Things Have Changed, Yet Not

Different, Yet Same

Back in 1990 when I first wrote The Council to Save the Planet and the Earth Chronicles (The subtitle was dropped by the publisher), the term Global Warming had been coined, but had not made into the public lexicon and the Intergovernmental Panel Climate Change was first convening to study greenhouse gas effects.  It's not like the problem didn't exist. The problem was just viewed differently and other environment threats to the ecological balance of the planet held just as much gravity for the public attention.

Global Warming

At least since the sixties it was common knowledge that if carbon emissions were greater than the planet's ability to exchange carbon for oxygen (the carbon cycle), the whole of the plant would warm to the point of some of the issues we are currently seeing:

• Rising sea levels
• Unpredictable and virulent weather (increase in tornadoes and hurricanes) 
• Droughts
• Increase in Earthquakes

However, the problem was not really seen from the perspective of how much carbon people and industry releases (carbon footprint), but from a perspective of depleting the Earths ability to perform carbon exchange.  Much focus was on depletion of forests, particularly tropical forests.  Solution points appeared to be:

• Lumbering (ironically leading to a movement of fake wood made of plastic)
• Slash and Burn Farming (e.g. Amazon Rain Forest)

Hence the beginnings of the terms Save the Trees --> Save the Planet  Somewhere along the line, after the first few report of the IPCC it became evident that no matter how much of the Earth's jungles and forests were saved, humans were going to overrun the carbon cycle, by the sheer volume of carbon humans release.  

PFCs

Of huge concern in the public media driven attention was fluorocarbons, gasses used to create pressure in aerosol cans and refrigeration.  These gasses attributed to the hole in the ozone layer, which in turn allowed too much ultraviolet light through the hole, contributing to

• Skin Cancer
• Global Warming

The whole cosmetic, home cleaning and refrigeration industry changed drastically as a result of this discovery. People like singular problems requiring single solutions so fluorocarbons got lumped into the category of greenhouse gases under the umbrella of Global Warming

Nuclear Waste

Of huge concern at the time was what to do with radioactive, carcinogenic nuclear waste. People were terrified about meltdowns and hazardous spills of nuclear wast creating mass evacuations and death.  Since then, nuclear has come to be Green or the lesser evil.  However, it is an increasing problem which currently effects people in horrid ways, though they may not know it.  Populations living near nuclear waste dumps suffer cancer rates up to 30% more than people who don't live near nuclear dumps.  People just don't necessarily know that their leukemia or testicular cancer may be related to nearby nuclear waste or a nuclear power plant.  They may not even know a dump is nearby.  In the U.S. there is over 176,000 tons of nuclear waste without any plan for permanent story.  Nuclear waste impact is far more deadly and imminent danger to humans than global warming, but it is off the radar screen. Out of site (oops), out of mind.

Pollution

Awareness and focus on pollution over the years has ebbed and flowed, though it has more ebbed than clean water has flowed. (Sorry, just a bit of eco-humor, there).  Seriously though, when I wrote The Council to Save The Planet I wouldn't think twice about drinking tap water, now I wouldn't think of drinking any water that has not been filtered.  Again, the irony of acquiring fresh water often requires plastic bottles and plastic is one of the largest contributors to carbon emissions and pollution. Evidently, a patch of plastic 5,000 sq kilometers in size floats in the Pacific Ocean.  Actually there are two patches (Eastern and Western) called the Great Pacific Garden Patch. By now you have heard about the trillions of microbeads of plastic polluting the Great Lakes and other inland bodies of water.  It's enough to make you want to stop brushing your teeth or washing your face. No?

The One Constant

The one thing remains constant is too much carbon, pollution, energy demand for the Earth to recycle into useful resource, too many people in pursuit of convenience. Often people glibly respond to my "save the planet" messages with retorts that the "planet will take care of itself."  That's true. However, in that humans are dependent upon the planet for survival, saving the planet is tantamount with saving humans. 

Respectfully,
Conrad