The Global Ecosystem: Environmental and Socioeconomic Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

The interrelationships among environmental quality, economic development, education ~and citizen enlightenment!, poverty, and global security are deep and profound. These cardinal factors are determinants of the global quality of life and will unfortunately continue to define the distribution and intensity of conflicts around the world for at least the remainder of this century. To environmental scientists and engineers who posture to commit their expertise and intellect to efforts aimed at addressing interwoven societal issues, a potpourri of factors that have socioeconomic, political, and technological dimensions presents several challenges. Indeed, there is the desirable tradition of ‘‘broadening out’’ of disciplinary interests of hard scientists and engineers ~including Nobel laureates exemplified by Albert Einstein! through their translation with some transformation, from scientific theorists to advocates for democracy, human rights, and environmental stewardship in their later lives. So, investment of thought and exploitation of opportunities by environmental professionals to make targeted improvements in the implementation of technologies and policies to better the human condition should not be viewed as a dilution of scientific strength but a call to more direct public service. For centuries, poverty has fueled conflicts between patricians and plebians, overlords and peasants, and earls and commoners. Indeed, such conflicts have proven to be most enduring when social stratification is along ethnic, racial, or religious lines. Often poverty, tinged with poor enlightenment, lowers the asking price for the recruitment of citizens into various causes ~wrong or noble!. Conflicts in the Balkans, East Africa, Northern Ireland, Mexico, and the Middle East have exemplified these factors. Interestingly, nations must create and manage wealth effectively before they can develop and maintain physical infrastructure and social services for their residents through programs that target peace and prosperity. Many experiments in democracy by several countries in the developing world have failed because of the inability of popularly elected governments to turn the wheels of democratic institutions fast enough to provide jobs and services to meet the requirements of an expectant population. In my humble opinion, resource control is the indirect objective of both intranational and international conflicts, some of which may have intermediate objectives such as national independence, religious freedom or imposition, and land reclamation or annexation. Freedom without resources for subsistence is hollow and can easily be washed away by an ebbing tide. This tends to apply to individuals as well as nation-states. Resource control and effective management are defining characteristics of stable democracies. Resource management cannot be effective unless it is transparent, participatory, and equitable,