SOLUTIONS: Writers provide strategies to save our environment and ourselves

By Huck Fairman
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A day apart, but perhaps positioned to become part of the discussions the Democrats have launched in this campaign year on the state of the planet’s environmental health, The New York Times published Paul Krugman’s usual column — this one, “Planet on the Ballot,” followed by a conversation with biologist Edward O. Wilson, professor emeritus at Harvard, prior to the publishing of his 32nd. book (and following two Pulitzer Prizes), this time exhorting we residents to conserve the planet’s biodiversity that supports us.
While Mr. Krugman and Mr. Wilson are focused on different aspects of the global environmental crisis, they both proclaim optimism that we can solve this crisis if we, nationally and globally, will take relatively simple and feasible steps that are well within our reach.
Mr. Krugman urges us to adopt known strategies (carbon tax or cap and trade) and burgeoning technologies (newly affordable solar and wind energy as well as electric or hybrid vehicles) to reduce CO2 emissions, the source of potentially catastrophic global warming.
Although the last two years were the warmest on record, Mr. Krugman reassures us that “salvation is clearly within our grasp.” But he also warns that “it remains all too possible that we’ll manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.”
Why? “Republican retrogression and the G.O.P.’s near-lock on the House of Representatives,” He reminds us that just eight years ago, the Republican nominee’s (John McCain) platform called for a cap and trade system. Since then, denial and “opposition to anything that might avert catastrophe have become essential pillars of Republican identity.” It’s hard to imagine any of the more sensible, pragmatic, prior Republican presidents adopting these self-destructive positions.
How important is this issue? Mr. Krugman writes rather starkly that “this is by far the most important issue there is …” And in this election, “the stakes this time around are deadly serious.”
Will American voters awaken and elect representatives who understand this and will act upon it? Now that we know what to do, will we support business and political leaders who are taking the necessary steps?
And finally Mr. Krugman notes that following the Paris climate accord, much of the world will be watching, and following, our lead. We have the opportunity, and the responsibility, to lead the world, whose health and prosperity — or its lack — will eventually impact our own.
While this political drama is unfolding in our country, Mr. Wilson proclaims that there is another aspect of climate change, along with civilization’s consumptive habits, that threatens, if not our existence, certainly global well-being. And that is the loss of biodiversity, something that has become all too clear only in the last decade.
And this is not a question of preserving picturesque animals on the plains of Africa or in the Amazon, but of preserving food sources, from many threats, including the fact that we have fished the oceans out of all but 2 percent “of what it once was.” and that the populations of pollinators for our food crops are sharply reduced.
With insufficient food, what will the world’s population, heading toward 10 to 11 billion, eat? And hungry, how will they respond? With warming temperatures, we have already seen agriculture moving north, along with insects, birds, and diseases. And the resultant extreme weather is further stressing food sources and water.
But, like Mr. Krugman, Mr. Wilson offers solutions (in addition to supporting efforts to reach net zero carbon emissions,) that he sees as being practicable — namely setting aside “about half of the surface of the land and sea as a preserve for remaining flora and fauna.”
This is not as extreme as it first sounds, for as Mr. Wilson explains, “Large parts of nature are still intact — the Amazon region, the Congo basin, New Guinea — not to mention the oceans. There are also patches of the industrialized world where nature could be restored and strung together to create corridors for wildlife.”
Moreover the oceans account for 70 percent of the Earth’s surface, and small portions have already been protected as preserves. In many countries, as well as ours, the re-establishment of forests is an acknowledged goal. In Mercer County, the D&R Greenway Land Trust, and Friends of Princeton Open Space are working to preserve land and wildlife.
Mr. Wilson reassures us that this idea does not require moving populations, but instead expanding the concept of the U.N.’s World Heritage sites, those that have been recognized as “priceless assets of humanity.” His guiding maxim is: “Do no further harm to the rest of life.”
But is this likely or even feasible? Mr. Wilson answers yes. Along with Mr. Krugman, he sees encouraging trends: including the development and adoption of “high tech,” the Paris climate agreements, which urge the restoration of forests, and the coming together of influential business leaders around these issues. In addition, he sees the population leveling off at that 10 to 11 billion, where before many scientists saw no end to that growth.
Where does Mr. Wilson’s concern and his optimism come from? He asserts that he is responding to “good science and the experience of researchers who’ve described a biodiversity crisis.”
Thus, both men warn of these related, threatening crises that our civilization faces, but both remind us that we know how to respond, if we can work together toward the unity and political will to do so. In this country, much will depend on whether voters understand the urgency of these crises and vote for those representatives who support widely-acknowledged solutions. 
Huck Fairman is a Princeton author who writes about evironmental issues in Solutions. 