Category: Environment

In the pursuit of economic development, many people have begun to abandon their responsibilities as stewards of the environment, resorting to exploiting the environment for their own selfish purposes, resulting in alteration of the chemical composition of the atmosphere and a relentless depletion of our natural resources which contribute to a major climate change – global warming. Indeed, global warming is an incredibly huge and complex matter. There is simply no single root cause of our environmental problems as they are, in fact, caused by an inexhaustible list of factors that makes it more difficult to handle the situation. Furthermore, it gives us countless problems, like increasing temperature, rising sea levels and extinction of our natural habitats and their habitats, in which the solutions to them are intertwined with political and economic issues as well. Hence, such a complicated environmental issue may cause ordinary people to have a lack of clear understanding or knowledge about the environmental issue, resulting in them resigning to the idea that they cannot make a difference in combating the environmental problems and relying on the government, non-governmental organizations and businesses in tackling the matter instead. However, it is never impossible for individuals to help reduce environmental problems as there are so many ways they can help mitigate the environmental degradation that they themselves have caused over the years. As children of our own environment, it is time for mankind to step up for the sake of their mother nature, their own selves and their future generation.

               Some may argue that ordinary individuals may lack authority over their community and hence are unable to make any significant contribution to reducing global warming. Many believe that big authorities like the governments are the only ones who can effectively handle the environmental issue. Certainly, the individual work of the governments as well as the global collaboration among different governments has been quite effective in addressing the complex environmental issue. More and more local governments, especially those of developed countries, have begun to place environmental sustainability as one of their priorities, imposing certain rules and regulations to ensure that all the firms and residents meet up to a certain eco-friendly standard and taking up projects that are pro-environment. For instance, more countries have begun to take interest in building eco-cities. Recently, there has been a joint collaboration between Singapore and China to build an eco-friendly city in Tianjin while the Abu Dhabi government has also channelled huge amounts of funds into constructing a sustainable, zero-carbon and zero-waste Madar city. Such efforts to creating environmentally friendly cities ensure that the countries would maximize the usage of renewable sources of energy and minimize ecological footprint and pollution. Furthermore, as environmental conservation is of major global concern, world leaders from different governments have begun to launch initiatives to accelerate work on global warming. One such notable collaboration among governments is the signing of the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer by reducing the production of substances that cause ozone depletion. It has currently been ratified by 196 states and has effectively implemented market-based, flexible and innovative approaches to ensure ozone layer protection, resulting in the emission of some ozone-depleting substances like the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in recent years. Moreover, the governments from developed countries have also agreed to give financial help to those from developing countries to meet international environmental standards. Hence, it seems that the scale of impact of the governments’ decisions and the amount of funding devoted to environmental conservation are extremely large and may therefore seem incomparable to that of ordinary individuals’ efforts.  Thus, it seems that ordinary individuals may not be able to make a significant difference in tackling the environmental issue and the governments may be more successful in doing so instead.

               However, it is important to note that the individuals can certainly make a considerable impact in moving towards environmental conservation as they are ultimately the ones who choose the government and influence the decisions of the governments. This is especially evident where many election parties place great emphasis on climate change as one of their methods of campaigning, which shows that the various parties stand on the climate issue does matter in the individuals’ decisions on which party they should elect. As such, individuals who are concerned about the environment would elect parties that hold similar views about the environmental issue, allowing individuals’ interests to be met by the parties they vote for. Furthermore, individuals cannot merely rely on the governments to handle the environmental issue as there is often a case where collaboration among organizations has failed to meet its desired ends. The 1992 Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit is well-known, not so much for what it achieved, but what it did not. Even though many countries have pledged to aid environmental conservation while the rich countries promised to aid poorer countries economically, a decade later, they still have not lived up to their promises. Recently in 2009, the Copenhagen Summit, which the world watched in anticipation, resulted in a loud thud of an anti-climax when it ended with frustrations and walk-outs by world leaders rather than decisions to effectively solve the environmental problems. Therefore, as seen by such environmental conferences which are often derided as “talk shops”, it seems that global collaboration among the governments may sometimes be unsuccessful and cannot be relied upon by individuals to tackle the environmental issue. Hence, sometimes, the individual effort may be more effective than collaboration times as there would be no conflict of interests or delay due to extensive red tape.

               Others may also argue that as industrial wastes contribute the most to environmental destruction, individual efforts to environmental conservation may have little impact as the main cause of environmental degradation is the actions of businesses and firms, in which ordinary individuals have little influence. For example, DuPont, a chemical industry, used to be criticized over the years for its environmental record due to the huge environmental damage done during its manufacturing processes. However, recently, DuPont has recognized that finding truly sustainable options for its production processes is important, and is therefore adopting eco-friendly initiatives to reduce the amount of energy, water and materials used when designing products or processes. In fact, they have put environmental concerns as one of its priorities other than safety and health, allowing the firm to gain a reputation for its social commitment to environmental conservation. Such efforts made by businesses are likely to have a more significant impact than individual efforts as they are more likely to successfully reduce emissions and wastages in the highly industrialized societies of today.

               However, there are some ways individuals can make a difference in the business sector. Businesses are consumer-driven, as products and services are created for the benefit of the consumers. Therefore, consumers’ interests and wants are likely to have a significant impact on the decisions of the firms. This can be seen by how there has been a growing emphasis on “green marketing” these days where firms are trying to gain a reputation for going green as they have realized that consumers are willing to support firms who are trying to conserve the environment by purchasing their products, even though it means that they have to pay a little higher price. Furthermore, individuals taking a stand on environmental issues may prevent businesses from adopting certain practices that harm the environment. For instance, for years, environmental organizations had tried to campaign for the fishing of tuna to be dolphin-friendly, meaning the nets used to catch tuna do not catch dolphins and kill them. However, it was only when individual consumers began to start making a conscious choice to buy dolphin-friendly tuna that the businesses started to practice dolphin-friendly fishing methods for economic reasons. Therefore, individuals can take advantage of consumer sovereignty that reigns in the market sector to take a stand on certain environmental causes, thereby making a significant impact on environmental conservation made by the business sector.

