The benefits to citizens of modern industrial society may have peaked sometime in recent decades, and  increasingly, we are paying the penalties of careless consumption and wanton pollution of our own nest.  In an ideal world, everyone would seek personal health and well being, but at the same time would strive to restore planet health. Smart people realize that no personal benefit will survive long in a world that is ailing, polluted and careening toward more man-made disasters.

The immediately negative effects of air pollution in cities is measured on a daily basis; however, the negative impact on human health remains undefined. The largest issue is climate changes due to burning fossil fuels, increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The release of the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a milestone that confirms a scientific consensus that we have a problem of catastrophic proportions. There is an urgent necessity to achieve a political consensus that leads to real and effective action in all countries.

In Dec. 2007, Al Gore shared a Nobel Prize with the IPCC, a  United Nations agency. In his acceptance speech, Gore, made another passionate plea of recognition of the climate crisis and the need for cooperative action across the planet. Gore warned that “we, the human species, are confronting a planetary emergency — a threat to the survival of our civilization that is gathering ominous and destructive potential: we have the ability to solve this crisis and avoid the worst of its consequences, if we act boldly, decisively and quickly.”

Humans and other animals are in peril, not the planet. Planet Earth is a work in progress that changes continuously. No environment has been stable over the stretch of millions of years and climates change without human help. The problem today is that human activities have changed the environment quickly and that current arrangements to supply clean air, good food and clean water are not sustainable.

Dec. 2007 NUSA DUA, Indonesia At the international climate conference, the world’s nations committed to negotiating a new accord by 2009 that cut in half emissions of heat-trapping gases by 2050.  While the commitment is welcome, humans remain critical of each other, disputatious and focused on self interest. The negotiations that might lead to an accord will not be a smooth path. Even if an accord is achieved, compliance with its terms will not be enforceable.

The really sad part of our current predicament is that all the right concerns and the right ideas for remediation have been around for decades and have been clearly articulated in many forms by a host of intelligent people.

Air pollution is not a good idea for a variety of reasons, large and small. The right ideas for remediation of environmental degradations involve unselfish and compassionate behavior, a scarce commodity. The right ideas involve long-term planning, conservation and a deep commitment to preserving the natural world. Without a healthy natural environment, there will be few or no healthy humans.

In recent years, I often encountered people who wanted to flee from city life, air pollution, and chronic illnesses which they suspect comes from polluted environments and bad food. One professional man, for example, explained that he and his wife had moved to a semi-rural suburban community and commuted to work over the past 20 years - they went to separate destinations and drove two cars. They were driving to a city that grew out to meet them. The population tripled. When they started commuting, his journey took less than 30 minutes; 20 years later, the trip each way took 60 minutes on average; sometimes, when the traffic was bad, they each spent 90 minutes or more in the car, one-way. Both had become progressively ill. Both decided they would move to a small town and never commute again.

The decision to drive cars long distances to work was common among people in North America and Europe in the past 60 years. Cities grew larger. The development of suburbs often placed homes far from work places; massive road construction encouraged extravagant car use. In retrospect, it is clear to this couple that they made a terrible mistake and they should stop commuting. Their mistake had health and economic consequences for them personally and for every other inhabitant of planet earth.

If you were an environmentally conscious God watching their behavior, you might be properly annoyed - who gave them the right to burn all that fossil fuel, pollute the air and water, cut down all those trees, kill all those animals,  pave all those forests and farmers' fields? Why didn't they move closer and walk to work everyday?

Of course, God is likely to have a longer-term view and while lamenting the current folly of humans will probably recall that planet earth undergoes continuous change and from time to time, cataclysmic events alter the entire planet. Perhaps our folly is seen as just another natural phenomenon. What if 500 years from now, God enters a note into her journal " Humans on Planet Earth had the chance to get it right but  they didn't quite make it. Humans turned out to be self-destructive, short term planners and tragically selfish. They soiled their own nest and now they are gone."

Big environmental problems are built from many business and personal decisions, little mistakes that add up over time. If there is a solution, it will emerge from the collective value of millions of better decisions made by individuals all over the globe. The environmental action plan is to think globally and act locally - it does make sense. 

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