If you had to focus on a single aspect of environmental degradation...which would it be and why...?

If you had to focus on a single aspect of environmental degradation- air pollution; water, soil, or forest problems; solid, toxic, or nuclear waste disposal- which would it be and why? What would you do to make people aware of the seriousness of the problem? What new solutions could you propose?If you had to focus on a single aspect of environmental degradation...which would it be and why...?Land use.



I truly believe that when we begin to understand the changes in albedo and climate caused by changing natural grasslands and rainforest into crop land, that we will discover that the largest component of climate change is related to agriculture and urban/suburban land use changes. Presently about 25% of the carbon dioxide input into the atmosphere each year is caused by burning forest lands in order to make the land available for agriculture. The current high prices of corn and soybeans are powerful forces causing deforestation. These very same changes have been measured showing that they cause changes in rainfall and temperature in the regions where they are taking place.



Urban and suburban heat islands are now a well-known phenomenon, yet few calculations have been made to measure the actual heat contributions to our climate. It is generally observed that most major cities are about 10 degrees warmer on average than the surrounding countryside, and this heat is dissipating into the environment. The effect of this is very likely to be much larger than we expect.



NASA and others have done studies that have shown that cropland such as corn and soybeans produce climate warming effects when compared to the natural prairie grasses they have replaced. Millions of acres of land world wide have been put into crop land growing these types of crops.



Another significant contribution that agriculture has added to climate change is the rising levels of methane (a greenhouse gas) generated by cows, and even rice cultivation. It seems likely to me that many of the climate change problems we now have are the result of the last 10,000 years of agricultural change. It also seems important that this problem be seriously examined, as we may actually be targeting the wrong problem by assuming that climate change is related to higher levels of carbon dioxide. If you examine the IPCC reports, you will discover that they mention these problems, but have done almost no research to measure the contributions of agriculture to global climate change.



The implications of this problem are that several apparent solutions to our energy problems, namely ethanol and biodiesel, may result in more climate change, both from albedo effect, and from reduction of carbon in the soil due to cultivation. Reforestation may actually be a better solution than deforestation in the name of "alternative energy."



Solutions that must be examined will be changes in design and construction of buildings and parking lots. Other changes that may be required may be drastic changes in agricultural practices. Many of our proposed alternative energy sources may be worse than the sources they are to replace.If you had to focus on a single aspect of environmental degradation...which would it be and why...?Invasive species. They reduce biodiversity dramatically, which tends to set up a feedback loop and could greatly increase the severity of the current mass extinction (if it's not the primary agent itself).



Informing the public of what exoctic species can do and putting tighter restictions on imports is about all that can be done short of logistically impossible erradication projects. It's too late to do anything about Butternut Canker, Emerald Ash Borers, Ailanthus Trees, Japanese Honeysuckle, Gypsy Moths, Soybean Aphids, Asian Ladybugs, Saltcedars, Kudzu... it's a long list that goes on for pages. Those are just the ones threatening my area I can think of at the moment.