ANALYSIS – While many conservatives scoff at anything environmentally related (since most news about it is hyper-politicized as part of the far left’s ‘green’ agenda), we shouldn’t ignore some areas where humans are, in fact, damaging our planet.
It’s not always just a doom and gloom scare tactic (though this latest report could make it seem that way). Any reasonable person should see that we are causing some damage to our planet.
Conservatives should be at the forefront of reasonable conservation efforts. We shouldn’t let the left dominate this issue. (RELATED: Under Fire: Georgia Mayor’s Plan To Punish Gun Theft Victims)
Learning about what potential damage we are doing is a first step.
And a landmark new scientific study by 29 scientists in eight countries, using computer modeling and the latest data, concludes that Earth is exceeding its “safe operating space for humanity” in six of nine key interrelated planetary boundaries or indicators of planetary health.
Two of the remaining three systems in the safe zone – ocean acidity and the amounts of aerosols in the atmosphere – are heading in the wrong direction. Only the once-depleted ozone layer is back on track to complete recovery.
The nine key systems are: climate, biodiversity (number of wildlife species, including insects, etc.) land, freshwater, ocean acidity, ozone layer, nutrient pollution and ‘novel’ chemicals (human-made compounds like microplastics and nuclear waste).
These systems are known to be interdependent. Using computer simulations, it appears that making one factor worse causes others to degrade while repairing one can help others to recover.
This assessment was the first to include all nine planetary boundaries and represented the “first scientific health check for the entire planet,” the researchers said.
Some question the researchers’ methodology and conclusions. One scientist at Oxford University said, “the measures they use make no sense.” And they could be totally off the mark.
But others note that while the report conclusions are “deeply troubling,” the study, using peer-reviewed research, appears balanced and not overly alarmist. (RELATED: Mind-Blowing Evidence Suggests CIA Plotted To Suppress Lab Leak Theory)
As a long-time scuba diver and lover of our oceans and sea life, I often focus on how plastics are increasingly polluting our seas. The ‘Great Pacific Plastic Patch,’ an area twice the size of Texas filled with plastic trash, can’t be ignored.
These plastics kill and maim innumerable sea life. But that’s not all. As these plastics break down, they become microplastics that are ingested by all types of sea life, including fish we all eat. Microplastics have increasingly been found in humans.
We also can’t deny air pollution and hazardous chemicals and waste polluting our farmlands and groundwater. We also see increased cancer rates and other severe illnesses today not seen in great numbers before the Industrial Revolution.
These are all very real. (RELATED: State Trooper Teaches Environmentally Conscious Lawbreaker Important Lesson)
In many cases, China is one of the world’s biggest polluters, a fact which most on the left ignore or avoid. Russia and India are also major culprits.
But the reality is still sobering.
“We are in very bad shape,” said study co-author Johan Rockstrom, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. “We show in this analysis that the planet is losing resilience and the patient is sick.”
It’s not just ‘climate change’ we should be worried about. Earth’s biodiversity, land and freshwater pollution have all passed the safety boundary increasing the risk of steady systemic collapse.
Air and sea pollution are both increasing, though considered within the safe zone for now, while only ozone depletion of all the indicators is heading in the right direction, recovering after the global ban on CFC pollutants in 2010.
The point made here is that with concerted action these trends can be reversed.
We should all want to make our planet healthier for our children and grandchildren. We shouldn’t leave this important issue to the loony left.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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Libs never seem to know who established the EPA. And I support protecting the environment, but feel good B.S. such as ethanol in gasoline is counterproductive. There are a lot of conterproductive feel good policies pushed by libs who just use “environment” as an excuse to push political agendas. “Green” is probably second only to “racism” as a political excuse.
They do stick to issues that are irrelevant and proven to be without fact, and they do it over and over. Why the left is so wrong about pretty much everything is a mystery, but it proves how out of touuh they are with reality.
Add to that: “For the Children”.
The climate clowns are nothing but scammers pushing for money for the globalists.
While many conservatives scoff at anything environmentally related
DEAD WRONG. Conservatives scoff at LIES, not environmental FACTS.
That explains why anyone that actually understands the data LAUGHS at the “study” cited in this article. It is 90% ASSumptions. It ignores EVERY self-correcting aspect of planetary “health”, and what it calls “safe” is 100% subjective.
The last I heard, the earth’s population is going down, not up. And, all the plastic garbage in the Pacific Ocean was put there by one country, China. So, get China to do something about it. And, the left has all these plans “Green by 2030” and Greener Still by 2050. Getting rid of cows is just plain crazy, and bad for the environment. Windmills and solar don’t work, and that is the idea. Environmentalists are Marxists and they don’t want capitalism to work and are making it not work.
Very good….but common sense is no longer politically correct in North American or EU media. Nor in Public Education. Your Children will say they were warned about people like you.
Oh yes, the children are already being brainwashed in the schools and they are scared of climate change. Karl Marx himself bought into Malthus, and his minions today are propagandizing us all.
Behind it all is this: Communism does not support human life. Capitalism does. So, if we are all to become communists and get rid of capitalism, the children can’t have children. This is what the weird sex is all about as well.
Who determines these so-called upper limits? Even the Oxford scientist says those are guesses. And when they say “upper limit unknown,” how do they even plot that graph? That’s like dividing by zero. No, wait, that IS dividing by zero!
I also like deforestation complaints – along with CO2 complaints. Satellite imagery clearly shows that forestation is INCREASING while deserts are DECREASING. Of course they are. CO2 is to plants and forests as O2 is to us!
It may not be WORDED in an alarmist way, but the facts they present are highly subjective.
If one wants to find the biggest polluters on the planet, all one has to do is look at the countries that we buy all of our manufactured goods from.
WE conservatives have always led in cleaning up the environment. WE do not waste time on the fake science and the begging for billions of dollars to somehow stop the bad weather events. WE concentrated on cleaning up our rivers and our factories over the last 50 years and our nation is quite healthy because of that. This climate change scam has handed the left trillions and it is way past time to stop that ploy.
Assuming the computer models are correct!
When the computer data is entered we do not know who is auditing the Data as accurate either biased leftists or honest scientitsts. It was proven the Hockey Stick graph was created through manipulated data by per-emptively cutting back the world wide monitoring stations by more than half and moving temperature sensors closer to the ground to create higher temperature readings.
GIGO, I have not seen this used in a long time. I think we need to revive it and show how garbage in = garbage out. I hate to type; I could write several long paragraphs on their garbage. Trees do not sequester CO2. They sequester CARBON and release CO2. cutting the forests and burying them will only allow the CO@ levels in the atmosphere to increase, and the needed O2 for life be used up. BillGates you are not that dumb.
The Looney Club of Rome is intent on seeing 5 billion people removed within the lifetimes of today’s 30 somethings and hopes they will be cooperative with this. The NAZI’s believe genocide is merely statistics. Apperntly Democrat leadership and not a few RINO’s are OK with this too.
I was looking at the model until I saw climate change then knew right away if was leftist propaganda with little factual material.