Global Warming Solutions
Since the mid nineteen sixties, environmentalism has exploded as a movement. Many environmentalists view modern industrial society as unsustainable and the way that western society functions as damaging the earth's natural biosphere and cycles. There is a growing body of evidence to support the belief that our consumer culture and industrial processes are in fact destroying the delicate balance and complex interrelationships that nature has forged and upon which we still rely. The biggest worry of most 'green' groups at present is the well documented 'global warming' effect in which it is believed the earth's average temperature is rising, causing sea levels to rise (more to do with thermal expansion of water than ice cap melting), destruction of natural habitats and most worryingly to humans; climate change. However it would be ignorant to believe that the earth has always been as it is now, indeed rapid climate change is a natural phenomenon which has occurred countless times in the earths history; ice ages and warm periods mark definite periods in earths living history, a period of extreme warmth for example marked the Cretaceous / Tertiary era boundary where over 90% of the
2000 year old tree ring samples from Tasmania taken in 1975 concurred with this analysis showing a marked increase in temperature at 1900 and continuing temperature rises since, although before 1900 temperatures had been reletively steady since 525BC. Evidence to suggest that it is indeed human activity which is causing environmental disaster is growing. Of course technical problems mean that environmentally friendly productive forms cannot be installed, recycled paper although seemingly environmentally friendly uses harsh and dangerous bleaches and chemicals to make it economical, and uses huge amounts of water. The green movement is very broad, although most greens reside firmly in the left pointing out that exploitation of the environment is explicitly linked to exploitation of people, and so loss of jobs, privatisation and worsening welfare (Globalise Resistance Network 2001). These few examples show that our culture, system of production and consumption must be radically altered in order to bring it into equilibrium with nature. To prevent environmental disaster from occurring, there must be radical shifts in our lifestyles, political and economic systems and methods of production. Land use planning can be used as an effective tool to minimise the effects of global warming and environmental destruction. Despite this, geology and anthropology have discovered fresh evidence that suggests this latest climate change event may be different. The sort of laws that would be needed to halt environmental destruction would mean massive losses in profits and further exploitation of workers, the investment needed to find ecologically friendly ways of production is too greater risk for companies which already have so much invested in fossil fuels and environmentally destructive forms of production.
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Acceptance Essays
