是時候組織一個國際環境保護機構
 

地球經過了我們兩百多年的摧殘破壞之后，我們終于明白再破壞下去傷害的不僅僅是我們的星球還有我們自己，這一時刻就是二一零零年。隨著全球平均氣溫上升了六華攝氏度（華盛頓郵報）成了產生了眾多的環境問題的原因，隨著氣溫的上升，北極和南極的冰開始融化，導致海平面上升，淹沒了無數的沿海城市。海平面的上升也導致了海洋棲息地受到破壞，改變電流從而導致眾多魚和海洋生物種類的死亡。溫度升高而引起的多種疾病只出現于遍布全球的溫暖地區，氣溫上升并不是唯一困擾人們的問題。
 

在過去的一個世紀里，汽車和空氣污染的增加使得臭氧層擴大，輻射量的增加也使得地球上世界各地癌癥相關死亡人數上升了百分之二十五，輻射不僅會導致癌癥發病率增加，而且輻射也會破壞免疫系統從而增加發病率。

 

It’s Time to Organize an International Environmental Protection Agency 

 

After more than two centuries of destroying the Earth, we have finally come to the point where doing anymore harm will destroy not only our planet but also ourselves. The year is 2100. With average worldwide temperatures rising by six degrees Fahrenheit (EPA qtd Washington Post 1) numerous environmental problems have resulted. With thetemperature rise Arctic and Antarctic ice caps began to melt, the resulting sea level rise wiped out numerous coastal cities. Along with the sea level rise came the destruction of ocean habitats and changing currents resulted in the death of numerous species of fish and sea life (Last 6). Temperature increase caused many diseases that only appear in warm parts of the world to spread across the Earth (EPA 5). And temperature rise wasn’t the only problem to plague the population. 

 

Over the past century the increase of car and air pollution helped to enlarge the size of the ozone layer. The increased amount of radiation coming in to the Earth made the number of cancer related deaths around the world go up 25 percent (Greenpeace 4). Not only did cancer rates increase due to radiation; immune system deficiencies due to radiation (McMichael 35) caused disease rates to increase. Because of emission increases in the 20th century the amount of carbon dioxide in the air doubled since the beginning of the industrial age (Quayle 1). As many third world countries continued to develop, they also continued to raise their air pollution rates (CO2 rates increased by more than 300%, rates were especially high in China and developing countries in Africa and Latin America (Ciba 62)). Combined with the already existent pollution, the number of reported lung cancer and other air pollution related health problems rise substantially. #p#分頁標題#e#

 

Although over the past one hundred and fifty years more than a few environmental laws were past by individual countries to try and stop large companies from dumping their waste in unsafe and illegal ways (and places), little worked. This large amount of industrial waste (air, land, and water based) is one of the reasons the world is in such dire environmental straits. In the beginning of the industrial age many countries around the world did nothing to try and stop companies from pumping waste into the world. As time went on it became apparent that steps needed to be taken to stifle pollution. Sadly enough though, strict enough sanctions were not taken until it was too late. 

 

If the environmental pollution around the world wasn’t enough the planet’s population continued to rise and rise. Although birth rates leveled off in most all the first world countries, third world population numbers more than made up for the first world population. Counties such as India and China, whose populations were already at 1 billion at the turn of the century, continued to rise to the point, where their combined populations made up for almost half the world total. Although over the century many solutions were tried, the number of people just kept increasing to epidemic levels. Nothing stopped the population increase until the world became such a place, that people began to die due to the environment. 

 

All of these global problems created a domino effect that put us in our current position. While we were destroying forests in both Brazil and other places around the world, we were also sending large amounts of pollution into the air. The combination of this lack of oxygen and increase in CFC’s and other pollutants caused the huge Greenhouse problem that we have today. Another example of this, is that as the number of people on the planet continued to increase, and the temperature began to rise food problems around the world began to decrease severely (because plants have limited ability to adapt to climate change (Sierra Club 3)), to the point were almost all the planet experienced a food shortage. Because the temperature went up the sea level rose causing loss of fish life and coastal farmland, add that on to the increasing number of people that needed the already limited amount of food, you can see how these problems effect each other. Throwing the problem of decrease levels of drinkable water due to pollution and population, and the problem of malnutrition and starvation become that much greater. While people were dying from lack of food, there was also loss of life due to the increased number of cancer and other health problems due to polluted food and water supplies, along with ozone radiation. Examples such as these help demonstrate the domino effect, and how one thing makes another go wrong and another. 

