Politics of Climate Change and Conservation
Most of the time, it was the two panels, author Connie Mutel and UI school of Urban Regional Planning Director Chuck Connerly, talking to each other about a various conservation topics ranging from overpopulation, climate change, loss of diversity and such.
One thing I found very interesting was it was easy to taste the political views involved in this event. Connie Mutel started this talk with “If Al Gore had won the presidential election in 2000, we would have a much better world in terms of ecosystem”. This talk was on the day of presidential election so she also mentioned how Hillary Clinton should win the presidential election over Donald Trump (who does not believe in climate change) for the better environment.
I do not usually follow politics, so it’s hard to make a definite statement, but since my stay in the us, I have noticed it’s the people with left/liberal political views who focus on the environmental issues. Democrats and other liberal third parties seem to care more climate and environmental issues and the conservatives do not seem to see global climate change or other environmental issues as immediate priorities.
Therefore I understand the strong liberal flavored panels at this discussion. Liberals offer better policies for conservation and climate change than the conservative parties do. I think it’s interesting to see a country cannot agree on this matter to work together, instead politicians use these issues to separate people and use it to their advantage.
Climate change is an issue that can only be solved when everyone involved in try to make things better. It won’t work as well if only half of the country is in it to help. Not very many people showed up to the event and even the ones showed up were not engaging in the discussion. As Mutel’s vision for a better future implied that diversity of people and education will be needed to resolve this issue as a team and residence of this state. Iowa is an agriculture giant and thus a lot of environmental problems arise including methane, nitrous oxide, loss of biodiversity to make more farmland, it would be nice to see more people getting involved from all backgrounds.
Environmental Problems in Iowa
Chuck and Connie both spent a lot of time discussing climate
change in Iowa. This is what people attending the discussion wanted to hear as
fellow Iowans. What is happening here, how is it happening, and how can it be
prevented. Chuck talked about how the DNR wouldn’t talk about the causes/issues
of climate change and that is our first problem. He went on to talk about how
maybe our biggest problem is that these issues are not touched on as much as
they should be. That’s the first step in order to prevent further damage.
Iowa, being the huge agriculture state that it is, has a
huge impact on climate change. And with our big impact, according to Chuck, we
just aren’t doing so well. 25-30% of our state’s greenhouse gas emissions come
from agriculture. These gasses come off of the nitrogen fertilizers we use to
help our crops (because our crops just love these nitrogen fertilizers). The
fertilizer will then run off into the air and water which isn’t good. The
gasses also come from things like: coal generated power plants, automobiles,
and C02.
Connie pointed out what she thought the 3 main problems
were. They were population growth, biodiversity, and climate change. She stated
her opinion on these and she says that farmers started it. They started
biodiversity by plowing soil through prairies and we lost a ton of species and
their habitat. They started population growth by creating more and more food to
feed the world essentially. That led to more people and more people. Lastly, she
said they started climate change by plowing the fields which sent C02 into the
atmosphere. Connie also pointed out how we have the technology to change just
not the political will to do it. If we took 10% of cropped field and converted
it into prairie strips we could reduce 90% of soil erosion and 85% of nitrogen
runoff. So, essentially you’d lose 10% of your land but we’d gain much more
long-term as far as protecting our environment.
Chuck then came back into the discussion and talked about more
problems with our land and water here in Iowa. We use more corn here for ethanol
then for food right now which is almost unheard of. There are also huge algae
problems in our lakes which are forcing them to close. The nitrates in our
water are also impacting our water here a ton. Apparently the University of
Iowa has purchased their own nitrate removal equipment because our water comes
out of the Iowa River. This helps ensure that the water here is safe enough to
use.
The two speakers touched on a ton of issues regarding the
environment here in Iowa. With an audience engaged and attentive they talked
about a wide range of topics from our fields to our waters. They discussed the
problems. Where the problem is coming from, why it is coming from there, and
more. Solutions to those problems were also discussed and I think a lot was
learned while listening to them speak on these topics.
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