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The world’s wild fisheries are being depleted at a rate much faster than they can be restocked, so aquaculture, which is being employed to supplement the shrinking supply of wild fish, is the world’s fastest-growing food sector. However aquaculture in some cases aggravates rather than redresses the problems of over fishing. The practice contains much promise but must be better understood and more sustainably employed if it is to offer a true solution to the problems created by industrial scale fishing and farming.
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Last fall, Amory Lovins visited Dartmouth to speak on economics, engineering, and environmentalism; he filled Filene Auditorium and two overflow rooms. That was two terms ago, and campus today is not thinking much about that speech. But maybe they should be.
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Global warming has been called “the challenge of a generation.” It has made national and international headlines as a growing, and, in many instances, an immediate crisis. By altering global temperature and weather patterns it has caused prolonged droughts in some areas and heavy monsoons in others; it has seriously impacted agriculture, contributed to the dramatic melting of glaciers and ice caps, spread diseases carried by mosquitoes, and fueled the frequency and intensity of natural disasters such as hurricanes; and it’s just warming up. Politically, it has triggered fierce and controversial debates between countries, between politicians and scientists, and between local and national governments. The issue of the era is global warming, and the challenge revolves around how to deal with its causes and numerous direct and indirect side effects as a world, as nations, as states, and as individuals.
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The climate debate is no longer centered on the question, “is it happening?” but rather “what are the specific effects going to be?” “are we seeing some of these effects already?” and “at what rate do we have to curb our greenhouse gas emissions to stabilize the climate for future generations?” James Hansen, Bush’s top climate modeler and director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York offered the following insight earlier this year:
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