 

All of the problems continued to increase and increase until the end of the twenty first century, by that time a population that was once pushing 8 billion was decreased to nearly two, and many of those two billion people probably wish they were one of the six billion that died. By this point it’s too late to correct or repair our destroyed planet, and it is just a matter of time before our once thriving species manages to destroy itself in only two hundred years. All of these problems could have been avoided had steps been taken in the 20th century to safe guard the future of our planet and its people. #p#分頁標題#e#

 

Obviously this story is a fictional one, but it does represent a possible result of the destruction of our planet. Temperatures around the planet are already rising, and along with that rise is coming a rise in sea levels. The hole in the ozone, and the problems that come with that (skin cancer, etc) are already documented. With all of the problems that are already here, people need to be aware of what could possibly happen. 

 

Unfortunately like most things in life this problem is an extremely complex one. How do we go about solving a problem that is on such a large, global scale? We can’t just go and put a stop to all car use so that levels of smog and other air pollutants go down. Besides that how can we go about making sure that all countries follow such a law, because even though there are millions of cars in the US that wouldn’t be used, there are still many more millions in the world that are being used outside this country (and most of these countries don’t have the same emission standards that we have). Although stopping the use of combustible fuel engines would help decrease the greenhouse effect (to flat out stop using cars and all other such vehicles though is so unrealistic it shouldn’t even be considered), it doesn’t help to solve the problems of population increase and does nothing to stop large industrial companies from dumping pollution into our land and water supplies. This is why taking measures to stop the destruction of our environment to the extent that it will decrease our likely hood of self-destruction is so problematic. Not only do we have to make sure that all areas of environmental suicide are controlled, we have to make sure that all countries follow the same environmental guidelines. All the planet needs to be on the same page, because it does no good to control air pollution in the United States if China is going to keep pumping CFC’s into the air. My proposal is that we setup a worldwide environmental protection agency to make sure that all countries follow agreed upon guidelines to help safe guard the health of our planet and our species. 

 

I as much as anyone realize that this is a huge and complicated proposal that will require unheard of cooperation amongst the residents of the planet Earth. In the following pages I will explain, not only, how to setup this police force, but also why it is so important that we come together on this proposal so that future generations will be able to live as well as possible. 

 

To begin with there will have to be a major change in mindset for people that make decisions so that those decisions are made not only for the benefit of people today, but also for the generations of people to come. If changes aren’t made for the benefit of future generations then the point of doing anything is lost (Hall 198). Bringing all of the countries of the world together is a problem that hasn’t been solved since the beginning of time. Just getting the countries of the world to sit down and consider our environmental problems will be an accomplishment in and of itself. At this time I think it would be prudent to interject the fact that this is just a proposal, problems such as bringing society together on issues are problems that people have been dealing with since the beginning of time. I have to admit that I don’t have all of the answers, and that my plan requires a leap of faith by those reading this to realize that it will take a monumental effort to clean up the planet and that I don’t have all the answers. #p#分頁標題#e#

 

Once the countries of the world sit down to discuss the environmental problems of the world, we reach the next main problem of: How are the countries of the world going to agree on what steps should be taken to save the planet? During these discussions the members of our planet will have to be convinced of four things: that we are doing harm to the planet, that we need to take measures to prevent problems now, it is possible to work together and set up a plan to save the Earth, and finally that it is economically feasible to save the planet. Once these four areas are agreed on the world’s ability to come together will become that much easier. In the following paragraphs I will give examples of why these points are important and how they have been solved in the past. 

 

It is important to explain to the countries of the world why it is so important that steps are taken to prevent future problems from occurring along with cleaning up and repairing problems that are now happening. To begin with if the people of the world are convinced of the damage that is being done then they will be more willing to make sacrifices for the future. For example, "260,000 tons of liquid industrial waste, 77 million tons of dredged and polluted harbour mud, 5 million tons of sewage sludge, 22,000 tons of nitrogen and phosphate wastes, mainly from agricultural runoff, pours out of the mouth of the Rhine. The total tonnage of waste overwhelms natural cleansing processes, creating a permanently polluted environment for seals and all other North Sea life." (Hall 122). If the countries of the North Sea knew of the grave amounts of damage they are doing to fishable waters and the impacts that it will have on life in the area, surely steps would be taken to prevent such things from happening. If those countries do know of the damage they are causing but refuse to do anything, or just flat don’t care, then that is when the International Environmental Protection Agency steps in to correct the problem. 

