes in the physical environment. A flood, an earthquake, or a hurricane, for example, may change how people live and relate to one another. However, changes in society - the way we live and the way we behave - may also affect the environment.

Scientists believe that human beings are responsible for today's major environmental problems. They say we have ignored two impor­tant principles of nature. First, natural resources have a limit. There is only so much life that each ecosystem (for example, a forest, a river, or an ocean) can support. Second, all our actions have consequences. If we try to change one aspect of nature, we end up changing others as well. For example, farmers used to use DDT, a toxic chemical, on their crops to kill pests. However, DDT got into the soil and water, and from there into plankton (very small plants and animals on which fish feed), into the fish that ate the plankton, and into the birds that ate the fish. The chemical also found its way into our food.

We can blame some environmental damage on ignorance or poverty, but most damage has nothing to do with either. A major cause of environmental problems is the fact that clean air, clean rivers, and other natural resources are public, not private, possessions. And, in Aristotle's words, "What is common to the greatest number gets the least amount of care." Individually, we gain by using these resources and so, in our own interests, we keep doing so. Eventually, the resources are damaged or run out, and then society as a whole has to pay the cost.

What, then, are our main environmental problems? The major ones are a decrease in natural resources and an increase in environmental pollution.

Diminishing natural resources

Although they make up less than 6 percent of the world’s population, each year people in the United States use about 30 percent of the world's energy and raw materials (such as oil, water, and basic food crops such as wheat). Other industrialized nations also take more than their fair share. If this continues, soon there will be no resources for anybody to use. According to some estimates, the global supply of oil will last only fifty years. We are also endangering supplies of good farm­ing land and water. For example, we are losing topsoil-the good, rich top layer of soil that plants need to grow well - at an alarming rate. In the worst cases, an inch of topsoil, which nature takes 100 to 1,500 years to form, is being destroyed in ten to twenty years.

Not everyone agrees about the future dangers. Some argue that the future will be better. They say that we will know better how to control our environment and that technology will provide us with new resources. For example, solar energy will replace coal and oil, plastic will replace tin and other metals. In fact, this has been happening for some time. However, producing some of these new resources may con­tribute to the second major environmental problem - pollution.

Environmental pollution

For a long time now, we have been producing more waste than nature can deal with. We have also created new toxic substances that cannot be recycled safely. The result is pollution. Air pollution, in particular, is a problem for us all.

There are many sources of air pollution but the greatest is the auto­mobile. It accounts for at least 80 percent of air pollution. The pollutants - the gases and other materials that do the damage - get into our eyes, noses, and throats and can cause serious illnesses such as bronchitis and lung cancer. Industry is another major cause of air pollution. Burn­ing coal, oil, and wood release carbon dioxide and other gases into the atmosphere. A thick blanket of these gases forms and traps heat within our atmosphere. This is called the greenhouse effect. The result of the greenhouse effect is global warming. Many scientists believe that global warming will cause worldwide flooding due to rising sea levels, serious climatic change, and social disruption (Stevens 1995; Lemon­ick 1995). Small low-lying island communities in the Pacific, for exam­ple, may lose their homes as ocean levels rise higher and higher.

Another problem relates to the ozone layer that surrounds our planet and protects us from the harmful rays of the sun. Now, because of the use of certain gases such as chlorofluorocarbons (used in refrig­eration and air conditioners) there is a hole in the ozone layer. At pres­ent the hole is largest over the Antarctic.

Saving the environment

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The Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior blocks coal shipment in Philippines

oday, there is considerable awareness of the need to "save the environment." There are many "good news" stories about communities, governments, and industries that have worked together to protect our environment. In many countries around the globe "green" political par­ties are now having a strong influence, and environmental organiza­tions such as Greenpeace are often asked for advice by governments and private organizations that are planning major developments (roads, bridges, mines, dams, etc.).

One of the most important achievements so far has been the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement to fight global warming, by 187 countries and one regional economic organization (the EC). This treaty requires each participating country to reduce its level of greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2012. Another achievement has been the fact that many countries have banned the use of the kinds of gases that can destroy the ozone layer. In fact, there are signs that the ozone hole may be beginning to repair itself.

At a national level, there is the example of Suriname, in South America, which, in 1998, set aside 1.6 million hectares of its rain forests - about 10 percent of the entire country - as a reserve. The reserve is now protected from development and destruction.