Friday, October 30, 2009
EarthDirectory's China Environmental Directory
EarthDirectory's China directory, The Directory of Environmental Organizations and Environmental Government Agencies in China, remains number one on "Google China" under various listings such as directories of Chinese environmental groups and Chinese environmental organization directories. It's fun to see what the Environmental Movement on the other side of the world in China is up to. I'm not very worried about China taking over the world economically....instead what I'm worried about is China potentially imploding from its various environmental, social and economic problems. These problems include widespread water shortages, dangerously contaminated rivers, overpopulation, horrible air pollution in many Chinese cities, corruption at various levels of society, lack of political democracy, loss of the Communist social safety-net and an ever-growing disparity between the different economic classes in China. Anyway, you can see the directory at www.earthdirectory.net/china.htm.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
A Little Bit About the Environmental Movement
The modern Environmental Movement in the United States came into existence in the late 1960's and early 1970's. It evolved from the American Conservation Movement of the 1800's which continued to grow right through the first half of the 20th century. Other major influences on the creation of the Environmental Movement included Native American philosophy and religion, the "Greens" Movement in Europe and advances in ecological science taking place around the world in the mid twentieth century.
The Environmental Movement in the USA is a continually evolving and changing entity and has a right and left wing, but can better be described politically as a circle of extremely diverse opinions with each individual within the Movement having slightly different views from anyone else. For example, many environmentalists are hunters and fishermen, while others (including myself) are vegetarians and animal protectionists. Regarding immigration, some believe in open borders and that it's a fundamental human right for every person to live wherever they want to live, while others (including myself) believe that each country has the right to democratically determine the level of immigration that it would like to support. Some people in the Movement now believe that nuclear power is an energy resouce that can help to significantly reduce climate change, while most others (including myself) are still very skeptical that fission nuclear power will ever be a viable option, either environmentally or economically, for partially solving our extremely critical energy problems. Some environmentalists are very distrustful of technology. Others fully embrace modern technology and science as the ultimate tool for solving our environmental problems. Many of the rest of us fall somewhere in between the two positions.
A few organizations within the Environmental Movement, including the Sierra Club, are over 100 years old and were created in the Conservation Movement of the previous centuries, many other groups are several to a few decades old, and other organizations have just been established within the last few years. Some organizations have already experienced a natural death, and others have merged with or been absorbed by healthier environmental groups. Meanwhile new groups are continually being formed in the United States and around the world.
The Environmental Movement in the USA is a continually evolving and changing entity and has a right and left wing, but can better be described politically as a circle of extremely diverse opinions with each individual within the Movement having slightly different views from anyone else. For example, many environmentalists are hunters and fishermen, while others (including myself) are vegetarians and animal protectionists. Regarding immigration, some believe in open borders and that it's a fundamental human right for every person to live wherever they want to live, while others (including myself) believe that each country has the right to democratically determine the level of immigration that it would like to support. Some people in the Movement now believe that nuclear power is an energy resouce that can help to significantly reduce climate change, while most others (including myself) are still very skeptical that fission nuclear power will ever be a viable option, either environmentally or economically, for partially solving our extremely critical energy problems. Some environmentalists are very distrustful of technology. Others fully embrace modern technology and science as the ultimate tool for solving our environmental problems. Many of the rest of us fall somewhere in between the two positions.
A few organizations within the Environmental Movement, including the Sierra Club, are over 100 years old and were created in the Conservation Movement of the previous centuries, many other groups are several to a few decades old, and other organizations have just been established within the last few years. Some organizations have already experienced a natural death, and others have merged with or been absorbed by healthier environmental groups. Meanwhile new groups are continually being formed in the United States and around the world.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
About the EarthDirectory Blog
The EarthDirectory Blog is designed to be the most useful site on the Internet for checking up on the Worldwide Environmental Movement. To help you keep up with the latest developments and goings-on, the right column of the blog has links to the latest environmental news, conferences, events and job listings, to environmental blogs and to six of the largest worldwide environmental organizations. There is also a link to EarthDirectory's table of contents that lists the EarthDirectory Network's fifty-plus environmental directories which cover a broad spectrum of topics and subjects related to the Earth's environment and geography. Below that link you'll find links to some of the best geography sites on the Internet. And, if you'd like to help keep this blog and the EarthDirectory Network on the Internet, please check out EarthDirectory's support link at the bottom of the blog. Thank you for using the EarthDirectory Blog as your gateway to the Worldwide Environmental Movement.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
