In Stanley Fish's article, "I am, Therefore I Pollute", Fish asks if it is possible to "believe something and still resist taking the actions your beliefs seem to require". I think this question holds weight for many people in the United States. On a microscopic level, most individuals in the U.S. are at least aware that several of their routine habits are extremely harmful to the environment. I do not believe that there are many peple who intentionally use paper cups or extra hairspray to contribute to climate change. I come across individuals like Stanley Fish everyday, people who know that they probably should turn off the light before leaving the house, but don't have the energy to walk across the room to flip the switch. This is a common problem that can be seen with nearly any cause-- once one is able to convince others that a problem exists, getting people to take ownership of it and actively combat it opens a whole new can of worms.
I do not know if I agree with Oskar that pop-culture is taking environmentalism too far (not to say that it is not misguided in some cases) because it is difficult for me to imagine pop-culture ever taking it far enough. I recognize that a backlash is certainly possible, as seen in Stanley Fish's case, but I can only hope that while small environmental changes seem drastic and inconvenient right now (and people's annoyance makes them almost want to resist actions that they know are necessary), in 3 years they will be norms and people won't even think twice about having to walk an extra block so they can take public transportation.
While I agree with Akari that the most pressing environmental concern is climate change, when I asked my friend Noach what he thought, his first response was President Bush. Although this was not at all what I was expecting to hear, it made me think about the role of politics in general as the most pressing challenge facing the global environment. By nature the state system creates significant challenges for dealing with environmental concerns. In a globalizing consumer-based world, it is extremely unlikely for countries to put the good of the world before the good of their country. The problem is that while it is a government's responsibility to protect its citizens, this protection is almost always viewed in terms of economics. The challenge of not abusing common goods has not been effectively dealt with in regard to the environment. This is why I believe that while global warming is the biggest tangible environmental concern, the most pressing challenge today is working within the political system to build a foundation for countries to work on long term solutions to environmental issues. Governments need to take more initiative in protecting the environment because unlike Stanley Fish, if governments continue to neglect stronger environmental policies, the result will be drastically more tragic than that of a few more individuals not flicking off the light switch before they leave the house.
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