Written by Robert Lalasz
Published on November 9th, 2009
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Our former colleague and friend Scott Anderson over at The Green Skeptic posed (and answered) a great question last week — which issue keeps you up at night?
Is it climate change? Species loss? Ocean pollution? Enviromental refugees? That young people don’t get out into nature anymore? Or something else? Don’t bottle it up inside — leave a comment below and let us know. (The first step toward calming your anxiety is to let it out…just let it all out…)
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It all boils down to one thing for me: We still haven’t found the key — the phrase, the talking points, the song, the movie — that’s going to tug at people’s heartstrings and create an mass U.S. movement back towards environmentalism and a conservation ethic. Will it take a disaster? A chain of disasters?
Oh, and also…what are we going to talk about when Copenhagen is over?
My #1: Getting people to care about species and habitat.
….Species…and forests…keep me up or it gives me nightmares…
Antarctic ice sheets–over a mile thick–melting enough on the bottom to slide off into the ocean all at once. There is pretty good evidence from North Atlantic diatom studies that this happen to the eastern ice sheet in North America. The result was ocean level rise and eventual warming, but the immediate effect was 1,000 years of sudden cooling due to the big ice cube taking a very long time to melt. This could easily happen to the Antarctic ice sheets, it’s even likely.
In geologic terms I know the earth will survive us. But in the meantime are we going to create a planet that is simply an awful place to live? Will we destroy everything that makes the earth so amazing by wiping out the fish, killing the coral reefs, cutting down all the ancient forests and relegating what is left of our incredible wildlife diversity to zoos? I agree with an earlier commenter. How bad will it have to be before we get it?
Why do people in Washington, D.C. clean up the leaves from their yards and then put them in plastic garbage bags!!! Paper Leaf Bags people!!
For me, it is the fact that society seems to be in no rush to adopt alternative energy solutions on a personal level, they just want others to do it for them.
Urban/suburban sprawl and development really drives me crazy. Poor land use and encroachment on habitats and native species. In Louisiana this is a growing problem for us, and something that we KNOW we can change within our own communities. It’s so frustrating when people don’t seem to care.
This is so minor in the scheme of things, but the little things do add up right. Why do people in Washington, DC clean up the leaves from their yards and stuff them in plastic garbage bags!! Do paper lawn and leaf bags not exist in the DC area?
For me it is one step at a time, and it has to affect an individual directly or they are not likely to react.
The growing world population and our collective inability to take the long view and find ways to preserve the natural systems that ultimately sustain us all.
What kept me up last night at least (it changes every day) was the future for my kids. Do I move to the country and raise them in a more rural environment where they are exposed to nature as a part of their everyday lives? Do I stay on the urban fringe where they are part of a diverse and socially active community where they are raised with a sense of social and environmental justice? Can I find a happy medium and actually achieve both?
And for Bob, I think we will have MORE than enough to keep talking about after Copenhagen!!
Dare I say it, without being called anti-people? Our growing population keeps me up at night! No one wants to admit it’s a problem. We’re growing at an alarming rate. I see growing pains that can be traced back to “too many people” in nearly every issue we face. But, how do you limit population? So many of us feel entitled to the American dream that includes our 2.5 children (me too!). I don’t blame anyone for not wanting to touch it… but, alas, it keeps me up at night.
My father (raised by my grandfather, a Rancher) always told me that “one generation plants the seeds so the next will enjoy the shade”. He had a great respect for nature, the earth and what it provided the GUEST of the planet. But when I first heard him say that quote (not sure if it was originally his) he was speaking of human rights and humanitarian issues in the deep south of the U.S. He believed our actions in the present would make the world a better place for the opressed in the future. If he were alive today I am sure he would also equate those words to the survival of the human race and our planet. It is my belief that we have two choices: !) We can save the planet or 2) The Earth will save itself, as it has in the past and start from scratch again. What makes me lie awake at night is that few people (and I believe that # is shrinking) in the world see ourselves as guests and stewards of this world. We take for granted what we have although we have wonderful conservationists, donors, scientist in the field, and industry working for solutions. I have 12 nieces and nephews and I worry aout their future and the future of the next generations in general. Famine and sustainable water (for consumption and agriculture) in the future scare me the most. Limited resources seems to mean soemthing to only a few, but the awareness is growing. If humans with short term personal political or money making objectives would get out of the way (and think about the future, not wealth we cannot take with us–a baby is born with clentched fists holding on to life, a person dies with his hands open b/c nothing goes with us after death) then we might have a chance to save humanity. And isn’t that what this is all about? I lie awake at night b/c it frightens me that so many DO NOT think of this as a HUMANITARIAN issue. Humanity might not make it, the Earth will survive and regrow without us. It has done so, without us, the majority of its existence.
