With Earth Day having just recently passed, to say nothing of the many natural disasters this week, we are once again reminded of the fragility of both human life and the planet we humans share. We often take our comfortable lives for granted, believing that the earth will be able to support us, as it always has – but the sad truth is that it won’t.
Disasters like the tsunami that claimed the lives of so many in Indonesia and Thailand, the Sendai Earthquake, Hurricane Sandy, and the quake in Nepal remind us that this world is far from a perfect place, even if it’s the only home we have.
And while we’re good at pitching in to help after a disaster, we don’t do a good job of looking out for what’s ahead.
Not when climate change and the destruction of the environment are two of the greatest issues we face in the coming years, issues we are making worse as our economies grow and our countries modernize, our constant demands for energy, water, and more greater with each passing year.
Most of us know this, at least on an intellectual level.
After, the scientific community has been talking about it for close to fifth years, and the rest of us at least twenty, but even knowing what is happening, we’re stuck on one very important issue: how do we fix it?
How do we tackle the greatest challenge our species has ever faced?