Environmental sustainability

Environmental sustainability

The world is changing, as such; environmental sustainability is gaining a lot of attention from various people concerned about a cleaner environment. Various environmentalists have therefore written about environment with the intention of reaching out to people and contributing to its conservation. This discussion will focus on Anna Lappe’s “The Climate Crisis at the End of our Fork,” and Michael Pollan’s “Why Bother?,” articles. It is the right time that people commit themselves to changing their attitudes and perception about the environment and realizing that it is their responsibility to sustain it.

Environment conservation is not a one-man’s responsibility but it requires the participation of all people. Just like Pollan postulates, there is laxity among most people to take the first step to reduce emissions of carbon in the environment. Not many people are willing to take the necessary step to control these populations and this is causing a lot of damage to the environment. Very few people bother about the environment. Until a time when people will take it upon themselves as individuals, the risk of carbon emission is going to persist and this is going to cause damages to the environment and will have a negative impact to the people.

Specialization is one of the problems that make people to believe that they have one responsibility or task to execute. This has made people to think about their own things hoping that someone else will come and take over the responsibility to conserve the environment. This attitude is not going to help but rather puts the environment at risk. The only way that this situation can be managed is by people going green. No one should shun away from the duty of contributing to environmental conservation but rather should be a responsibility of all the citizens across the world. The looming environmental issues can be managed if and only people are bothered about the state of the planet they are living in.

The little things that we do in life contribute to the environmental degradation and put the lives of people at stake. I concur with the views of Lappe that all the activities that people engage in such as food production, contribute to climate change. The actions of human beings contribute to effects of global warming and arise from the industrial food production and distribution. The world’s population is increasing at a high rate and this is putting a lot of pressure on the available resources. The continued cutting of rain forests to pave way for crop farming and animal puts pressure on the environment and affects the environment in a negative manner. It is estimated that livestock inhabits approximately 26% of the earth surface and they emit more greenhouse gases compared to planes and steam ships. If this is to go on, then it clearly indicates the disaster in waiting. In addition, human beings through their farming practices have also contributed to these emissions; they manufacture chemical fertilizers and then farm. Likewise, transportation of the crops from one point to another contributes to emissions. This therefore, clearly shows that unless people themselves take initiatives to manage their actions, the problem of environmental management is not going to be managed.

In conclusion, it is indeed true that, people have become relaxed and lost interest in the efforts to conserve the environment. No body seems to be bothered about the environment. The society has a negative attitude that has ramifications for the future. It is upon every individual to take the initiative of transforming the society through the right actions. Unless people themselves take the initiative, this problem of greenhouse gas emission will persist and people will have to face its ramification.

Works Cited

Anna Lappe’s “The Climate Crisis at the End of our Fork,” pp. 852-865.

Michael Pollan’s “Why Bother?,” pp. 871-876.