It is not only the environment that is the issue here; it is also the people and wildlife living near these areas of environmental destruction that have become the victims of the America's addiction to unsustainable energy. As is typical with addiction, a person or in this case, an entity will do anything to satisfy it. They will commit misdeeds against family, friends, and even themselves to satisfy it including lying, stealing and cheating. All one has to do to understand the power of this addiction is look at the actions of corporations in recent years with respect to their profit gathering practices. With respect to this article though, the Environment has become Corporate America's fix in the sating of our collective addiction and there is great work ahead to get clean.
This issue is not just an America problem. Across the Globe, coal mine accidents, oil spills, nuclear waste disposal, palm oil pollution, factory emissions, red aluminum sludge, slave labor employ for diamonds, gold, etc all have devastated not only the environment but indigenous peoples in the name of profit. Between May 2000 and August 2005, Brazil lost more than 132,000 square kilometers of Rainforest for farmland and lumber to support the population. The number of species lost and indigenous tribes displaced has been astounding.
I am not about to demand that all production cease and we sit in caves like Neanderthal man again as some Environmental Groups advocate but we must take serious steps to curb our consumption and exploitation of the environment to ensure our future. I often think that we have already gone too far and the human population grown too large to do otherwise but necessity is the mother of invention and unless we enact controls over industry world wide, there will be no reason to invent alternative, sustainable approaches to supplant this growing destruction.
The United Nation Environmental Programme (UNEP) has begun many initiatives to find solutions to these problems. They are working to outline sustainable development initiatives, waste disposal and resource allocation. They have developed the Guidelines for the Development of National Legislation on Access to Information, Public Participation and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters and are working with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to further the protections of the Global environment. No, these steps are not perfect. Yes, they could be improved but at least there has been recognized the need for change by the global community.
Many groups look at these steps and dismiss them as an effort to create global control or a global economy and some environmental groups have dismissed them because they don't act to shut down corporations contributing to environmental damage. To these groups I can only say that the damage is widespread and reform a child in measure. There will be mistakes and loopholes for corporations to wiggle through and most certainly some corporations will still act illegally despite the risks of fines and closure. We must support these initiatives though, despite their floundering beginnings, for even the smallest of steps, taken one after the other, become a great stride toward stopping the use of our Environment as a Sacrificial Lamb.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
