Pulling fingers out (Climate change)

Member Name: Alternum

Product:	Climate change
Date:	18/11/00 (16 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: There are no advantages to climate change!!

Disadvantages: Global warming, holes in the ozone layer, you've heard it all before...

This seems to me always to be one of those subjects that everyone knows about, but doesn't really want to discuss in any great detail, for fear of being labelled an environmentalist! But here goes anyway.

One of the problems involved in prevneting climate change has to be the governments of the various countries. Governments are reluctant to do anything about the environment because it will bring them into conflict with industry, which is a Bad Thing for a government - and even if one tried very near the start of its term, it would still be struggling to recover from indsutry hating it as it neared the end. Democracy dictates that governments have relatively short terms; I'm not saying we should live under a dictatorship, but one problem with democracy is that governments will lack resolve to take decisions that are unpopular in the short term, but will ultimately benefit the country.

Another problem is apathy of the people. I know a lot of people who would say 'I'm not going to be around when all this stuff starts happening - so why should I care?' when asked about the environment. It's a perfectly valid point and a very difficult question to answer.

We are moving in the right direction. Gordon Brown cutting tax only on low-sulphur fuels is a good case in point - balancing helping industry with helping the environments. International climate change conferences happen occasionally, and despite the fact that most countries appear to ignore their particular pollution quotas, at least such conferences are happening - at least there is some recognition that soon there could be climate change that is tangible, and we should at least TRY to do something about it.

But more can always be done, and, as in my title, people across the globe who are in positions of power need to start pulling their fingers out and getting on with changing attitudes for the better.

Personally I care about my descendants. I wa
nt them to live, if not in a completely clean and perfect world, then in one which is at least as good as the one we are in today. Do we not have a responsibility, having taken advantage of all the planet's resources, to pass something on ourselves?

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