Immediately begin the rapid phase out of Persistent Organic Pollutants, Ozone Depleting Chemicals and any other chemicals that are not fully known to be safe. The willy nilly dispersal of toxic chemicals into the environment is a great place to invoke The Precautionary Principle.
Any chemicals that won’t readily break down at a sewage treatment plant should NOT go down the drain. For this reason, stiff restrictions should be placed on the sale and use of many chemicals – including household products.
Once the sludge from sewage treatment plants has been made free of toxic chemicals, that sludge can then be used as a nutrient source in agriculture.
The rapid loss of flying insect species worldwide is a huge environmental issue receiving hardly any media attention. Insects are at the bottom of the food chain for many ecosystems. The current collapse of insect populations could easily be a harbinger of catastrophe.
Work should resume on a permanent storage site for spent nuclear fuel rods and other high-level radioactive waste. Should civilization begin to break down, we’ll want these materials to ALREADY stored thousands of feet underground where they can safely remain into eternity.
Persistent Organic Pollutants
As the plastics and chemical industries developed, chemists soon discovered that they could attach other atoms to the hydrocarbon molecules of oil and gas resulting in extremely useful and versatile ‘Frankenmolecules’ – PVC, vinyl, etc. These long-lasting, carbon-based pollutants are now everywhere in the environment. When the young of any species is growing, it needs hydrocarbon molecules for building its bones, muscles and tissues. Its body doesn’t recognize the carbon-based pollutants that it absorbs for this purpose. And thus, all of our bodies now contain many dozens of weird, toxic chemicals that didn’t exist 100 years ago.
The growth of the “Transgender Movement” raises a troubling question: Are there more “transgendered” people now than there were 100 years ago? If the answer is yes, then is this because dispersing “estrogen mimicking” and other chemicals into the environment has disrupted the male/female balance in our species? I want my transgendered friends to be free and happy, but to me, the daunting questions and ramifications raised above are more important than the question of which pronoun to use when referring to our trans friends.