Survey: The environment and DU's thoughts on it.

[outofstep]

I'm taking a grad course in what is essentially an environmental engineering class. I am an EE, I'm knocking out some of those precious few graduate elective credits. The paper is a survey of what my "colleagues" think about 6 topics related to the environment and natural resources. I would ask engineers here what they though, but seeing as how engineering grad school is 99% non-native english speakers, these questions wouldnt work so well with them. Yes, I know the questions are kind of leading; I didn't get to chose them.

I'm posting this to fairly right, left and middle leaning sights. Just to get the whole gamut. DU is what I would consider a left leaning site.

If you do decide to reply if you wouldnt mind saying what it is you do (accountant, truck driver, engineer) and your region of the country/state.


For each of the 6 questions; if you don't agree with it, explain your views or why.


1: Our natural resources and ecological systems have high value

2: Our natural resources and ecological systems are finite.

3: Our finite natural resources and ecological systems must be effectively managed, maintained, and enhanced.

4: We are using up our natural resources and the carrying capacity of our ecological systems faster than they can be replaced, replenished or restored.

5: We have now reached many resource and carrying capacity limits and are experiencing the consequences. Examples of these consequences include volatile oil prices, climate change, water shortages, and more.

6: We must act now, investing heavily in mitigation and/or adaptation of these causes and consequences before they become inevitable, devastating and irreversible.

[The Traveler]

1. My Reply

I agree with all of these statements with the possible exception of number 6. I think a strong case could be made that we have already gone well past the point where serious consequences are inevitable. In my view, mitigation is now vital to the very survival of high energy technology civilization.

I am a software engineer that has worked in the aerospace, telecomm, and gaming industries. My degree is in physics.

Good luck with grad school!

Trav

[XemaSab]

2. Mine:

I am a technical editor for an environmental consulting firm.


1: Our natural resources and ecological systems have high value. Totally agree.

2: Our natural resources and ecological systems are finite. Totally agree.

3: Our finite natural resources and ecological systems must be effectively managed, maintained, and enhanced. Somewhat agree. "Management" means different things to different people. Many areas do need to be managed, but there should also be many areas that are left alone.

4: We are using up our natural resources and the carrying capacity of our ecological systems faster than they can be replaced, replenished or restored. Totally agree.

5: We have now reached many resource and carrying capacity limits and are experiencing the consequences. Examples of these consequences include volatile oil prices, climate change, water shortages, and more. Totally agree.

6: We must act now, investing heavily in mitigation and/or adaptation of these causes and consequences before they become inevitable, devastating and irreversible. Totally agree, but with the caveat that we need to manage ourselves as much as we need to manage natural systems.

[immoderate]

3. I agree, but the questions are related.

I mean once you don't value "our natural resources and ecological systems..." the fix is in.

Also depends on whether persons can conceptualize "finite." The rest will fall into line.

I think you'll find those on the right can summon the proper "dissonance" to disconnect them however, but that's why we study these things. Some will see the set-up and deflect.

--imm

[Butterbean]

4. Mine.

1. agree
2. agree
3. agree
4. agree
5. somewhat agree, I still have hope that things can be turned around.
6. agree

I'm a nurse. My husband is an electrical engineer. I can tell you with complete certainty that his answers would be the opposite of mine.

[ieoeja]

5. Software engineer and Landlord in Chicago. Farm and Timber in southern Indiana.

4: With the exception of oil, I can't think of anything we are using faster than we can replace.

5: People in the southwest are not experiencing water shortages because we used up the water. They are experiencing water shortages because they moved into a desert where people died of thirst even when the population was low.

6: Since I don't agree with 4 and 5, I can not very well agree that we "must" act "heavily". As a farm and timber owner I can assure you we are doing quite a bit to retain topsoil, watersheds and forests. I am not against doing more.

For instance, the man I rented my farm violated terms of a program I inherited along with the farm that was supposed to retain some topsoil. And the gov't never once checked on us.

I did not realize what the program was at the time only figuring it out this year when renewal time arrived and realized this is something I can *not* renew because of the damage. I was pretty unhappy with the damage well before that anyway.

Of course, it wasn't exactly him either. He hires guys to do the work, and without guidance they just plow over and disc under everything in sight. When I was growing up there and working the farm with my dad, we left the waterways in our fields even without getting gov't aid. The hired yo-yos don't.

There is now significant erosion and the farmer in question just spent a great deal of his money trying to mitigate the problem. As a problem he has now lost far more acerage than he would have had it been done properly in the first place.

As to the timber, my dad used to have a State Forester mark trees for harvesting on our Classified Forest & Wildlife Habitat every few years. Today, I have to hire a Forestry Consultant to have that done. An owner obviously has less incentive to keep a forest properly maintained when he has to pay to have it done. So privatization of this was a mistake from an environmental viewpoint.

There is still plenty of incentive. Property taxes are super low as long as I keep it classified. The classification makes the wood more valuable commanding a higher price for the harvests. And I *have* to hire a licensed Forestry Consultant and follow good environmental practices to keep it classified.

I also have quite a few acres in abandoned strip mine. We had a small portion of it reclaimed a couple decades back because we were unable to stop people from dumping in it. And we can't have people dumping in a wasteland of toxic pits and slag heaps! Another example of hired yo-yo in that the local bulldozer they hired thought it would be cool to push over the 7' diamater oak tree. My dad wanted to shoot the idiot when he discovered it. Not the Department Of Reclaimations fault. They just hired a local yokel who did something stupid. That said, the gov't is moving very slowly at fixing these old sites. And it would be prohibitively expensive for the people who got stuck with these to do it ourselves.

A neighbor has land for sale with no access and which is, unfortunately, over 50% abandoned strip mine. I wish they had had it for sale during the 2009 stimulus as I was contacted about reclaiming that very land then! Apparently, they thought I owned it. Had it been for sale then, and the state would commit to reclaiming it, I would have bought it. I contacted them now, but the funds have dried up.