Continuing the Theme of Sea Change

My previous blog dealt with the use of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), and, more specifically, the failure to use this in a situation where it would seem to be required (by the European Union Directive).

There is currently tremendous hot air (ie talk) around the subject of global warming. It should be said that the earth has been hotter (and colder) in the not so distant past (ie since the Middle Ages), and sea levels considerably higher in the same period.

However, in these earlier times of warmer weather and higher sea levels, Britain had a fraction of the population and "settlement" that it does today. People could move relatively easily to new locations in both this country and abroad, without the problems such migrations would have now

The prospect of global warming (or cooling) and rising sea levels at the present time, and the role of "man-made pollution" in this, carries enormous challenges because of the scale of human population and the technological lifestyles/aspirations of (over)developed/developing nations.

The fact is that despite enormous talk since the late 1980s when the prospect of global warming was acknowledged as a potentially serious threat to world economic stability, with momentous social as well as environmental consequences, "greenhouse emissions" have continued to rise.

In my own areas of work, the problem of rising emissions is both surprising and not. With regard to building and power generation, for instance, we have had the technology (but alas not the will !) since the 1980s to considerably reduce the production of green house gases at source.

Taxation and other fiscal measures to "make the polluter pay" have also received immense attention in the same period, but with some exceptions, the polluter hasn't paid enough in most cases, especially in the area of transport, where people and goods traffic has continued to grow.

Periods, in the UK anyway, when green house gases have gone down or stabilised have co-incided with recessions and post-recessions. This happened between 1990-1996, after which emissions rose again. Many therefore regard economic "growth" as the core problem.

However, this view is anathema to most governments around the world, including our own. For these a "technical fix" must be available to enable economies to continue to grow and greenhouse gases to decline. This would indeed be a "sea change", but can we really "fix" one ?

Proper use of SEA might be one good place to start !