Pressing Environmental Issue

There are many environmental issues today that are of great consequence to the future of our lives. From deforestation to run-off to global climate change. It is difficult to rank some of these in order of importance, especially since it is important to work on all of them at least to some degree. I think the three most pressing issues are global warming, deforestation, and eutrophication. All of them are tied together and often reinforce each other. It might be better to tackle them as one rather than fighting each individual concern separately. Of the three, I think that eutrophication will have the most immediate impact. The growing population will increase our use of agriculture and the globalization of industries continues to increase. This will lead to increased use of fertilizers, which is already the leading manufactured chemical on the planet. This is also not highly publicized, making the problem grow without pushback to slow the problem. Over use of fertilization leads to toxic algae blooms as well as anoxic or death zones. Just a year or two ago, there was a 1 week media blitz over the growing red algae problem in Florida. It did not last long on national media, yet the over-fertilization continues. A major challenge in tackling this issue is that it directly conflicts with growing more food to ease the food security issues of the world. Unless we address that issue simultaneously, there will be no quick solution to the problem.

All a Matter of Perspective

 Recently, our class role-played two scenarios to gain an understanding of perspective on contextualizing stories and forming policy. In the first, a boy has a dog-walking job, and the dogs escape while chasing a cat, trampling a neighbor's flower bed. The reaction of the witnesses were very different, depending on their background, stake in the event, and perspective. For instance, the flower bed owner treated his flowers as family, and would obviously be very upset by what happened. Meanwhile, a girl who was afraid of cats, probably would get a kick out of the events, especially since cats were being chased. So, perspective matters a lot, and resolving conflict is easier once you understand the background, bias, and perspective of those involved. In the second scenario, 6 stake-holders hold a Town Hall Forum to discuss the placement of a new factory in Town X. One of the first things to recognize about policy making is that you rarely can please everyone involved. Compromise will help spread the pain or joy of the final decision. Some hold on to their position strongly and will refuse to compromise or be very upset by any compromise that is taken. One of the good things I observed this year was that the role-players were much more amenable to compromise. That is a good sign for our policy makers of tomorrow.