The environment demands attention

Despite all the recent press about global warming, the environment does not seem a pressing issue as long as we can see blue sky and trees and grass around us.

However, nature's peaceful beauty is deceptive; it masks a series of increasingly serious environmental issues that will likely intrude more and more onto our natural scenes.

Jared Diamond, in his startling book, "Collapse -- How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed," says our shrinking world has 12 types of environmental problems that will increasingly impact all citizens of the world:

1. Rapid destruction of natural habitats, including deforestation.

2. Depletion of fish stocks on a worldwide basis.

3. Extinction of species.

4. Soil erosion.

5. Depletion of fossil fuels.

6. Deterioration of freshwater supplies.

7. Diminished photosynthetic capacity -- sunlight being absorbed by manmade structures rather than absorbed by plants.

8. Toxic chemical build-up.

9. Introduction of alien species into new environments.

10. Release of manmade gases into the environment

11. Population growth.

12. High environmental impact of population in developing countries.

Diamond argues that all these problems are interlinked. We cannot solve just one. We must solve them all. And if we don't, nature will solve them for us -- in a very unpleasant way.

There are many environmental groups already working on these problems, but we desperately need political leadership -- and your involvement.

Jeff Kressmann

Palatine