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The environment is a topic that has occupied an amazing number of headlines over the past few years. This is due to the increasing awareness of the devastating changes that may begin to take place over the next forty or fifty years as a result of our continued degradation of the air, water and soil. As an environmentalist, I am constantly made aware of both the increasing urgency of change in addition to the many positive changes that are already occurring on a daily basis. These changes are important and will continue to increase in both number and importance as changes such as global warming become more and more evident.

David Suzuki, in the book (and radio series) entitled "It's a Matter of Survival" , describes one possible future:

"A.D. 2040. If we were to give this year a name it would be Despair. This is the hopeless world that we have left our children and grandchildren. Where once our lives were measured and enriched by the cycle of the seasons, in summer there is now only searing heat and the certainty that it will get hotter. Seasons exist only in the nostalgic longing of those of us old enough to remember the richness of life. Summer once took us to the world's coasts for the pleasure of sea and sand and cooling breezes; now, rising sea levels have driven millions of coastal and island peoples inland. Food is scarce. The Great Plains of America, once the bountiful bread basket of the world, are a vast dust bowl...This is the nightmare world of 2040..."

Is this alarmist writing? You bet it is. However, this potential future already exists within computer models. As we learn more and more about the domino effect that global warming can cause, we need to begin to act with ever increasing speed. For instance, each year we add around 5-6 billion tons of carbon into the air simply from the burning of fossil fuels. Add another 2 or so billion from deforestation and we end up with an upward spiral of carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere. It is this carbon dioxide, among other gases, which traps heat on the planet's surface and causes the so-called greenhouse effect. Unless we reduce these carbon emissions, the nightmare of 2040 could easily become reality. We often think of the greenhouse effect and limit the effect to a slightly warmer temperature. However, we must realize that the changes taking place are occurring at a rate thousands of times the normal natural rate. Ecosystems cannot respond to changes of several degrees in only a few decades. As a result, entire ecosystems will disappear with nothing to replace them.

In addition, ocean levels will rise displacing millions and millions of people worldwide. In the U.S., 75% of the population lives within 80 km or 50 miles of the coast. Perhaps this is fitting in that more than 70% of all greenhouse gases are produced by the western world. We often sit on our high horse and condemn countries like Brazil for causing greenhouse gases through massive deforestation while we produce astronomically higher quantities right here at home.

The solution to the greenhouse and other environmental challenges will not be discovered overnight, however we must stop relying on science to correct the changes we are making to the planetary ecosystem. It's time that we began to re-evaluate our lifestyle of consume and keep consuming. Our future really does depend on it.