5 Environmental Problems Besides Climate Change

My cousin once told me that heavy societal debate on climate change could actually be somewhat harmful, because it diverts attention from other important environmental problems.  Popular Science Magazine addressed five important environmental problems that can cause serious harm that are not related to climate change.  They are:

1. Desertification of Land.  More and more land is turning to desert because topsoil anchoring plants are being destroyed, costing the world $42 billion per year in lost food, livable land, etcetera.  Popsci projects it would cost $2.4 billion per year to combat desertification.
2. Excessive Nitrogen.  Nitrogen accelerates algae growth, which can dramatically harm ecosystems and poisons humans when it gets into our food and water supply.  60% of “fixed nitrogen” comes from fertilizers.  [Note that corn production uses nitrogen fertilizer.  Yet another reason corn-based ethanol is a poor solution to the transportation problem.]
3. Water Problems.  1 billion people on earth do not have adequate drinking water, and that number is increasing steadily as old water infrastructure falls apart in developed countries and pollution makes water undrinkable in developed and developing countries.
4. Arctic Haze.  Pollution around the arctic is accelerating its warming and melting the arctic ice.
5. Coral reefs dying off.  Coral reefs are essential for many marine ecosystems, however, they are dying off for many reasons, including overfishing and pollution.

So basically, there are other convincing reasons, besides climate change, to act environmentally responsibly.