What keeps me up at night is the needless slaughter of animals/mammals for vanity’s sake. We are far from being the caretakers of the planet that many believe to be our role. If anything, we are the exactly the opposite…a virus with no bounds.
Water. How are we all going to have enough to drink when we grow to 9 billion people by 2050? When I’m not paying attention and I blast the tap at full strength to wash dishes, I come to and panic at the thought of how many people around the world have to walk miles to get what I just threw down the drain. And when I let the kids bath water rise a bit higher because I don’t want them to be cold, I feel guilty. Or when my husband travels overseas and gets violently ill because he opened his mouth during a shower, I realize how important it is that we stop wasting so much.
(Or maybe I just have dry mouth at 3 in the morning.)
Highly radioactive waste that is in our air, water, land being produced by aging nuclear power plants in the USA & around the world. Left on site for generations to come putting children’s health at high risk.
OVERPOPULATION. I think the Earth’s carrying capacity of people has been met. In fact, its exceeded. I agree with the poster who said that this is the white elephant issue in every environmental problem we face. There are just too many people consuming too many resources. We need to either drastically cut back on the resources we consume or confront the overpopulation issue. Quite frankly, its probably going to have to be both since its really India & China that have the fastest growing populations right now. And since they are still developing, all of those people are trying to get their piece of the pie. In the West, we aren’t growing as quickly, but we have set a dangerous precedent of consumption. If we don’t drastically cut back our consumption, who are we to tell India & China that they need to consume less/have less people?
what worries me is the anger and personal invective that persons of good intentions level at whomever they find disagreeing with them. the problem of conservation of a “natural” world is one that needs fewer combatants and more collaborators; why aren’t people seeking to persuade more people more patiently? NONE of these issues will be solved “over the dead bodies” of the opponents – they simply won’t die.
Many, many issues drive me crazy but, like Sara, urban sprawl and development seems to get to me the most lately. Where I live (like I’m sure many others can say, too), there are countless shopping centers and office buildings just empty and vacant, while brand new gigantic stores and shopping centers are STILL being built: destroying fields, forests, perfectly good land. One new shopping center developer’s comment was “But it’s just a field?” Yes… is it so horrible to allow “just a field” to exist next to a highway without demolishing it in the name of greed???
Keeping me up at night? The lack of environmental education in schools and the absence of education reform measures that address this dearth. Even more so, however, is the fact that climate change rarely blips on the national radar when our leaders debate school improvement.
On the Edutopia website, we have a Green Schools Group (http://www.edutopia.org/groups/green-schools) discussing issues in teaching green, and it seems clear that despite a number of worthwhile efforts, it is still very much a grassroots effort in our nations classrooms. If we want sustainability to become the norm, education is one of the places where the seeds must be planted.
I worry that it’s already too late, and that no matter what we do at this point, the planet will still go into a climate-induced tailspin.
And Anna I worry about the coming population explosion as well. Where are we going to find the resources to provide food and water to 3 billion more people?
I worry about overpopulation and over consumption. We all take what we have for granted (including me!). I once took a survey that told me that if everyone on Earth lived the lifestyle that I do, we would need the resources of 8.5 planet Earths to sustain them.
I also worry about the loss of species. I want my future children and grandchildren to be able to enjoy the same beautiful world that I have enjoyed–and not just in zoos or pictures.
Everything posted here is SO important, and that’s an understatement, but what I HATE the most is what I see with my own two eyes each and every day, and that’s litter. Trash blowing across yards, roads, parks, and playgrounds. It’s ugly, irresponsible, and unnesessary.
