By only being able to catch or discover cases of pollution after the fact, the damage has been done, and in some cases is irreversible. A footprint-based system would allow an agency like the Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A.) to set standards that would be easy to enforce and follow.
As the footprint also measures resource usage, it could serve as a means for a company to increase efficiency in methods of production, thereby saving them money. Perhaps they are a plastics company, which manufactures patio furniture using pre-cut forms and moulds. There would be an amount of waste material left over which would be discarded. If the company began an internal recycling program, they could turn the waste back into raw material to be poured into new moulds. Not only would they save on material costs, they would decrease the size of their ecological footprint. Even if only a percentage of recycled material could be reused in each new product, it would still represent a savings on all fronts.
According to Native American belief, the world is one huge interconnected web: pull on one string and it affects the whole, cut one string and the whole is irrevocably damaged. The footprint measurement allows us a way of measuring how hard each of our endeavours plucks a string in the web.
It will also serve as an instruction manual for being able to take steps to rectify problems. If we are willing to make a little effort the return would be inestimable. Not only would sustainable business practices improve the environment, they will also improve the bottom line.
If you were wondering what happened to the big stick, well that's what would have to be used on any transgressors. If clear guidelines are set forth on how business is to be conducted, there can be no excuses for failure to comply. Anyone straying outside their parameters would have to be punished severely enough to act as a deterrent for others.
We have only the one planet, and there is only so much that it can provide before it is used up. Without proper management and care, we won't have any resources left to use in the future. What type of profits anyone expects to be able to make from prospects like those is beyond me.
Ed/Pub:LM
Article comments
1 - John Bill
I guess thats why Americans are so fat, because the lack of food. Modern farming technology has enabled fewer and fewer people to grow ever increasing amounts of food. Farming tech IS advancing too, just like computers or cars. Anti-technology eco-terrorists are the real problem. Man kind has never had it so good. They said the same thing a hundred years ago, and in the sixties they said we would be like Soylent Green by now. Also, salt water can be filtered, and in the future this will need to be done. This is due people moving to the desert though.
2 - Maurice
I like the concept. The idea is similar to doing a demographic study before deciding how many urinals to put in. It needs to be based on science and not emotions.
It is unfortunate that the emotion lead enviornmentalists have given environmenatlism a bad name.
3 - judith van
Please speak out about the toxic water that is being dumped into the Lousiana area. You are one of the biggest voices that might get the world's attention to this planetary disaster in the making. I have contacted cnn to do more interview and stories from the enviornmental point of view - so please get in there a speak out for us who are waiting for you (the specialists) to speak for us.