330 The globalvillage
An encouraging development is the growing interest of some of the
world’s largest companies in tackling the problems posed by global
warming. Many are aggressively pursuing (e.g. through internal trading
arrangements) the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions within their
operations. Also many (e.g. two of the largest oil companies, Shell and
British Petroleum) are putting strong investment into renewable energies.
John Browne, the chief executive of BP, has said:^11No single company or country can solve the problem of climate change. It
would be foolish and arrogant to pretend otherwise. But I hope we can
make a difference – not least to the tone of the debate – by showing what is
possible through constructive action.The challenge is indeed for everybody, from individuals, communities,
industries and governments through to multinationals, especially for
those in the relatively affluent Western world, to take on board thor-
oughly this urgent task of the environmental stewardship of our Earth.
And none of us should argue that there is nothing we can usefully do.
Edmund Burke, a British parliamentarian of 200 years ago, said:Noone made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could
do so little.Questions
1 List and describe the most important environmental problems in your coun-
try. Evaluate how each might be exacerbated under the type of climate change
expected with global warming.
2 It is commonly stated that my pollution or my country’s pollution is so small
compared with the whole, that any contribution I or my country can make
towards solving the problem is negligible. What arguments can you make to
counter this attitude?
3 Speak to people you know whoare involved with industry and find out their
attitudes to local and global environmental concerns. What are the important
arguments that persuade industry to take the environment seriously?
4 Al Gore, Vice-President of the United States in 1996–2000, has proposed a
plan for saving the world’s environment.^15 He has called it ‘A Global Mar-
shall Plan’ paralleled after the Marshall Plan through which the United States
assisted western Europe to recover and rebuild after the Second World War.
Resources for the plan would need to come from the world’s major wealthy
countries. He has proposed five strategic goals for the plan: (1) the stabili-
sation of world population; (2) the rapid creation and development of envi-
ronmentally appropriate technologies; (3) a comprehensive and ubiquitous
change in the economic ‘rules of the road’ by which we measure the impact
of our decisions on the environment; (4) the negotiation of a new generation
of international agreements, that must be sensitive to the vast differences