 

As I mentioned earlier economics will play a huge role in the formation of an international body. If in the beginning countries are made aware of the fact that preventing problems before they happen is much cheaper than dealing with cleanup and other solutions after the fact, they will likely be more willing to take preventive steps now. In 1970 the disposable diaper was introduced, on average a baby is changed 6 to 10 thousand times before it is toilet trained, at that pace one baby produces two tons of disposable diapers (Hall 137). If you consider how many babies have been born since 1970 the amount of non-biodegradable waste produced is staggering. If every parent agreed to use cloth diapers instead of disposables the amount of waste would be reduced significantly. Even if no parents wanted to wash these diapers, you could hire someone to wash them for you at 15 cents per, which would still be cheaper than the 22 cents it cost to buy disposables (Hall 137). This is just one single-family example of how preventing release of waste into the environment can be substantially cheaper than to doing anything until the problems already there. #p#分頁標題#e#

 

In just the last two years the United States and China have taken steps to make improvements in the environment. The US has agreed to loan China $170 million to take steps in creating a more environmentally sound China (World Bank 1). This money will go towards: modern production of energy efficient technologies, environmental management and enforcement, along with efforts to reduce greenhouse gases (World Bank 1). If two countries with such large differences can agree to work together and do what they can to save the environment than surely other countries in the world can do the same. This isn’t the only time in which efforts have been made between nations on environmental topics. In 1987 countries of the world worked out an agreement to minimize the amounts of pollution pumped into the air. Know as the Montreal Protocol, after several revisions, countries finally agreed on exactly what CFC levels were appropriate and what were not (McMichael 180). The exact numbers aren’t important, what is important though is that its another example of how it’s possible for the residents of the planet to agree on issues. As we speak the United Nations is working on an Environmental Law Programme that will help bring about environmental agreements between nations (UNEP 1). Such a program will help to easy the tensions between countries when the first steps toward an agreement are taken. 

 

The above mentioned Montreal Protocol is point that the opposition would bring up as a flaw in my plan. It is unlikely that people would disagree in the principles of my proposal, but the major point of getting people to agree on issues is problematic. Although in the end the Protocol was agreed on it took a decade, and multiple changes in the guidelines to bring about an agreement (McMichael 180). This is but one issue, how are members of Earth supposed to agree on dozens of different plans and areas, and how many decades will it take? 

 

In response: It’s important that even though it took several tries, the Montreal Protocol was agreed on. Since then a number of international steps have been taken, such as the partnership between China and the US, and the UNEP Environmental Law Programme, so it is possible for the world to make compromises on issues for the greater good. 

 

In the end it will take extremely large amounts of cooperation from all parties involved to make this international-body work. Convincing all the people of the world how important it will be to prevent the amount of pollution going into the planet to be reduced and finding ways to produce environmentally friendly chemicals and other products will be difficult issues that will have to be agreed on. This writer is willing to admit that getting people to come together and agree on a scale never before seen will be a monumental task, but when we realize how important it is to save our planet and our environment, hopefully we can agree to make some changes. And when we agree to work together, who knows what we can accomplish. #p#分頁標題#e#

 

Work Cited 

 

"Trends Related to Global Climate Change". EPA. 26 April 1998. www.epa.gov/globalwarming/climate/trends/index.html 

"Future Climate". EPA. 26 April 1998. www.epa.gov/globalwarming/climate/future/index.html 

"Atmospheric Change". EPA. 26 April 1998. www.epa.gov/globalwarming/climate/atmospheric/index.html 

"Health". EPA. 26 April 1998. www.epa.gov/globalwarming/impacts/health/index.html 

Last, John M. "Global Change: Ozone Depletion, Greenhouse Warming, and Public 

Health". 1993. www.ciesin.org/docs/001-234/001-234.html 

Quayle, Robert G. and Karl, Thomas R. "The State of the Climate-1996". 23 January 1996. www.ncdc.noaa.gov/gcps/climate-change-update.html 

"Aquatic Ecosystems" Sierra Club. 12 September 1998. www.sierraclub.org 

"Global Warming Impacts: Plants." Sierra Club. 12 September 1998. www.sierraclub.org 

"Wildlife Impacts." Sierra Club. 12 September 1998. www.sierraclub.com 

"Scientists See Weather Trend as Powerful Proof of Global Warming." Sierra Club/Washington Post. 13 September 1998. www.sierraclub.com 

"Slowly Poisoning the Planet". Greenpeace. 17 September 1998. www.greenpeace.org/~toxics/frame4he.html 

 

"Health Impacts of Ozone Destruction." Greenpeace. 17 September 1998. www.greenpeace.org/~toxics/frame4he.html 

CIBA Foundation Symposium. Environmental Change and Human Health. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1996. 

McMichael, A.J. Planetary Overload: Global Environmental Change and the Health of the Human Species. Chambridge: Chambridge University Press, 1993. 

Hall, Ross Hume. Health and the Global Environment. Great Britain: Polity Press, 1990. 

"China Targets Chongqing Industries For Environmental Reforms." World Bank Group Press Release. 2 December 1998. www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/extme/9442eap.htm 

"About the UNEP Environmental Law Programme." UNEP. 1 December 1998. www.unep.org/unep/program/global/elu/internet.htm