Long-Term Environmental Care Does Not Equate to Automatic Taxation and More Metaphorical Hands In Your Wallet

The province of Ontario recently scrapped a proposed eco-tax on goods and services that negatively have an impact on the environment. This was largely due to public outcry, compounded by the installation of the HST (Harmonized Sales Tax) on the same day.

Evidence is growing to support the belief that we are running out of space to live on this planet and that we should help maintain what space and water we have to promote a sustainable future for generations to come. Simply enter the term “global warming” your search engine of choice and you will be bombarded with everything from Global Warming For Dummies to documentaries recording human instigated damage on our environment. Ultimately, caring for this planet we call Earth should not be a chore. Education should be instigated at an early age to bring children closer to the environment so they have that initial connection.

Staying in Ontario, it is customary that high schools require students to complete a minimum forty hours of community service in order to graduate. Taxation by force should be the only way to care for this planet. Encouraging volunteers to plant trees, or creating jobs which promote the local environment are just some of a long list of potential solutions which will have both short-term and long-term benefits, more jobs and a healthier environment for your children for your family. We are all in this metaphorical boat together. We can either continue on course to that iceberg or we can alter destinations to suit our cultures. We are a diverse race, but a united force capable of living in a variety of places. Towns should consider what needs to be improved, whether it is the water supply or smog levels, and work with communities to foster a stronger partnership.

 

Is Humanity Doomed?

No. But, according to an article posted on CTV’s website entitled “Earth nearing point of no return: eco activist” one eco activist named Tim Flannery believes that the period of inaction we have remaining will only get shorter until we inevitably encounter the consequences of environmental degradation. 

In the book, Flannery also discusses what he calls a “drastic change in energy use” that will eliminate pollution from the air by using the tools that are already at our disposal.

Whether these tools will live up to their expectation is another concern but when trying to remove carbon from the atmosphere, or any greenhous gas for that matter, you have to be careful not to emit more than you’re removing throughout the process. With numerous reports, some speculative, suggesting that another Ice Age is coming or suggesting that sea levels will rise, none of which I dispute, it is important to do background research to gather more perspectives and investigate the origins of environmental damage in the past, as to see whether or not planet Earth might need some help in restoring a balance in the atmosphere, that enables us as a species, to thrive better without putting other species at risk. Afterall this planet is home to millions if not billions of different forms of life, and while at times we may feel that we are number one on the list, our entire environment could get distorted in certain species suddenly ceased to exist. There would be a chain of effects that will eventually impact us, either in terms of food supply, or environment, but in short every form of life has a purpose on this planet.

In conclusion humanity is not doomed, but only as long as we pay attention to our surroundings. Education is always best and it may not be a bad idea to educate yourself on how global warming, or global cooling for that matter, works. You may come across different opinions, each with their own supportive “evidence” but ultimately no one can predict the future, the best we can do is analyse the trends of the past to better spot patterns and predict the likelihood of those patterns reoccurring. However, there will be some evidence that sends the warning lights off in your head, and it is crucial to investigate how that evidence was collected, whether it is in the form of a chart or graph, and whether or not there could be any bias behind the sampling strategy. It will be vital for scientists in the future to continue to conduct their future as the best form of avoiding catastrophic environmental degradation could be by early detection.

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• Climate Study: Human Beings Pushing Earth’s ‘Boundaries’ (time.com)
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• CO2 is not the only cause of climate change (guardian.co.uk)

 

The Fact Some Find Comfort In Ignoring

Image by J.Otavia Flickr

Next time you visit a fish market and pass a fisherman selling his or her catch, be sure to ask them if they have seen pollutants where they fish. According to the Naked Scientists, a group of scientists in the United Kingdom from various fields with various podcasts on the world of science, “a huge proportion of the CO2 that we’re putting into the atmosphere ends up dissolved in the oceans, making them more acidic.” However CO2 is not the only threat to this ecosystem, plastics, or rather the remnants of plastic bags and other consumer goods, make their way into oceans around the world. As a matter of fact, according to Kimberly Amaral, author of “Plastics in Our Oceans“, “Plastic is durable and strong–precisely the qualities that make it so dangerous if it reaches the ocean.”

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Yet can plastics be found excessively in our oceans? Absolutely. As a matter of fact due to the way the currents move accordingly with the Gulf Stream there is an island of plastic somewhere in the Pacific Ocean and according to the Popular Science blog that mound of trash, “that’s twice the size of Texas is floating somewhere between San Francisco and Hawaii.” Futhermore the article states that it the debris is , “80 percent plastic, and weighs in at 3.5 million tons”, not to mention it’s growing rate as the current adds more debris to the buildup. So now that we know this is happening, the solution lies at the end of a complex path. With som many other issues facing many of the countries nearby, specifically the United States, some can argue that this heap will simply be added to the rest to be tackled some other day. At the end of the day it comes down to priority, but how long can we delay massive cleanups of our ocean, and how long do the species that live in those very waters have to live, those and many other questions to be answered later on.