Individual efforts are crucial in tackling the environmental problems in other ways as well.  In fact, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are made up of like-minded individuals who work together to achieve a common goal. Individuals who used to have little influence over their community can come together to create such organizations to make a more significant impact on the society. One such NGOs is the World Wildlife Fund was created around 45 years ago to protect the future of the nature by preserving natural habitats and promoting sustainable approaches to environmental conservation. NGOs are effective in influencing the decisions of governments, businesses and individuals and raising awareness about the environmental issues to the global community. Other than forming organizations, individuals who are deeply concerned about the environment can also become environmentalists, writing articles and using other methods to campaign for environmental conservation. For instance, individuals like Al Gore and Leonardo DeCaprio are famous for their films, An Inconvenient Truth and The Eleventh Hour, which focus on how our human activities are harming the environment. Such use of media to create awareness about the environmental issue can effectively make the community less ignorant about what is happening to the world around us. Therefore, individuals can certainly make a difference in addressing the problem of environmental destruction.

Furthermore, individual effort is the fundamental basis of all environmental protection. One once said, “We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.” Likewise, ordinary individuals can make a significant impact on environmental conservation over time if they make an effort to change their mindsets and their lifestyles appropriately. There are many ways that individuals can adopt eco-friendly lifestyles. For instance, individuals should try to avoid excessive materialistic lifestyles and purchase less so as to create less waste in the future. They can also adopt a Reduce, Reuse, Recycle (3Rs) method to dispose of their wastes and buy environmentally-friendly products like fluorescent light bulbs instead of incandescent light bulbs. Furthermore, individuals can also share with one another some tips on environmentally-friendly living and raise awareness, even if it is of a small scale, about environmental conservation to their friends and families. If everyone tries his or her best to save the environment, it would only be a matter of time before our environmental issue can be greatly reduced.

               In conclusion, it is possible for an ordinary individual to make a difference, be it small or big, to mitigate the impacts of our environmental problems. It is also to be noted that in fact, collaboration itself is the product of many individual efforts as in fact, non-governmental organizations, governments and businesses are made up of individuals who have a certain degree of influence on the decisions made by these groups. Hence, the individual effort is also vital to the success of these organizations in conserving the environment. Since environmental degradation threatens the survival of mankind, it is everyone’s social responsibility to step up and take a stand on the environmental issue so as to make our environmental problems easier to tackle and less complicated than they currently are right now. As one once said, “There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew.” Therefore, it is time we all play a part on saving our mother earth from further damage by our own activities.

To condemn environmental efforts as totally futile is the same as saying that all efforts taken to conserve the environment are in vain.  The efforts to conserve the environment are not totally futile as much has been done to protect the environment.

Countries have pledged to protect the environment by signing international treaties. 127 countries have adopted legislation to regulate plastic bags. 27 countries have instituted taxes on the production of plastic bags, and 63 countries have initiated mandates to manage single-use plastics. These efforts show that efforts taken by various governments are not mere token gestures. Many countries have implemented recycling rates of over 50 per cent. Germany and South Korea are model examples. Some countries are beginning to apply circular approaches to waste reduction and conversion of unavoidable waste into an asset through job creation—building the business case for resource-efficient approaches and providing livelihoods to vulnerable communities. One example is Jordan. Supported by the European Union and UN Environment through the EU SWITCH Med Programme, the Association for Energy, Water and Environment in Jordan worked with 15 hotels and 17 restaurants to carry out a waste audit and find ways to reduce their impact. Such initiatives have become blueprints for other countries to adopt and follow. Much is being done for the environment.

To stem air pollution, many countries are taking large strides to ensure that people can breathe clean air. The Philippines and Sri Lanka, supported by UN Environment, have begun to tax electric and hybrid vehicles lower than conventional vehicles. The impact has been clear. The number of electric and hybrid cars in Sri Lanka’s active fleet grew 10 times between 2013 to mid-2018, with 150,000 such vehicles now on the streets. This growth saw the percentage of cleaner vehicles in the active fleet rise from 4 per cent in 2013 to 23 per cent by mid-2018. In the capital Colombo, where past research showed heavy traffic accounts for over 50 per cent of air pollution, this has made a real difference to human health. These are not singular examples. Environmental scientists opine that replacing the current fleet of buses and taxis in 22 Latin American cities could save 36,500 lives by 2030. The UN Environment body, through its MOVE platform and with the support of Euroclima+, is assisting Argentina, Colombia and Panama with national electric mobility strategies, and is helping Chile and Costa Rica to expand the use of electric buses. Although the efforts are not evident, much has been done to save the environment.

Much more is happening across the globe. Breathe Life, a campaign by the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, the World Health Organization and UN Environment, is running initiatives that cover 52 cities, regions and countries, and reach over 153 million citizens. For example, campaign partners energized the public through a sporting challenge that saw 55,000 people pledge to commute by bicycle or on foot. There are now more than a million electric cars in Europe. The rise of renewable energy will help, with investment in new renewable sources outstripping fossil fuel investments each year. All of this work is having an impact.

There are some instances of greenwashing by companies like Volkswagen or Starbucks, but largely efforts are being taken in the right direction. There is still pervasive use of single-use plastics, but education and awareness efforts are paying-off to convince people to change. While critics may laugh at turning off lights for 1 hour on Earth Day, we are making progressive steps at changing attitudes and our environment.