I spend a lot of time contemplating priorities; it’s the economist in me, I suppose. If I had my way, a campaign to end natural-resource subsidies would be near the top of the list for the environmental movement: it’s a win-win-win situation for the environment, taxpayers, and innovation. The problem is that it’s an opposition campaign; it’s opposed to subsidies instead of “for” something. In addition, subsidies are not something people get very excited about (although they should).
The same problem plagues global warming policy; it’s essentially a campaign against CO2 emissions and fossil fuels. Yes, it can be framed more positively, but it rarely is. In fact, more often that not, “gloom and doom” scenarios are used to convince us of the need for global warming policy. Campaigns for energy independence are a little better, but still somewhat abstract in people’s minds.
What environmentalism really needs is a bold campaign that offers something tangible and affirmative, which could bring the countries of the world together.
So here’s my idea:
The One World Campaign: Connecting Nature Across Borders
The idea would be to promote a series of inter-connected wildlife corridors that run North to South on every continent, connecting all of the world’s diverse ecosystems and promoting one truly global wildlife reserve. This could play a major role in mitigating species extinction and allowing species to migrate due to weather changes brought about by global warming. It would require input from the world’s top ecologists and coordination among most of the countries in the world. It would also likely require some redistributive mechanisms from the rich to the poor countries since poor countries would need assistance in creating and maintaining these corridors.
Most importantly, it’s something that everyone can relate to intuitively since it makes sense on a basic level: nature doesn’t respect political boundaries. I think it is also imminently doable and would yield tremendous environmental and political benefits. It could be the springboard into a new era of international cooperation on environmental issues.
So what do you think?
