2008 Woodie Awards
Going green is the real inconvenient truth
Are environmentalists willing to sacrifice the benefits of industry for cleaner air?
Brian Olson
Issue date:
4/23/08
Section:
Opinion
Ever since Al Gore's film, "An Inconvenient Truth," first appeared and began stirring up fears of global warming, the environmental bandwagon has been filling. Suddenly green is the latest big thing in news, business and politics. But how serious are environmental problems, and the people supposedly working to solve them?
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has significantly increased since the Industrial Revolution, causing warmer temperatures in many parts of the world and melting polar ice, which adds to higher ocean levels.
But on the upside, the warming trend is likely to continue over the next century, contributing to more precipitation, longer growing seasons and shorter frost periods.
While reducing our carbon dioxide emissions may have positive effects on how slowly temperatures rise for future generations, much of the new green trend is too narrow-minded.
One issue that environmentalists bent on ridding the earth of pollution often overlook is the good that industrialization has done and continues to do for people the world over. They are too quick to make industrial development the bad guy, when in fact without it we would all be worse off.
Science, medicine, life expectancy and quality of life have all benefited from industrial development, as have economies. And not just the economies of developed nations. Immigrants from less-developed countries study and work in developed nations, later returning home to help their countrymen or sending money that helps families and their local economy. Remittances from such immigrants account for huge portions of developing nations' economies, which then allows further development and important advances.
So does this mean that we should go on polluting at our current rate without looking for cleaner solutions? Of course not. But there is a difference between responsible development and the unwise slowing of industry.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has significantly increased since the Industrial Revolution, causing warmer temperatures in many parts of the world and melting polar ice, which adds to higher ocean levels.
But on the upside, the warming trend is likely to continue over the next century, contributing to more precipitation, longer growing seasons and shorter frost periods.
While reducing our carbon dioxide emissions may have positive effects on how slowly temperatures rise for future generations, much of the new green trend is too narrow-minded.
One issue that environmentalists bent on ridding the earth of pollution often overlook is the good that industrialization has done and continues to do for people the world over. They are too quick to make industrial development the bad guy, when in fact without it we would all be worse off.
Science, medicine, life expectancy and quality of life have all benefited from industrial development, as have economies. And not just the economies of developed nations. Immigrants from less-developed countries study and work in developed nations, later returning home to help their countrymen or sending money that helps families and their local economy. Remittances from such immigrants account for huge portions of developing nations' economies, which then allows further development and important advances.
So does this mean that we should go on polluting at our current rate without looking for cleaner solutions? Of course not. But there is a difference between responsible development and the unwise slowing of industry.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Graham Skelly
posted 4/26/08 @ 11:27 AM PST
Your Opinion editorial is poorly missinformed and missing the major objective and point of modern enviormentalism.
The problem is an old one. called the commons. (Continued…)
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