Solving The Environmental Crisis

"What are our biggest environmental issues, and how can young people help find solutions?"

Feb 20, 2023

We believe that it is really important to provide politically neutral information on this topic like any other. However, at this point scientific consensus and public sentiment overwhelmingly supports the fact that there is a climate and environmental crisis affecting every nation on earth. So rather than get into the debate over whether there truly is a crisis, or over who caused it, we have focused here instead of outlining the nature of the crisis and what different solutions may exist to it. We are particularly interested in what role young people can play in addressing them. We will first dig deeper into the nature of the crisis, then explore how this might give us clues as to potential solutions. Ultimately the aim here is to inspire other young people to take a more hopeful approach. We want you to consider how we can all work together to find solutions that prioritize the health of our planet and the well-being of all people alive today and in the future.

The Nature of the Nature crisis

Almost all human activity has an environmental impact. It has always been this way to some extent since we formed the first societies and began using tools (aka technology). However, many environmental scientists believe, (and show data to support) the fact that our now planetary industrialized civilization has reached a point where it is consuming far more energy and biodiversity (natural resources and animal life) than the planet can naturally regenerate. This is known by earth scientists as humanity exceeding the “carrying capacity” of our finite planet or “ecological overshoot”.

Clearly, environmental issues are worse in some places than others due to different geography and concentrations of human population and industrial activity. But ultimately, we are all in the same boat when it comes to the destruction of our “global commons" or “public goods” such as the atmosphere, the oceans, the polar ice caps and glaciers, the oxygen producing forests, and… yes, the climate regulation system. No one person or country owns these natural resources, and nobody is immune from the problems their depletion will create, which makes overshoot a crisis that affects us all.

Broken Connections

The environmental system can be seen like any living being or organism as an interconnected system of smaller biological processes, like cells. When the system is healthy it is because all the interconnected cells or parts are in harmony and fulfilling their role. Rains rise from the ocean and re-hydrate the land, rivers flush and irrigate like veins, forests breathe like lungs. But when one part of that system is out of balance, it throws off the ability of the parts to support each other, so that the whole system starts to break down entirely.

For example, the climate crisis cannot be viewed solely as related to carbon emissions, but also due to deforestation destroying biodiversity which absorbs carbon, which leads to less rain, which disrupts rivers, and so it goes on... Until finally you have system breakdown.

Many environmental scientists, engineers, NGOs, and even the UN, are warning that we are already starting to reach the breakdown phase as many of these natural processes are severely disrupted. The extreme weather events, poor human health, economic issues, and many other problems we experience can be seen as manifestations of the poor health of the system. This interconnected web of issues threatens the health and well-being of both people and the planet.

Climate change, water and air pollution, habitat loss, deforestation, mass extinctions of species, the depletion and acidification of the oceans, and essential resource depletion are just a few of the critical problems we face. These issues are not isolated, they are deeply interconnected and amplify each other in “feedback loops”. For example, climate change is driving habitat loss and resource depletion, which leads to the unbalancing of our oceans, which further contributes to climate change.

A Problem with Many Solutions

Many different solutions exist on how to address the environmental crisis:

Some say the solutions we need have not even been invented yet, and others believe we already have everything we need in a return to the most ancient traditional and Indigenous agricultural techniques such as agroforestry that are adapted to local conditions.

Some favor more technological solutions and believe investing in technologies like carbon capture and green energy will save us from the worst impacts of climate change. Others favor more “nature-based solutions” such as “re-wilding”, planting forests and regenerating wetlands.

Some favor a centralized approach with major government and corporate investment in large-scale nature regeneration problems or alternative energy projects. Others advocate for a more decentralized model empowering and supporting all, (including the poorest and most marginalized communities), to find community-based solutions in their own ways to the problems with adequate resourcing.

Many argue that wealthier Western nations have caused more of the environmental harm through importing the globalized capitalist economies to developing nations, and Western nations have benefited a lot from this, so should carry a bigger burden in fixing the issues. Others argue that developing nations should be required to fund their own development of cleaner technologies as western nations have more urgent issues to solve at home.

Some people feel it is more urgent that we make life and livelihoods better for ordinary working people in America before we waste taxpayer money on abstract crises that don’t affect their lives directly. Others like Claudine Schneider counter this by saying, “a healthy ecology is the basis for a healthy economy.” Many like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez argue that investing more in environmental regeneration through a “Green New Deal” approach will create more (and better paid) jobs and a healthy land and resource base on which to build a productive economy.

Some favor personal responsibility and say it is up to individuals to change their own habits. However, many activists have pointed out that the environmental issues we face are not simply a result of individual actions and consumer preferences, but are deeply interconnected with power structures, and the social and economic systems. They contend that only by recognizing power imbalances and unhealthy systems wherever they exist, can we work towards solutions that address them in a more just and politically popular way.

There are many valid points to critiques about the environmental or “Green” industry, and whether the right solutions are being pushed and funded by this “Green Capitalism” and the ESG investment sector (Environmental, Social Governance Investment). One of the leading critics has been filmmaker Michael Moore who has said, "Maybe the road we've been on in trying to fix our environment, while well-intentioned, has not been the right road… we are not going to be able to solar panel and windmill our way out of this. We need a serious new direction.”

It is likely that all of these different perspectives contain elements of truth, and many different approaches will play a part in finding the ultimate solution. We may have different ideas of how to get there, but all humans ultimately want to leave the world in a better place for future generations. That is the question people everywhere are grappling with in our own ways.

Reconnecting

What is becoming clear is that the most important reconnection we need to make is the human one. If the core of the problem is disconnection within the system, then how can we re-connect the parts to get the system working and healthy again? In other words, how can we reconnect to one another and to the environment to create a society that prioritizes the health and wellbeing of both people and the planet itself?

It may require us taking an approach that acknowledges the valid perspectives of all people and addresses some of our own biases or deeply held beliefs in our own way being the right way. We also must be humble enough to learn from wherever wisdom is found. Indigenous cultures, for example, have a lot to teach our modern society. The indigenous worldview historically sees humans as inseparably connected to the environment and this has generally led to very efficient ways of living in balance with the planet even in difficult environmental conditions.

Whatever we decide, all humans, regardless of nationality or political ideology or party affiliation, will need to somehow agree on a holistic approach. If we are unable to learn to see that our actions have impacts on the people and the planet around us, and all other beings alive, then we will not solve the problem before irreversible damage to the planet and our civilization has been done. Ultimately, it is up to all to take collective responsibility and collective action for ensuring the health of our planet. By collaborating and working together despite our different views or beliefs, we can make a greater impact and ensure a brighter future for generations to come.

We don’t have all the answers yet and the future is unwritten, but maybe we can solve the problem by combining ancient, current, and novel solutions. We will likely need a toolkit of innovative solutions that solve the environmental problems, but also work to make life better for everyone alive today and in the coming decades. For this reason young people today will play a critical role as future leaders in addressing this challenge. All of our voices are truly important, and we want to hear what you think about the problem and how we can solve it.

You can have your say on this issue, and potentially win a Voices of America Scholarship by Answering this prompt Now