...nflict has been unseated as the leading cause of human displacement. It has been replaced by a potentially more horrific force that is sure to define the international, political and humanitarian dialogue of the 21st century: Environmental degradation. For generations, Americans have opened their borders, hearts, and checkbooks to lessen the suffering of migrants fleeing violence. Now the United States and the international community must recogni...
In the coming years, will we see environmental preservation as a new approach of state policy directed at preventing and resolving conflict? I think Professor Wangari Maathai answers this question best when she says, “[T]here can be no peace without equitable development; and there can be no development without sustainable management of the environment in a democratic and peaceful space. This shift is an idea whose time has come.” Through the wo...
...ivest its financial holdings from corporations that profit from fossil fuels. Students in the divestment movement, allied with groups such as Bill McKibben’s 350.org, believe that they are leading the charge in a new phase of environmental activism. Orange may seem a strange color to symbolize a movement of climate activists, as we tend to paint these issues in a different hue. The color green, of course, is practically synonymous with the enviro...
...a similar course of economic development. Starting out poor, a country begins exploiting its natural resources (oil, natural gas, forest, water, etc.) to generate income. As it gets richer, its resources diminish, leading to environmental degradation – a good example here would be China, whose environmental record, though recently improving, has been through its rapid economic growth. After the long period of decline, the awakened citizens, thro...
...not to say that this path will be an easy one. One of the leading economists working on analyzing the economic impacts of climate change policy, Lord Nicholas Stern, estimates that the costs for developing countries to adapt environmentally responsible practices will be between $75 and $100 billion per year over the next 40 years. For less wealthy developing countries, these costs are too overwhelming to even be considered. These countries can s...
...al seam gas industry. Coal seam gas, a form of natural gas extracted from coal beds, has the ability to make Australia one of the world’s largest energy exporters. At the same time, it has the potential to create a social and environmental catastrophe. Fracking, the method used to extract the reserves, is a doublet threat. It not only pollutes groundwater, jeopardizing the livelihoods of the millions who depend on it for agricultural and domestic...
...d War II, China underwent a rapid industrialization process that continues today. While it has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty, and created the second most powerful economy in the world, the economic boom initiated environmental decline, most prominently major deforestation fed by a growing hunger for paper goods. The consequences proved dire: huge sandstorms, known to locals as “yellow dragons,” struck major cities in the north, inclu...
...members (including alumni) to argue for corporate controlled presidential elections at a recent CPU debate on Citizens United. Given all this energy, a new student group has emerged out of the ashes of Columbia’s once vibrant environmental movement: Barnard Columbia Divest. All across the country, campus groups are organizing to get our endowment dollars out of fossil fuel corporations, whose business models are literally scheduled to destroy the...
...me live like a European.’” This culture of waste, however, is not sustainable. Our resources, water, fossil fuels, natural habitats, are scarce, and at the current rate that we are exploiting them, we are setting in motion an environmental and humanitarian catastrophe that will impact future generations. We are living in an age that requires a paradigm shift in our thinking on environmental responsibility. Looking at America’s ecological track re...
Rio de Janeiro From June 20-22, a United Nations conference, called Rio+20, will be held in Rio de Janeiro with the goal of getting the world’s countries to adopt stricter environmental protocols, particularly concerning greenhouse gas emissions. The conference comes amid growing calls from scientists and green activists that global CO2 levels are reaching a “tipping point.” However, these warnings have been overwhelmingly drowned out by the pr...
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