Undergraduate Environmental Science Program
YOU WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
In 1990, we put this statement on Rensselaer's environmental science brochure, along with the growth curve of the human
population, to emphasis that although the earth is now home to a huge number of humans -- 6 billion sometime in the fall of 1999
-- each one of us will indeed make a difference. Environmental educators believe that if people have accurate knowledge and a clear understanding of the environmental challenges that face
them, they will make a positive difference for a better future.
It is clear that the current human population and its patterns of habitation are unsustainable as the scientists of the world clearly stated in "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity" in 1993. This publication, by
the Union of Concerned Scientists, was signed by thousands of scientists from all over the world, including 104 Nobel laureates
-- the majority of living recipients of the Prize in the sciences. The statement
indicated:
"Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course. ... The environment is suffering critical stress: The Atmosphere ... Water Resources ... Oceans ... Soil ... Forests ... Living Species. Uncertainty over the extent of these effects cannot excuse complacency or delay in facing the threats. ... The earth is finite. Its ability to absorb wastes and destructive effluent is finite. Its ability to provide food and energy is finite. Its ability to provide for growing numbers of people is finite. And we are fast approaching many of the earth's limits. ... A great change in our stewardship of the earth and the life on it is required, if vast human misery is to be avoided and our global home on this planet is not to be irretrievably mutilated. ...
Five inextricably linked areas must be addressed simultaneously:
1. We must bring environmentally damaging activities under control to restore and protect the integrity of the earth's systems we depend on. ...
2. We must manage resources crucial to human welfare more effectively. ...
3. We must stabilize population. ...
4. We must reduce and eventually eliminate poverty. ...
5. We must ensure sexual equality, and guarantee women control over their own reproductive decisions. ...
The scientists issuing this warning hope that our message will reach and affect people everywhere. We need the help of many. We require the help of the world community of
scientists -- natural, social, economic, political; We require the help of the world's business and industrial leaders; We require the help of the world's religious leaders; and We require the help of the world's peoples. We call on all to join us in this task."
The evidence supporting this Warning is found everywhere: in our daily lives, in thousands of primary scientific papers, and in hundreds of books that summarize and analyze the data in the primary literature. Each one of us will make a difference in the choices we make each day.
Some individual choices are in and of themselves but gestures toward durable habitation -- eating less or no meat, eating more locally grown food, growing a vegetable garden, bicycling/walking/taking public transportation instead of driving, and buying energy efficient appliances or a gas efficient
car -- but when hundreds, thousands, millions of people are making these gestures, the difference is immense. Other individual
choices by themselves make a huge difference -- living close to your school or work, buying or building a passive solar home,
retrofitting a conventional home to make it passively solar, having a small family (one or two children), or starting a family late.
Our current patterns of habitation have the world on a course to monumental disaster, yet we have the knowledge and resources to create an enduring
pattern of habitation. The challenge is to accept this reality, intellectually, then emotionally, and
in so doing join and support the thousands of people, programs, and organizations that are already working to make a difference, working to create
a pattern of living that will be enduring.
SEVERAL INFORMATIVE, THOUGHTFUL BOOKS ARE:
Paul Ehrlich and Anne Ehrlich: THE BETRAYAL OF SCIENCE AND REASON. Island Press, Washington, D.C., 1996.
Kai N. Lee: COMPASS AND GYROSCOPE. Island Press, Washington, DC, 1993.
Carl N. McDaniel and John M. Gowdy: PARADISE FOR SALE: A PARABLE OF NATURE. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA,
2000.
Clive Ponting: A GREEN HISTORY OF THE WORLD: THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE COLLAPSE OF GREAT CIVILIZATIONS. Penguin Books, New York, 1991.
Edward O. Wilson: THE DIVERSITY OF LIFE. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1992.
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Director: - Jun Abrajano - Mail and Web
Environmental Science,
MRC - 334,
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute,
110 8th Street,
Troy, NY, 12190-3510
Phone: 518 276 6036
Last modified: 09/09/02.
URL: http://www.rpi.edu/dept/envsci/