An increase in news stories on the environment

It started a couple months ago, this recent, but welcomed, avalanche of news and commentary on the environment and national parks. First there were the much praised documentaries Earth Days and Earth which were released earlier this year. Next came word of Ken Burn’s “labor of love”, a six part documentary called National Parks: America’s Best Idea which debuts on PBS this evening (see local listings). Also Time and Newsweek were in on the action with a list of the "Environmental Heroes of 2009", rankings of the greenest companies operating in the US, and a lengthy commentary by UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. As if that weren’t enough, news broke at the UN 2009 Climate Change Summit that China had taken a lead role in promising to expand energy efficiency initiatives and curtail greenhouse gas emissions.

However, keeping issues of climate change and environmental protection at the forefront of public discussion is only the first step. More important is what all of us, as responsible citizens as well as leaders at all levels of government and in the businesss community, are willing to do to make the goal of environmental sustainability a reality.

There were a number of other news stories and issues that caught my attention, which I plan to check out as soon as I have time. On the most recent episode of Bill Moyers Journal, which is available for viewing online, I plan to check out commentaries by Rory Stewart on the situation in Afghanistan and Kavita Ramdas on the issue of women’s rights. Also I am looking forward to reading Jeremy Waldron’s review of Kwame Anthony Appiah’s book called Experiments in Ethics in the current issue of The New York Review of Books, which I purchased yesterday. Based on my impression of points that are raised in the review, I may offer my thoughts in a blog entry at a later day.