New Year’s Resolutions for the Environment in 2009

It’s that time of year when everyone starts making lists of their goals for 2009 - but what can we do better for the environment this year?

Start the Switch to Renewable Energy

Offshore drilling just can’t happen - it would be devastating to the continental shelf, endanger coastal environments with inevitable contamination, and worse still, it’d maintain our self-destructive dependence on fossil fuels. Foreign oil is a political and economic problem, but carbon emissions doom us all. 

Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions - Fast!

The ozone hole is expanding, global temperatures are rising, air quality is getting worse every year, and the oceans are acidifying faster than we ever imagined - need I say more? We’re fundamentally altering our environment with the fuels we burn to support modern life, and we’re literally choking ourselves to death - the planet will be fine, but we will be in big, big trouble. I don’t know about you, but   a planet of sweaty, sunburned asthmatics scooping jellyfish out of acid oceans doesn’t sound like much fun to me.

Staff the EPA with Scientists

This one seems like a no-brainer, but 8 years later we’ve realized that it’s not so obvious to everyone *cough*Bush*cough*. The decisions our government makes about environmental issues need to be decided by science, using the best research available at the time. There’s no doubt that there will be “inconvenient truths” - what we need to do for our  survival might not be best for business in the short-term, but we don’t really have a choice: modern business is fickle and focused on microscopic periods of time. We need a long-term perspective to plan for out future.

Fix the Endangered Species Act

We knew that Bush was going to gut endangered species protections  - you could see it coming a mile away. Still, if Obama doesn’t act fast to undo these changes, we might as well throw the Act out altogether. There’s no sense listing Endangered Species if we don’t have strong laws to protect them. Asking developers if their projects is safe is like asking criminals if they belong in jail: the truth is not in their self-interest. Objective observers and scientific review are the only way to get effective, trustworthy species management.

Restore the US Global Environmental Leadership

Maybe the ship has sailed on this, but I still think the United States can make a massive impact on global attitudes. Europe’s decades ahead on wind power, but they haven’t formed a unified front. Japan led the way on emissions reduction, but treat species’ protections like a joke. Australia is at the forefront of Endanagered Species management, but their minding industry is a blight. The United States, for better or worse, is still a global tastemaker - we fired up the environmental revolution in the 70’s, but also taught the world to covet materialism, corporate-business, and a carbon-powered car culture. Barack Obama has a stab to start a new trend towards clean energy and away from waste - if he can make it economical in the states, it will be fashionable everywhere. 

It seems like we could spend years undoing the damage Bush has done, and three of these goals could be seen as cleaning up his mess. However, we have to be reasonable, and we have to start somewhere. If we can, as a culture, start to make these changes, the world will look a lot better in 2009.