Environmental professionals, if nothing else, can rightly claim an occupational niche that is anything but boring. The saying, “May you live in interesting times,” truly captures the dynamism of our work, even if it probably does not stem from an authentic ancient Chinese curse.

January 31, 2008, promises to be a momentous day for moving the United States towards a serious embrace with climate change. Focus the Nation, a non-profit organization, organized “teach-ins” around the country, and a multitude of universities, colleges, churches, and other groups participated.

One of the most challenging tasks faced by professionals and their associations lies in developing methods and tools for their work that accommodate changes in technology, which in turn changes environmental impacts, the economy, politics, and policy. Just as military generals commonly know best how to fight the last war but not the current one, professionals have the best methods for assessing well-established industries, not those emerging.

Much has been written about the effects of climate change on the environment, particularly on the potential effects of climate change on water resources and their management. Despite that plethora of information on the potential effects of climate change on water resources, little has been written to date on the effects of water and land use projects on climate change.

Fred Kent, President of the Project for Public Spaces, once stated that to rebuild our urban communities, we have to first recreate our public places. To do this he believes we must first regain control of our public places, not by police action but by our presence. This empowering thought motivates me to ask: What do we want in a public place? What does achieving an urban quality of life mean? What makes our place a livable place and how do we preserve it?

This autumn, President George W. Bush belatedly held international meetings to discuss global climate change. It may have been a calculated gesture from a leader whose political stock has been plummeting for some time. But the move underscored the dramatic shift in the debate over global warming. Mostly ignored for years, climate change had burst into view again between 2005 and 2007 for a number of reasons: the release of a major scientific report that the Arctic was melting; the unprecedented natural devastation on US soil of Hurricane Katrina; two more years of record heat in 2005 and 2006 followed by an ongoing severe drought in 2007; the release in early 2007 of a gloomy Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment of climate change; a renewed environmental and climate change movement symbolized by the popularity of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth; and, of course, the sweep of the Republican Congress that had featured climate change deniers like Senator James (“it's a hoax”) Inhofe (R-OK).

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its fourth major scientific assessment of climate change in the spring of 2007. Each of the IPCC assessment reports, published every seven years or so, has grown progressively more sobering and less uncertain in its projections of climate change and its likely impacts on ecosystems and human societies over the next century.

I read with great interest Cynthia J. Branton's piece titled “An Introduction to Religion and Ecology” in the December 2006 issue of Environmental Practice. It took me back some 20-plus years ago, when I heard Russell Brenneman, Esq.—a distinguished member of the Hartford, Connecticut, law firm of Murtha, Cullina, Richter and Pinney, but more importantly known as Amy Brenneman's dad—speak to a congregation on “How to Paint Your Church Green.” This was a grassroots program as to how to be better stewards of your environment and build your faith simultaneously. Russ always embodied the basic tenets of environmental stewardship and was considered the dean of New England's environmental law community. He is presently the elder statesman of our environmental stewardship movement and through his presentations has hopefully created many a “green church” and “green congregation.”

The need to conserve biodiversity is recognized as an international problem. The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) (http://www.biodiv.org) and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (http://ramsar.org) are two examples of international treaties that recognize this issue. The CBD contains explicit impact assessment provisions. Because the US has failed to ratify the CBD, joining Andorra, the Holy See, Iraq, Somalia, and Timor-Leste as the only nations that have not done so, the federal government has not had a consistent approach in its decision making. Nevertheless, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) does provide a mandate and a framework for federal agencies to consider biodiversity impacts, along with other reasonably foreseeable environmental effects of their actions. NEPA Section 101 discusses the need to preserve important historic cultural and natural aspects of our natural heritage. NEPA Section 102 requires a systematic interdisciplinary approach to environmental impact review and that agencies utilize ecological information in planning and development. The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) regulations (40 CFR 1508) further explain that effects that must be analyzed in a NEPA review include “ecological, such as the effects on natural resources and on the components, structures, and functioning of affected ecosystems … whether direct, indirect or cumulative.” The International Association for Impact Assessment (2005) has recognized impact assessment as an important decision-support tool to help plan and implement development with biodiversity in mind.

Current world oil production is approximately 85 million barrels per day (mb/d). The International Energy Agency (IEA) forecasts global oil production of 104 mb/d by 2020 and 116 mb/d by 2030. Saudi Arabia proudly maintains that it can dramatically increase production at any time to help meet higher demand.

No one within the National Association of Environmental Professionals is unfamiliar with the timely and growing issues involving global warming. But there is another, newer phenomenon that has received considerably less media attention. This bizarre occurrence has been labeled “global dimming,” among other names. To date, the mainstream media largely has not picked up on this story.

Regardless of how one might feel about the science of climate change, the prevailing public perception is that climate change is real and that humanity's use of fossil fuels is the primary cause. At this juncture, the finer points of the debate (i.e., planetary cycles versus man-made carbon emissions) are being drowned out by the waves of media coverage about shrinking polar ice caps, breakaway ice fields, and the addition of polar bears to the endangered species list. So, for all practical purposes, climate change is now a political reality.

How does a small-budget, regional non-profit organization really have an impact on the world's biggest environmental problem?

The 32nd annual conference for the National Association of Environmental Professionals was held from April 22–25, 2007, in Orlando, Florida. As a student at The Evergreen State College and volunteer Assistant Editor of Environmental Practice, I was able to attend. The conference was hosted by the Florida Association of Environmental Professionals and a total of 273 people attended, including eleven international participants from Belarus, Canada, England, Germany, Japan, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Sweden. Attending the conference was a valuable experience for me, especially to see how my academic background could be applied to finding practical solutions to environmental problems.

Last year, the Union of Concerned Scientists, joined by environmental organizations and members of the public (including the author), filed a petition with the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The petition requested that the NRC take a single action: that it utilize its enforcement authority to demand information from its licensees concerning the nature and extent of tritium contamination of groundwater. The scope of this request was extremely narrow, considering the ubiquity of tritium contamination at every link in the nuclear fuel chain. Tritium contamination has become a marker for the varieties of radioactive contamination left in the wake of producing what the nuclear industry likes to call “safe and clean” energy. Yet mining, milling, processing, enrichment, fuel fabrication, fuel utilization and storage at nuclear reactors, disposal of radioactive waste, and attempted reprocessing of nuclear fuel have resulted in massive amounts of tritium- (and other radionuclide) contaminated groundwater.

The National Association of Environmental Professionals (NAEP) mourns the loss of our friend and colleague, Jim Roberts, who died November 25, 2007. In this brief tribute, I'd like to record my memories of him and his professional contributions. Several other members of the NAEP also sent me brief statements to include.

To implement the National Environmental Policy Act and efficiently evaluate potential environmental impacts on resurging plans by uranium producers, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is preparing a Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS). Not surprisingly, there was extensive public interest during the scoping period—resulting in three extensions of the deadline—which finally ended November 30, 2007.

Re: Your Request for Input—Editorial on Environmental Professionals and Climate Change

To: John H. Perkins, The Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA 98505

Books & resources.

This editorial calls for action to strengthen the National Association of Environmental Professionals (NAEP) and its chapters. If others agree, it will also enable NAEP and its chapters to speak effectively on climate change. Global warming currently ranks among the top factors that are forcing nations across the world to reconsider their policies and economies. The work of environmental professionals will change, too, and the members of NAEP and its chapters have expertise that is needed in the ongoing discussions.