Millennial Ecology: Earth in the Third Millennium David Roodman on an Environmentalism for the Ages 10:30 -12:30 AM ET, Saturday, November 16 David Roodman: Seeking a sustainable planet photo by Jason Teich The world is damaged every time we spend a day without contemplating the results of our consumerism. There is still time to undo the damage inflicted by our chemical and biological pollution --but only if we follow a daily accountability to the environmental ethic. So says David Roodman of the Worldwatch Institute, who explored these ideas in depth through his workshop entitled, 'The Enemy is Us: Threat to the Global Environment in the Next Millennium.' "Many of our actions, such as the decision to buy a new car or even a cup of coffee, can have impact around the world, because of the global reach of some types of pollution and because of expanding trade. Similarly, the scale of the problems we collectively confront are so huge, they are almost beyond our ken. Our brains evolved to guide us through hunting and gathering in the small and slow-changing world of African woodlands or savannahs. We are not good at thinking on the global scale about long -term problems. To a large extent, it is fair to say that for Homo sapiens, out of sight is out of mind--witness the power that televised images of starving or maimed people can have over our foreign policy," Roodman says. He remains optimistic about his hopes for the future: One important solution, now gaining popularity among governments, is taxing the polluters. In the longer term, we will need to strive toward a society that runs on sustainable resources alone. Is it possible? "Yes," he says, "even with a civilization that is rich and complex." --Madeleine Lebwohl World War III: People Vs. the Planet Michael Tobias and the Ecologist's Guide to Crisis Management 8:30 AM ET, Sunday, November 17 The fecundity of the human race is about to overwhelm all other natural systems on planet Earth. To define it as a crisis situation, call it World War III. But unrestrained population growth is hardly the only weapon in the assault. Ecologist Michael Tobias also lists the trampling of resources and the pollution of the biosphere as weapons against the planet Earth. Poor nations as well as industrial nations are part of the problem, states Tobias. The small burner used to cook food in rural Africa still emits pollutants, and some fossil fuel emissions are survival emissions, not luxury emissions, but an emission is an emission is an emission, " Tobias explains. But if we seem to be loosing our battles, notes Tobias, we've not yet lost the war. "I would argue that every war can be peacefully negotiated, even humanity's war against nature," he says. Weapons for the A team include continued development of ecologically-conscious technologies, new, more stringent environmental standards issued by the World Court, and ecological bonds that discourage pollution on a corporate scale. Tobias also believes that ordinary citizens ("the Earth's shepherds") should take it upon themselves to monitor their own country's progess toward a truce with the natural realm. --Madeleine Lebwohl

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