Representative's Green Column

0. Introduction

2008.05.31

From now on, I will be serializing a column on environmental issues.

I myself have not been particularly interested in environmental issues so far.
The reason why I became interested in environmental issues recently may be the same as many of you.

It was about two years ago, on September 6, 2006, when I took an overnight flight from Kansai Airport to go to Dubai in the oil-rich UAE.

As a pre-screening before the US release, the famous "An Inconvenient Truth" happened to be set to channel 001, which has more than 200 channels.

I just couldn't sleep, so I happened to see it to kill time. I remember being drawn into Gore's presentation until the end without sleeping.

By the way, at this time, the content of the movie and Gore's presentation method left a strong impression on me, but I thought it was a completely minor documentary film that would never be shown in Japan. The following month, after the movie was released nationwide, I was a little surprised that it was released in Japan (although there are few screenings) from January 2007, the following year. I never dreamed that Gore would win the Nobel Peace Prize at this time.

After seeing this movie by chance on an airplane, I became interested in environmental issues, and after returning to Japan, I searched various books and the Internet myself.

Then, "Global warming is certainly a very important and serious problem. However, there are various other environmental problems, each of which has different importance and urgency. It may be dangerous solve multiple important environmental problems as simultaneous equations. "to go, and we have to

I was also impressed with the concepts of "factor 4" and "factor 10" and the idea of "Natural Capitalisim". What's more, how much of that GDP growth rate, which everyone is still pursuing, really has to do with human well-being, especially in developed countries like Japan, where it feels like it's already reached. I also started to have the question. Then, watching the video of the "Legendary Speech of Rio" given by a 12-year-old girl at the Earth Summit, I am still serious about the environmental problem for the children and the next generation. I also felt the mission to work on.

However, even when it comes to tackling environmental problems, the more I investigate, the more difficult it becomes to decide what to do.

Here, I will write about once or twice a month in the form of a column, incorporating my own opinions into what I have investigated, and by grasping the overall picture of environmental problems, I will look at the future direction to be tackled. I hope it will be of some help to those who have done so.

May 31, 2008 Hironobu Matsui