How the earth is going to sustain its beauty and splendor as our culutural continues to slowly dwindle down its resources particulary energy, and loss of water.
Although education and awareness are one the first steps to assist in preserving the earth, there still seems to be an overall lack of action to truly promote and adopt sustainable practices.
The lack of information bothers me the most. No news coverage on issues affecting the environment, war seems to be forgotten, but we have to worry about which star is doing what with whom. Why are environmental issues not covered?
RADIATION from weapons, etc., population, health of land and oceans, APATHY, STUPIDITY, and greedy AS%&$*s.
I get tummy aches and have sleepless nights thinking about materialism and consumption in society. Many are hypnotized into thinking they need a new phone, a 2000 square foot house, more than 1 vehicle per person and enough clothes for all the people in Rhode Island…. only to throw all the stuff out in a few years to back in style.
Oh wait, but all that is supose to be good for the economy.
The uber-hypocrisy of our so-called “leaders” like Al Gore who live extravagant lifestyles, consuming everything in sight in the name of saving the planet. And then they claim to buy their way to redemption with carbon credits acquired with the rewards of fame and prophesy. We will all need to live with less so why can’t they be role models for a simple lifestyle?
What keeps me up at night is actually 2 things, but connected. When are enough of the people and governments on the planet going to realize and act on the fact that we have to live our lives in such a way as to preserve the web of life the best that we can — or are we going to keep negatively impacting our own habitat to the point where it is not habitable by humans? Part of this — and a big part of this for me — is I worry about how much of the forest that originally covered the planet has been cut down and is still being cut down; we need to preserve existing forests and plant trees that grow qucikly and strongly enough to grow canopies/root structures in 15 to 25 years that keep the land cooler and moister.
Over population of people and our overuse of resources.
Too many catalogs in the mail, besides junk mail. Total waste of trees….that go from the mailbox to the recycle bin. I call individual catalogs to get removed from their lists to keep them at a minimum.
That’s one of my pet peeves.
Other concerns: too much jet fuel in the air. nitrogen fertilizers polluting rivers and creating dead zones in the ocean. Loss of native grass and prairie lands for migrating birds. plastic trash in the ocean killing marine mammals and birds.
Nativist restorationism resulting in destroyed habitats, felled (non-native!) trees, and toxic herbicide use.
What will it take to make people realise that they have to change? So many people realise the crisis that the world is curently in but very few are will to even make the smallest of changes!
Keeping me up at night? That people still litter. I know it’s a small thing to say, but I think it speaks volumes of why we’re in the situation we’re in.
The thing I don’t get are that most “environmentalists” and “conservationists” still eat meat. You cannot eat meat and be green. It’s a huge waste of resources, land, fresh water, habitat, and food. The EPA estimates about 28% of our greenhouse gasses are from LIVESTOCK!!! Stop calling yourselves green and buying “green” products while you chomp down on that burger or chicken dish. Farming pollution is the #1 by far damaging force to the Chesapeake Bay. Fish kills, closed beaches, and tainted wells are clearly linked to farm run off. We’ve overfished to the point entire populations of fish are collapsing. “Organic” meat is still not sustainable. Why won’t people like Al Gore talk about this? Why won’t the Nature Conservancy start a veg educational campaign? Is the taste of that cheeseburger really worth the removal of rain forest for cheap grazing land & cheap cattle soybeans?
The plight of the oysters in the Chesapeake Bay keeps me up at night! Their reefs are at less than 1% of their historic levels.
My biggest overall worry is climate change, and the fact that people just don’t or won’t BELIEVE. Until people really get it, it seems that they won’t be motivated to change their ways or give up any of their excesses. There are still people who are saying the whole issue is just something made up by Gore, et al, for God’s sake! How do we snap people out of it? I worry that it will be too late, by the time people actually believe it’s real. The solutions are out there now, but we don’t have that much time. And that’s what keeps me up at night.
The loss of ocean life. Exploring the underwater realm that just makes life right. I don’t want to lose all the beautiful things under the sea.
