What about Pollution?

When did the world swap Pollution for Global Warming ?

It happened when I wasn’t looking.

No one seems to care about pollution; just climate change. I believe this way of thinking is misdirected and counter productive.

Growing up in Philadelphia in the 60’s and 70’s – I witnessed the pollution of big city life first hand. The air smelled of chemicals, the Delaware River was a mess – I got ear infections everytime I swam in it!!

Slowly over the last 30 years, prosperity has arrived. So has awareness of pollution. We (people and companies) cleaned up the Delaware and vastly improved the air quality of the city. It isn’t perfect, but far far better then the 70’s.

So you’d think that’s a good thing. Even a great thing.

But no; somewhere along the way we swapped Pollution concerns for Global Warming. As we cleaned up our environments with rising prosperity – we somehow switched to Global Warming. Everyone became a climatologist overnight.

Every reef die-off, every forest disease, every hurricane, every ‘hotter-then-normal’ season is ‘Proof’ of Global Warming. And YOU are to blame. YOU bad American consumer. Using so much energy, wasting plastics, and driving cars.

What about Pollution ??? plain old dumping of sewage, manufacturing by-products, sludge, and any-thing else in rivers, oceans, skies and hidden corners of the planet. Somehow that has been forgotten as the true disaster.

Lets get focus back on proper waste and pollution management. Thru-out the world. There is no reason enormous improvements can’t be seen. Nature will recover; as the Delaware has. It takes years to destroy these resources, and year-n-years for them to recover. Be smarter; be more efficient. The answer is not less energy, less plastic, less of everything… the answer is smarter, less wasteful, proper pollution management – EVERYWHERE!

The world (particularly 3ed world) need MORE energy. MORE plastics, MORE fuel, MORE transportation. NOT less, not cut-off from prosperity that we enjoy in Europe and the USA. Make these things abundant, make them smarter, make them accessible to all. Make them without Pollution. It can and will be accomplished – I have confidence in the future. Mankind will find the path.

Somehow almost everyone in the world is saying ‘if your not all on-board with Global Warming and that mankind is the cause….your evil and an idiot.’ These same people seem to know nothing of history, about pollution, about the amazingly complexity of ecology of the planet.

Focus on pollution reduction; not elimination of consumption, elimination of products, elimination of travel and every other crazy idea that seems to be coming along now.