PLANETARY AWARENESS May 14, 2007
Posted by wmmbb in Humankind/Planet Earth.trackback
Source: United Nations Environment Program: Maps and Graphics.
The Reith Lectures, delivered this year by economist Jeffrey Sachs, and just completed on the BBC and just begun by the ABC,have things to say about China and Planet Earth which he describes as bursting at the seams.
Jeffrey Sachs’ approach is to be both optimistic as he is practical. He argues that the problems, in relation to population, the environment and poverty, once recognized might be solved.
Dealing with climate change requires, in a the absence of a better description, planetary awareness. Jeffrey Sachs made something apparent to me that has been looking back at me but I had not been seeing. Now it is obvious. He pointed out that global warming is likely to effect the water shortage in the Central Eurasian Mountains and Plateaus literally downstream implications along the Yangzte Kiang and the Hoang Ho, and by extrapolation the Indus, the Ganges, and the Mekong.
The argument about the data sometimes gets in the way of the big picture, especially with the weather because it represents sets of multiple variables and multiple effects.
Economic geography is a practical means, among others, for the development of planetary awareness. As Professor Sachs pointed out water stress is but one of the ecological problems faced by China. They also have problems with carbon emissions. These are not national problems, despite the blinkers of political leaders, but global problems which have repercussions for us all.
Postscript:
If you wish to enlarge the map, click onto it, which will help in identifying the rivers. I am wondering how close they get to one another in relative terms?
[...] policy that is principled, and wins friends both in Beijing and Washington.’ Meanwhile, Wmmbb recommends Jeffrey Sachs’ Reith Lectures, which made him aware among other things of the impact of [...]