Endangered species. The thought of a world without tigers, polar bears, gorillas or, heck, beetles, absolutely breaks my heart. I don’t want to have to tell stories about animals the next generation will never see.
I’m currently up in arms about factory farming. Not simply for the systematized cruelty to animals, but because of the health and environmental hazards it creates. EATING ANIMALS by Jonathan Safran Foer is a book that got me on the topic. Factory farms account for the creation of new viruses, the widespread destruction of animal habitats, the pollution of waterways and 18% of greenhouse gases.
Stop buying factory farmed meat!! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laurie-david/ieating-animalsi-by-jonat_b_353164.html
Ocean pollution, no contest. We live on a boat and I am terrified of the scheit we DON’T see being dumped in the ocean. I worry about the vile greed of toxic industries that dump things into the deep ocean that should never have been created, and whether the ocean will ever be able to recover. That’s my “Stay Awake at Night” fear.
Robert Lalasz in his comment said, “We still haven’t found the key — the phrase, the talking points, the song, the movie — that’s going to tug at people’s heartstrings and create an mass U.S. movement back towards environmentalism?”
My response is, Americans respond to facts, data, proof not “pulling on heartstrings.” Many environmental issues are just not supported by the facts. They are emotional ploys to get funding and/or donations. I am a rabid conservationist, but in no way an environmentalist, and fully support the Nature Conservancy in its efforts to purchase property to conserve it. However, when the Nature Conservancy resorts to emotional issues such as human caused global warming, which is based on bad data at worst or incomplete data at best, we part ways.
Don’t let these contrived issues keep you awake at night. Live life, enjoy life, conserve where you can, be a positive example in the community, but don’t react emotionally to issues, seek out the truth and act on that.
Nuclear waste contamination & clean water. It’s all tied in with loss of species diversity & global warming, too.
Mine is simple, packaging. Why oh why is there so much packaging for everything! Even packaging INSIDE of the packaging!
I want to find a pratical solution for environmental issues. It is such a dilema between making a living and protecting the environment. E.g., a family in a poor developing country cann’t afford food or medication for their children if they stop lodging. They can’t think for the long future if they don’t know if they have food for tomorrow. It’s like a catch 22, whether to die sooner or later.
From a developed nations’ perspective, perhaps it’s materialism. People want so many things and find ways to get them despite what they might lose.
There are no environmental issues that keep me awake at night. As an objective naturalist who thinks everything is as it was always going to be I don’t believe anything is wrong. Yes, we are changing the conditions of life, but no, changes in the conditions of life are not, in any way, unusual. Even those that threaten many species (including ours) with extinction. Conservation is a pseudo-religious emotional philosophy, not an objective impartial biospherical necessity.
On the Destiny of Species will be published on the 24/11/1859 + 150 years.
I worry that conservation/environmentalism has become so damn partisan in this country. How did we get this deeply divided about resources we all share and upon which we all depend?
That clam-fishers and conservationalists cannot unite in their mutual interest: the clam. It’s a filterfeeder and does to water exactly what we would like: filter ooze and sequster nutrients. Building marine clam-farms would seem to meet the desire for both (producing) clean water and clams for the consumer. Erika, go get ‘em! .. I’m poking in from EU, listened on ‘NPR on science podcast’ a breaf status on Chesapeak bay, and desided to have my debut with ‘Blogging’ here. The situation in Chesapeak Bay is a common problem ‘everywhere’.
global warming. it’s so hot here in Indonesia
Drought and water shortages. We can survive without electricity but when there is low water pressure or no water, sewage becomes a problem (can’t flush toilets), no showers, plants wilt and die, fish and animals suffer and die.
