I’m on the Center for Biodiversity’s mailing list, and received a terrific email from their Executive Director, Kieran Suckling yesterday. He talked about what needs to happen for us to move forward on critical issues facing wildlife now that the political dust is starting to settle. He fully outlined his ideas in an op-ed on the Huffington Post yesterday.
Like Kieran, the Obama administration’s record on conservation and environmental issues has disappointed me. What I really liked about his message is that he gives five straightforward topics that the administration needs to get on top of:
- Address climate change and ocean acidification.
- Stem the species extinction crisis.
- Keep politics out of the Endangered Species Act and other vital environmental laws.
- Safeguard our public lands, wild places and the Arctic.
- Embrace clean energy.
No small task. But instead of a critique of what has or hasn’t been done by the administration to date he focuses on moving forward and talking about what needs to get done. I love it. There’s always so much bad news when it comes to conservation and environmental issues – I can barely stand to hear it any more. So I’m focusing on the positive messages and finding ways to help everyone make a difference, from the President on down. What do you think needs to happen in the next 4 years to make an impact on the environmental crises facing our world?
I love this positive, moving forward approach. Education is so important right now. People just don’t realize the impact that climate change is having on our planet. I’m learning more and more every day. I think we need to keep talking. We also need to put forward more action steps to take so we can all work on this problem together. Sounds cheesy, but we need to do something!
I completely agree all the way around. One of the challenges in environmental education is how to make audiences aware of how critical the issues are facing the natural world, without making people feel hopeless. A combination of information along with concrete tasks that can be put into action at a variety of levels (individuals, households, businesses, local governments, etc.) is a strong approach, and one I’m trying to take through blogging.
I received that too and I am hopeful going forward…
me too…