Environmental Issues and the Importance of Connecting With Nature

Humans take Mother Nature for granted. Mankind would take everything that she provides beyond their basic needs. In doing so, nature is being stripped to the barren bone in order man could satisfy their undying lust for wealth and power. Man is destroying nature along with the tranquillity and balance of the

Since the birth of humanity, humans have deeply relied on nature. From the food that is consumed to the water that is drunk, all of it was provided by nature. As time proceeds, humanity has grown proportionally with its expansion and consumption. It is believed by many that the tipping point at which nature can sustain humanity will be reached. The only way to help nature is the extinction of the leach that feed off it, which means the extinction of humanity. Human extinction is necessary for the survival of nature. With the constant energy usage, expansion (migration), and population growth, extinction is seen as the only way to help the environment and save what has given us life to begin with. With the growth of cities and conversion of forests to homes, nature has no way to help itself. Thus, being the only living creature consciously able to react on nature’s behalf, it is the responsibility of humanity to save nature.

I grew up in a fairly average Los Angeles suburb, so I don’t have the tight knit connection with nature that some from more rural locations might have. My interaction with nature in my early years was quite limited. I went on a few hikes with my family and occasionally went to the beach. But the one aspect of nature I’ve always been fascinated with is space. While this may not be what most of us think of the “environment”, it has deeply impacted the way I see the world.

re devastation and harm that may not be able to be undone if our society fails to take the necessary action to sustain life of all ecosystems.

The trouble with the earth today is that humans have become too smart; so smart that they question everything they once took for granted, and being unable to explain it, discount it as unreal. Science, the very thing that has catapulted us into our present state of 'greatness,' is also the human evil that has isolated us from everything we

When did harming the planet become the mundane? As a result from people’s negative impact, the ever-changing biosphere on Earth is losing what little stability that it has left, leading the eco-friendly environment to deteriorate.

White’s thesis in The Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis states that in order to confront the expanding environmental crises, humans must begin to analyze and alter their treatment and attitudes towards nature. The slow destruction of the environment derives from the Western scientific and technological advancements made since the Medieval time period. “What people do about their ecology depends on what they think about themselves in relation to things around them” (RON p.7). Technology and science alone will not be able to save humans until we adjust the way of thinking and suppress the old ideas of humans power above nature. Instead, we need to learn how to think of ourselves as being

The decline of the environment due to natural and human exertion is known as the degradation of the environment. The natural weather occurrences such as heavy rain, flooding, storms, earthquakes, volcanoes etc. are not administered under human control. These meteorological phenomenon’s wreak devastation on the environment from time to time causing the land to become unsuitable to cultivate. On this subject matter, the human population does not contain the power to stop the wrath of Mother Nature. Rather, we are forced to sit back and watch. Nevertheless, humans engage in a crucial role towards the degradation of the environment in which we live in. Unavoidably, the degradation of the environment is a rising and utmost worldwide subject. I accept that the root cause to environmental degradation is the excessive use of resources on our land utilized by the processes under capitalism. As Jensen wrote in Endgame, “The global industrial economy is the engine for massive environmental degradation and massive human and (nonhuman) impoverishment.

Most things are created in a specific place and certain systems are put in place as directed by nature. In the efforts to comprehend and deal with nature, humans have invented, engineered and manipulated nature in ways that often create unforeseen results. My grandmother used to say: “Do not mess with Mother Nature”, but now that, I think about it, I realize that we do mess with nature. I should perhaps say that we must mess with nature – hard-wired to constantly engineer the environment. Humans do this in order to produce something that will be better or healthier than its original design. One example of such “messing” with nature is genetically modified foods.

