The Global Threat The News Media Ignore

The Global Threat The News Media Ignore

By NEAL PEIRCE

January 20, 2008

Forget the old saw that environmental safeguards are bad for the economy. Now it's the global economy that may suffer irreparable loss unless global warming and companion environmental threats, from falling water tables to collapsing fisheries, can be addressed.

There's some heartening news. Growing numbers of corporations and governments around the world are increasing investments in imaginative new technologies. This is a fast-growing phenomenon even if, to date, the pathbreaking new approaches are definitely more the exception than the rule.

But there's a huge hurdle in the way: the unfettered consumer economy we Americans have lived (and profited) by. Now our incessant hunger for constantly increased goods and energy supplies, more autos and living space, is being mirrored worldwide.

It's cresting with special and alarming drama in the huge rising economies of such nations as India and China. Without radical protective measures, in this country and worldwide, the 21st century is likely to deliver collapsing economies and widespread environmental disasters.

...