President Barack Obama visited Florida’s famed Everglades to mark Earth Day on Wednesday. Much of the day’s commentary tackled climate change. Editors and environmentalists opined on various dangers, solutions and signs of progress on the warming of the planet — except for those who don’t believe in it at all.
Climate change and displacement across borders
Elizabeth Ferris – The Brookings Institution
Today on Earth Day, it’s important to consider the numerous ways of approaching the complex issue of climate change … I look at climate change from the perspective of migration and displacement. To what extent will people have to move because their communities are no longer habitable because of the effects of climate change? …
Some people will see the handwriting on the wall and will migrate before they have to leave. Others will be forced from their homes by a particular sudden-onset disaster – indeed one of the effects of climate change will be an increase in the frequency, intensity, and unpredictability of severe disasters … Most of this movement of people will be within the borders of their country where they are considered to be internally displaced persons.
But what happens if people are forced to leave their countries because of a disaster or environmental degradation or the effects of climate change? Under present international law, there is no special provision to admit those leaving their countries for these reasons.
Welcome to the Everglades
Tim Chapman – Miami Herald
We can hardly think of a better place for President Obama to visit this Earth Day than the unparallelled natural wonder of the Everglades.
The Everglades that Mr. Obama will see on Wednesday is a dramatically reduced version of nature’s original, the result of human encroachment and the diversion of water to accommodate development and agriculture. Today, the federal and state governments are embarked on a project of historic significance designed to preserve and protect what’s left.
Mr. Obama arrives at a symbolically important moment — halfway into this 30-year effort known as the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan … Thanks to CERP and federal laws such as the Clean Water Act, the vitality of the treasured ecosystem is undergoing gradual renewal.
Happy Earth Day 2015: The Earth Is Doing Just Fine, Thank You
Stephen Moore – Fox News
April 22 is Earth Day. To hear the experts like Usher and Al Gore tell the story, the planet is in a miserable state. We’re running out of our natural resources, we’re overpopulating the globe and running out of room, the air that we breathe is becoming toxic, the oceans are rising and soon major coastal cities will be underwater, and the Earth is, of course, heating up, except when it is cooling down.
This is perhaps the single greatest misinformation campaign in world history. Virtually none of these claims are even close to the truth — except for the fact that our climate is always changing as it has for hundreds of thousands of years …
The state of the planet has never been in such fine shape by almost every objective measure. The Chicken Littles are as wrong today as they were 50 years ago.
Want to Save the Planet? Say Bye-Bye to Nature
Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus – USA Today
Since before the first Earth Day in 1970, environmentalists have argued that solving environmental problems required humans to get closer to nature.
The “back to the land” movement urged people to leave cities, which were viewed as crowded and polluted. Renewable energy was recommended because it integrates human civilization into natural energy flows, such as water, biofuels and the sun …
Fossils fuels and modern agricultural practices today cause many problems, including air and water pollution as well as global warming …
But protecting the environment and saving more nature in the 21st century will not require that we get closer to nature. Rather, it requires that we get farther from it, through better technologies.