The connection between humans and nature is very weak. Due to future advancement we are basically losing our grip on reality, which brings up the point of destruction to nature that we are not aware of. At one point in time nature was the most beautiful thing you could ever witness. Now people exploit it for money. They are selling land, resources, even water for a profit. They don’t think twice or blink an eye at the damage they cause. The disconnect is so huge the debate of protecting the earth is treated as a forbidden topic. “Second, environmental injustices critics challenge the mainstream environmental idea of what environmental problems are in the first place. They say its focused on the beautiful outdoors, it has anti-urban bias, it isn’t engaged enough with artificial human environments like neighborhoods and workplaces” (Purdy 4) That just baffles me how you can turn the place we call home and the wellness of it to a political debate when all we should want to do is preserve it.

The human race has come a long way since its beginning many years ago. Over time, we have learned how to use our surroundings and the environment to our advantage in order to improve our way of living. As more and more years go by, we use more and more of our resources, some which are non-renewable. As we continue to do this year after year, decade after decade and century after century, we come across the dilemma of a shortage in resources. In order to preserve these resources, we move on to a different source and run that supply dry as well. This is an example of being bad environmental stewards. This vicious cycle has been continued for years and nothing has been done to stop it; sooner or later we will run out of resources to use and the results of this will be devastating. Of course, everything that happens causes a reaction some way or another that usually are not beneficial. This is exactly what is happening as we use up the resources around us and it can be seen in three major ways: the extinction of animals, mass pollution and global warming. This essay will discuss how the overconsumption of resources leads to these three ways and how they are affecting us as the human race.

Despite what mankind would like to believe, humans are animals. As multi-celled organisms, we consume other organic matter, change the land for own uses as a beaver would build a dam, and as other mammals, we are all fed breast milk from our mothers when we were young. Yet there is this disconnection and alienation of the human race towards other species. Moreover, through fear of taking action, the convenience provided to us if we simply choose to ignore the environment, and the alienation of other species that are endangered by our actions, the hostile and uncaring attitude of humans towards nature is the core reason for many of the problems in our environment today.

Throughout the years, the topic of the environment and the preservation of it has become more and more of household discussion. There are many reasons as to why the topic of the environment has become much more important in recent years, due to the many concerns with the depleting resources as well as the dishonorable methods of acquiring or accessing certain natural resources. In come individuals or organizations, that believe that the use of certain resources or the protection of many species around the world should be forbidden. These individuals or organizations are known as moral entrepreneurs, according to the textbook, moral entrepreneurs are “individuals or groups who manufacture public morality by bringing a social problem to public awareness and then attempting to affect change in society’s dominant moral codes” (Bereska, 2014, p. 22). An example of an organization that could be perceived as moral entrepreneur(s), would be the World Wildlife Fund.

A human induced global ecological crisis is occurring, threatening the stability of this earth and its inhabitants. The best path to address environmental issues both effectively and morally is a dilemma that raises concerns over which political values are needed to stop the deterioration of the natural environment. Climate change; depletion of resources; overpopulation; rising sea levels; pollution; extinction of species is just to mention a few of the damages that are occurring. The variety of environmental issues and who and how they affect people and other species is varied, however the nature of environmental issues has the potential to cause great devastation. The ecological crisis we face has been caused through anthropocentric

Throughout the majority of earth’s history, the environment influenced all living organisms. Not until the relatively recent evolution of human beings have we seen life effect the earth’s environment. This human influence comes with great responsibility since our negligence can negatively alter the environment we require to survive. By polluting our basic necessities, we will end up causing our own extinction. Polluting the air we breathe with toxins can lead to respiratory disease and cancer. Likewise, polluting our water with bacteria and parasites, developing waterborne diseases, will make it undrinkable. Even though these are serious issues, the public has a deep detachment that occurs when talking about our influence on the environment. For example, when environmental advocates preach to save the earth most people detach themselves from the problem by thinking that they will not be affected by this issue. However, ‘save the earth’ really means ‘save humanity and all other life on earth.’ The planet will not disappear, but the changing environment will be unable to sustain life. Additionally, the increase in floods, heatwaves, and droughts are all a warning sign and not a coincidence as some choose to believe. This miscommunication and misinformation results in negligence and apathy by the residents of earth. The science community needs to take the lead in properly educating the public to create an involved community. Although public engagement is not a priority for