The Environmental

While there is obviously much popular, political, and

scientific disagreement on the extent of the various
environmental problems facing humankind at the dawn of a
new millennium, there is also a growing consensus that
many of these problems have reached a stage of crisis. Since
"proving" that such a crisis exists is beyond the scope of this
webtext, I will simply refer here to the growing and
unavoidable body of evidence that the condition of our
planet represents a real and significant threat to the survivial
of humans and other life forms. Specifically, let me point to
three of the more obvious and worrisome environmental
challenges that have emerged as we enter the new
millennium:
1. An atmosphere that is apparently warmer than it has
been in millions of years, almost certainly as a result of
human activity, with potentially disastrous social,
economic, and political consequences.
In 2001, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change released a Special Report on the Regional
Impact of Climate Change, which surveyed dozens of
scientific studies of the effects of "global warming" on
various ecosystems. Although this report indicated that
global climate change is likely to result in benefits to
some regions of the world, the net effect of global
warming is likely to be devastating to many other
regions. To get a sense of the complex and far-reaching
nature of the impact of climate change, here's an
excerpt from one section of the report:
 Inland aquatic ecosystems will be influenced by
climate change through altered water temperatures,
flow regimes, water levels, and thawing of
permafrost at high latitudes. In lakes and streams,
warming would have the greatest biological effects
at high latitudes-where biological productivity
would increase and lead to expansion of cool-
water species' ranges-and at the low-latitude
boundaries of cold- and cool-water species ranges,
where extinctions would be greatest. Increases in
flow variability, particularly the frequency and
duration of large floods and droughts, would tend
to reduce water quality, biological productivity,
and habitat in streams. The geographical
distribution of wetlands is likely to shift with
changes in temperature and precipitation, with
uncertain implications for net greenhouse gas
emissions from non-tidal wetlands. Some coastal
ecosystems (saltwater marshes, mangrove
ecosystems, coastal wetlands, coral reefs, coral
atolls, and river deltas) are particularly at risk from
climate change and other stresses. Changes in
these ecosystems would have major negative
effects on freshwater supplies, fisheries,
biodiversity, and tourism (Special Report 2001).
This report, which draws on the latest scientific
research, leaves little doubt that global climate change,
induced by human activity, may threaten the very
survival of life on earth. (It is worth noting here, that
the United States, which recently pulled out of the
 Kyoto Treaty that was signed by 167 nations to address
the problem of global climate change, is commonly
estimated to discharge 25% of the world's carbon
dioxide--an important greenhouse gas believed to
contribute to global warming--with only 5% of the
world's population.)
2. The disappearance of hundreds of plant and animal
species annually as a result of the destruction or
degradation of ecosystems.
According to the World Conservation Union, "103
extinctions [of plant and animla species] have occurred
since 1800, indicating an extinction rate 50 times
greater than the natural rate" ("Confirming" 2000).
(These findings mirror sources of evidence of such
extinction.) A 1998 survey of 400 members of the
American Institute of Biological Sciences indicated that
70% of the scientists polled believed that "the world is
now in the midst of the fastest mass extinction of living
things in the 4.5 billion-year history of the planet"
(Ayers 1998). Most of these scientists attributed these
losses to human activity (Warrick 1998, A4).
3. Increasing economic and political tensions over
decreasing water resources in places like the Middle
East and the American West, where identifiable
environmental effects of the overuse of water are
evident.
According to Sandra Postel, Director of the Global
Water Policy Project and author of Last Oasis (1992), a
widely cited study of water scarcity, "Water scarcity
will affect everything from prospects for peace in the
Middle East to global food security, the growth of
cities, and the location of industries" (Worldwatch
Institute). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change, in the report cited above, also noted that
"changes in climate could exacerbate periodic and
chronic shortfalls of water, particularly in arid and
semi-arid areas of the world" (Special Report 2001).
I could cite many other such environmental problems,
such as the long-term dangers from industrial and
nuclear wastes or the dramatically diminished ocean
resources as a result of pollution, over-fishing, and
destructive fishing methods. But my purpose here is
simply to establish that what David Orr calls the "crisis
of sustainability" is something more than an academic
catchphrase: it is, as Orr asserts, "about the terms and
conditions of human survivial" (83). This point is
critical, because I am suggesting that literacy and the
technologies we use for writing, reading, and
communicating are implicated in this crisis. Thus,
literacy as a technology and technologies for literacy,
such as computers, are inextricably linked to our
survival.