SUMMARY
Joel Achenbach describes the world as crowded with a mutinous crew that has no leader. He says that it is full of 7 billion people, global economy, World Wide Web, climatic changes, exotic organisms and all sorts of resources shortages and ecological challenges. On addressing the environmental issues, he says that human should take a more interventionist and managerial role as nature no longer runs the earth but humans do (Achenbach, J. 2010). He mentions people like John Muir, Rachel Carson and Teddy Roosevelt talked on how to protect the environment. He says that human activities contribute to the environmental degradation. As a result influential thinkers propose a managerial approach, they worry on the overreliance on technology to fix the environmental problem that human have made.
ANALYSIS
Human activities have affected the world environment making it more undesirable. They include; industrial chemical refuse, burning of fossil fuel, emission of greenhouse gases, using more resources, and population increase and demand for energy (Achenbach, J. 2010).
Interventionist approach will be more applicable to restore the ecology more broadly. Since we run nature we can intervene to solve the ecological problems we have created and make them look like before, written in the book, “The God Species: Saving the Planet in the Age of Humans,” by Mark Lynas (Achenbach, J. 2010). 50years ago, the perspective changed to looking at the industrial waste such as pesticide DDT and other pollutants hazard to human health. The discussion shifted in the 1990s with a closer focus in the climate change as influenced by human activities (Achenbach, J. 2010).
The managerial approach, which was to save a planet short on sentiments but long on science and technology. Ecologist argues that human must take direct action to relocate native species to stay ahead of climate change (Achenbach, J. 2010).
Conclusion
The environmental fixing is not as simple as it appears because the world is a complex system that requires monitoring, management and even reengineering. Its complexity may be too complicated for human to handle.
References
Achenbach, J. (2010, January 2). Spaceship Earth: A new view of environmentalism.Washington post [Washington dc]. Retrieved from http://http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-01-02/national/35439231_1_planet-climate-change-civilization-and-nature
