by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) believes that cross-party political consensus is vital if we are to address the environmental challenge effectively.
The environmental crisis, often referred to as climate change or global warming, represents the single greatest challenge humankind faces today. The importance of the next government adopting a strong stance on environmental issues cannot be overstated. Strong political leadership is required to face issues such as the overexploitation of resources, species extinction, population growth and climate change.
In the CIWEM’s new publication, “Fitting the Bill: A Manifesto for Environmental Action”, the Institution has laid out policies for the next five years to help mitigate and adapt to catastrophic climate change and other serious environmental threats. These include the creation of a low carbon economy via an alignment of all elements of the economy with the principle of living within environmental limits; the fast-tracking of offshore wind, wave and tidal energy production; an education and citizenship program on the environment for the entire UK population; a national program to retrofit appropriate energy and water saving technologies into the existing housing stock; an end to new airport capacity and environmentally damaging subsidies for the aviation industry; the incorporation of SUDS (Sustainable Drainage Systems) into all suitable developments to reduce flooding, pollution and damage to the environment; and the introduction of a mechanism to halt deforestation globally and national policies to address supply side issues. The CIWEM also calls for a complete review of all benefits and fiscal policies that incentivize people in Britain to have more than two children to help address the serious issue of population growth.
The CIWEM calls on all political parties to adopt these measures, along with the many other recommendations within the Manifesto, and urges them to engage with CIWEM in the development of their ideas and delivery of their plans. The Manifesto cites past examples of social legislation, such as compulsory seat belt wearing and the smoking ban, as clear indicators of how action at government level can save lives through behavioural change. And action on the international scale can also bring about swift regulatory changes that lead to significant environmental improvement. The Montreal Protocol (on substances that deplete the ozone layer) is an example of how cooperation can lead to environmental legislation in the face of strong opposition from vested interests, with the ozone layer on course to recover by 2050.
The CIWEM says: “The public looks to the Government for strong leadership; this is not the time for procrastination. CIWEM’s Manifesto sets ambitious and challenging targets for the next political term and we urge politicians of all ideologies to embrace them and work together to deliver them.”
“The threats that we face today: the growing demand for water and energy, social inequality, global pollution and climate change can become opportunities that will generate rewards if decisive action is taken in the next few years. We must now to commit to actions that address the scale and urgency of these problems. Only with a transformation of our social, economic and environmental policies will we be able to ensure that our legacy is one of positivity, sustainability and security.”
It is good to see that the CIWEM is not just concentrating, when it talks, on climate change and the possibility it could be cause by human activities, but also, and something that could be much more important, on issues such the the overexploitation of the gifts of Mother Earth.
Many of those issues are much more important than anything else and while climate change, if it is human induced, and then it might just be something that we could do something about it, but if it is a natural cycle then not, those other issues are indeed something that we could and indeed can do something about.
Overfishing of the oceans, pollution of air, soil and water, are not a result of any emissions of CO2 from motorcars, and such, but are due to direct human actions, actions we can change and stop.
Yes, we want our Fish & Chips in Britain but we can use Pollock instead of Cod and as far as I am concerned the former tastes better even than Cod.
The problems with pollution can be addressed, including those from cars, and that might also do a lot as regards to the changing climate, if it has anything to do with emissions from burning fossil fuels. On the other hand it would clean up the air that we breathe.
Using cars with biofuels, however, will not clean the air pollution and we do need to look at a totally different alternative way of powering the car. And in addition to that we all better get out and walk and cycle a lot more.
Car exhausts are but one problem of air pollution, obviously, and other must be tackled too.
Then there is the pollution to soil and water and much of those is due to bad waste management and bad farming practices with additional and purpose discharge of pollutants into water courses by factories, etc., as well as the often raw untreated sewage that is pumped still in some places into water courses and especially the sea. This cannot be permitted to go on any longer.
But everyone is far too concerned with supposed human-caused climate change and do not see the issues that are as important if not even more so.
What good to us is a cool(er) Planet if it has been polluted in other way, has lost most species and habitats and can no longer support us? No use at all. We must tackle the other issues equally or else I cannot see that we leave anything to inherit for the next generations.
© 2010
<>
