“Absence of certainty is not synonymous with absence of risk.” - Dr. John Cairns, Jr., biologist New beginnings, fresh starts, resolutions and proclamations are all about what can be changed if we just make up our minds to change. And, change is the daily, not annual, mantra of anyone working on environmental issues. Wanting change for the better and fearing change for the worst is what activism is based on, but, of course, the problem with change arises when diff ering defi nitions of “better” collide with differing levels of power.

In case there may be any doubt out there in reader land about what yours truly considers paramount on the enviro front, here is a short list, in no particular order, of issues that require change - or else.

Chemicals, both man-made synthetics andman-utilized organics, have been detected in life forms at the farthermost reaches of the planet. Thousands of chemicals have come onto the market in the past several decades without even basic testing of their single isolated eff ects.

Testing their combined interactions with the multiplicity of other chemicals they may join up with in living organisms would be a Herculean task costing far more than any country’s coffers could aff ord and more years than researchers have lifetimes to contribute. The very least we can do now is to stop adding to the mountain and engage the “Precautionary Principle,” of looking before we leap. For a quick education of this situation, “Facing Our Toxic Ignorance,” by Tom Estabrook, Ph.D. and Joel Tickner, Sc.D., can be found online.

The health of our planet is indicated by the survival of its inhabitants. Yet the Center for Biological Diversity states that “99 percent of currently threatened species are at risk from human activities, primarily those driving habitat loss, introduction of exotic species, and global warming. Because the rate of change in our biosphere is increasing, and because every species’ extinction potentially leads to the extinction of others bound to that species in a complex ecological web, numbers of extinctions are likely to snowball in the coming decades as ecosystems unravel.”

Of course, global warming and/or climate change (use whichever term pleases your sensitivities) has been happening for some time now, whether we humans take credit for it or not. Credit doesn’t really matter, but fi ddling while Rome burns does.

For decades, summits of global representatives have haggled over who is at fault for melting ice caps and glaciers, over trading carbon credits like they are baseball cards, over fossil fuels vs. alternative fuels, and, for all I know, probably over whether to order out pastrami or turkey sandwiches for lunch. In the meantime, the vast majority of climate scientists worldwide acknowledge our atmosphere is dangerously past the possibly safe 1987 level of about 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide.

On May 9, 2013, National Geographic News reported “the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere … has exceeded 400 parts per million for the fi rst timein 55 years of measurement - and probably more than 3 million years of Earth history. The last time the concentration of Earth’s main greenhouse gas reached this mark, horses and camels lived in the high Arctic. Seas were at least 30 feet higher - at a level that today would inundate major cities around the world.”

Globally we’re still fiddling and Rome is still burning. Check out 350.org to see what one organization is trying to do about changing global warming trends.

On the energy front, while many respected scientists continue to promote nuclear power as a non-carbon answer to energy demands, the Fukushima, Japan nuclear plant, which was severely damaged in 2011 by an earthquake that triggered a tsunami, continues to belch radiation-tainted water into the Pacific. The disaster is way beyond the capacity of Tokyo Electric PowerCo. to control. Trusting the current information regarding the degree of danger from contamination globally, and what to do about it, is extremely unnerving.

My background is in the humanities and natural sciences, not physics, so critically thinking about radiation is way out of my league. What is not beyond my experience over decades of observation, however, is knowing that horrific human error, governmental secrecy, ego-controlled politics, the worship of money and power, face-saving denials, social apathy and greed are what put us in environmental danger.

Can any of these things be changed to keep the earth livable? Each year it gets tougher. Will 2014 be a turning point?

FRAN ALEXANDER IS A FAYETTEVILLE RESIDENT WITH A LONGSTANDING INTEREST IN THE ENVIRONMENT AND AN OPINION ON ALMOST ANYTHING ELSE.

Opinion, Pages 11 on 01/05/2014