The climate is changing and pollution is a big issue
The climate of our planet is changing fast. The 4th National climate assessment of the US Government is clear: “Most of the warming of the past half-century is due to human activities. Some types of extreme weather are increasing, ice is melting on land and sea, and sea level is rising.”
The ground breaking report The New Plastics Economy: Rethinking the future of plastics of the Ellen McArthur Foundation shows that plastic production is expected to triple in our lifetime, and there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish.
Earth’s resources are finite and there is no plan B
At today’s rate of consumption we are fast using up the earth’s non-renewable resources. It’s scary to see that the available amount of many metals and rare earths on our planet is so limited that their year of depletion is within our life time.
Its time to act.
Individual action has the power to trigger big impact
Take for example the impact of Wangari Muta Maathai. She was born in Nyeri, a rural area of Kenya back in 1940. In 1976, while she was serving in the National Council of Women, Wangari introduced the idea of community-based tree planting. She continued to develop this idea into a broad-based grassroots organisation, the Green Belt Movement, whose main focus is poverty reduction and environmental conservation through tree planting.
Boyan Slat noticed when diving there was a lot of waste in the sea, and started an initiative which is now The Ocean Clean Up. They are bringing science, people and business together to attack this massive issue.
Our individual actions matter.
Science and technology are part of the solution
As humanity we would not be where we are without the disruptive impact of science and technology. According to the World Economic Forum “Science has a critical role to play in helping leaders understand why we have these problems and increasingly leaders are looking to science for possible solutions”. There are many examples of emerging technologies, and we will need them to solve the challenges we face. Remember the hole in the ozone layer….. Banning certain groups of chemicals has had a huge impact. As the Science Journal says “It all begins with a burning desire to know”.