The thought that the world and our society is based on a senseless system of turning raw materials and natural resources into junks and toxic chemicals for short-term gratifications and materialistic satisfactions, and this system is driving ecosystem degradation, biodiversity loss- taking away the homes of indigenous people, plants and animals… and the thought that I am part of this system and eventhough I tried my best to adopt sustainable living tips, I know that such efforts cannot change the much larger global market forces and trends…
such thoughts drive me nuts and keeps me up at night…
The other day I watched a online short film on Orang Rimba, which still makes me want to cry with the thought of it now… I feel their pains and helplessness. Such emotions and images of rich biodiverse tropical rainforest turning into oil palm monoculture keep me up at night… (I feel the intensity of these emotions is no less than what I feel for 911)
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5tzwv_orang-rimba-happiness-lies-in-the-f_shortfilms
I worry about whether societies will ever realize that pursuing economic growth at all costs is destroying us. All the government backlash opposing climate change action is due to the financial reprecussions. Why does money matter so much? Is it worth destroying the world that sustains us? If people and governments would realize that we could use so much less and still have enough to be happy, successful, and raise families we would allow the changes that would help us be stewards of the Earth rather than just users.
What worries me most is Over-Consumption. That is essentially what is causing most if not all of the problems listed above. The fact of the matter is we simply cannot carry on consuming the worlds resources at our current rate for much longer. We can’t continue to leave the fate of the planet in the hands of businesses who in reality care of nothing more than increasing profits.
The elitism/classism in the environmental movement. Those of us on this planet that are most affected by environmental problems are the poor – and they rarely have a voice at the conservation table.
conservation of all natural resources is of no importance to african goverments most especially Nigerian goverment who always pays lipe service to the protection and conservation of our flora and fauna. more conservation education needs to be carried out to rural communities especially those within the buffer zone. we all have great roles toplay in protecting our enviroment
Your commercial keeps me up at night. The thought of you thinking you matter makes me cringe. Nature takes care of itself and humanity will disappear with or without your help.
What keeps me up at night is the rapid loss of habitat for creatures along river systems. In the U.S. people build houses and other developments where eagles roost and nest and other endangered species live. Coal mines are another worry that keeps me up. We need to stop mining coal, which destroys habitat and pollutes our environment.
What keeps me up at night is the possibility that my children and my children’s children will not be able to enjoy the same positive experiences in nature that I have had because we Westerners have chosen to take it all for granted. The idea that coral reefs may disappear within the next two decades or so makes me incredibly sad, but what scares me is that 1) not enough people seem to understand that their actions have global implications that caused that to happen and 2) that we have no idea what such catastrophic events (e.g. mass coral bleaching/die-off) will have on humanity. Will wars start because of coral bleaching? Unlikely. But people will fight over scarce resources, and if food, water and a steady source of income are suddenly deleted from the equation, we have a very long journey ahead of us.
I’m trying to be optimistic, but it’s hard.
Habitat loss. Plain and simple the biggest issue facing wildlife. Humans, when it comes down to the wire, will always act in their own self-interest, no matter how many facts may be present showing the fallacy of that choice.
attempt at going green.
the other day I went and searched for a greener car
mazda tribute vs chevy equinox. both are 27mpg suvs/crossovers both have hybrid options, and both are middle class friendly priced @ only 30,000.00 and both are only offered in california.
my fear is that as soon as a new president takes office that the auto industry will drop its bid to make greener cars, the are showing us that by only offering greener cars in 1 state that it would show sales to be negligible kin of like what happened to fords tev in the 90s… new president….new agenda and away went the electric car.
What keeps me up is that most of these issues are related to unlimited population growth. The most effective way to deal with this in a democracy is education of girls coupled with free access to health and birth control services.
Population. When you think about it, nothing else matters, no other issues are relevant or reparable. Population increases exponentially. It is the holocaust inexorably overtaking the natural world, the great vortex sucking up all finite resources, the vast excretorium always looking for an outlet, and it ensures that the number of people will always increase faster than we can feed them. Want to see the future? Go to Mexico City or Mumbai and despair. You are absolutely not going to stop people from having babies.
Lack of commitment of federal, state, local govts. to use of alternative energy sources–esp. solar & wind power. Natural gas for gas-burning public transportation. Lack of water recycling (grey water). I feel strongly that the voting public will support govt. action to use solar & wind energy. I think that in order to make use of these resources our federal govt. (it’s not really that any more, is it?) will have to provide R & D money along with tax breaks for citizens who use alternative energy sources (solar heat, esp.). Why don’t we demand federal financial support that equals the cost of a B-2 bomber and an idiot’s war?