http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200609/global-warming?ca=GoobwGcLwI%2BVplz2kB%2FCB3JmiBypO%2Fcy6koU2wI9t2Y%3D
A friend of mine posted this article on her facebook account the other day and I thought it was worthy of a blog post because it's a different side of the spectrum of global warming.. Or climate change.. Whatever you prefer.
I'm really glad that people are beginning to acknowledge the fact that things are changing, especially regarding greenhouse gases, because if something isn't done our future is not going to be so bright.. I do believe though, that some politicians are making it seem like stopping (or slowing down or even controlling) global warming is going to be really hard and really economically expensive. I don't think it will be at all, and I believe our past has proven that. I mean honestly, when you watch the news you never hear about anything that we have done right to help prevent or slow down global climate change, but we've actually done pretty well so far... For the most part... BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN WE SHOULD STOP!!!
In the past forty years there have been three major threats to our environment; urban smog, the emissions of chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) that threatened to deplete the stratospheric ozone layer and acid rain that threatened to destroy the dying Appalachian forests. All three of those issues were acknowledged by our past presidents and strict regulations regarding each issue were enacted. In the past thirty years "smog-forming has declined by a third to a half, emissions of CFCs have been nearly eliminated, studies have shown that ozone-layer replenishment is beginning and since 1990, acid rain has declined by a third (which is a start), while the health of the Appalachian forest has greatly improved."
Now isn't that something to at least be proud of? I didn't know until a couple weeks ago that we have actually been improving... Especially our ozone layer.... I always used to look up at the sky and imagine a huge hole just appearing because I thought the ozone layer would never start getting better.
Why do you think it is that we never hear about the things that we are doing right? Don't you think if people were told that the work they were doing to prevent global warming was paying off it would motivate them to do it more? It would for me.... And did those regulations hurt our economy at all? I don't think so... Did it cost us an arm and a leg? Not so much...Even if it did there is no reason why we shouldn't be able to spend an arm and a leg to help our environment when we're spending thousands of bodies other places doing other things......
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2 comments:
I loved this very different take on global warming. I agree, a little bit of positive outlook goes a long way. I like to break down big projects into smaller task lists in my personal life: they make it seem more doable. Why couldn’t this be applied to the big problems of the world? Excellent idea. Not to mention the morale-building effects of showing all the positive changes that have already been achieved in the areas of smog and acid rain, for example? Thank you for the additional perspective! Great blog.
I really enjoyed reading this article. It's so true that everyone seems to view global warming as depressing and nonstoppable. I also never seem to hear to positives, people never talk about what we HAVE done so far, it's always what we have not done and how expensive it will be to do it. "Making the problem appear unsolvable encourages a sort of listless fatalism, blunting the drive to take first steps toward a solution." I liked this point, because that is what we have done, no one wants to step up and take a stab at it. Maybe money incentive will help (from a previous blog).
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