The Importance Of The Green Environment

Companies are using environmentalism as a straw man for overconsumption. Coming straight out of writer Amy Westervelt’s article, “Can Recycling Be Bad for the Environment?”, Westervelt clearly sees through this ploy of emotional appeal, stating “American consumers

The rise of green products and the want of consumers to become more environmentally friendly has been increasing. In 10 Green Marketing Milestones, the reading mentioned how the “rise of the Toyota Prius: It may not have saved the world, but at 1 million cumulative vehicle sales the Prius became the predominant fuel-efficient hybrid vehicle” (Neff 2). This is an example of how companies are actually wanting to go green in order to make more profit and rise above their competitors. Going off the Prius example, it was also mentioned how Hummer cars, which use an excess amount of fuel, sales have plummeted. This was because this model no longer appealed to the consumers and General Motor’s had to discontinue the model and even went bankrupt. This sale tactic works and is so successful because the consumer’s mindset have evolved to seek things that are better for the environment. Many would prefer Toyota over General Motor because of their company’s reputation with being green. Although this might not work for all companies, but for some, they have become more successful than their competitors by going green and so, convincing more and more to

The Western world is the dominant society with specific parameters for modernity, which understands nature-people relationships from a perspective that is grounded on human domination over the environment. Nature is regarded as a provider of resources (e.g. oil, timber, cupper, rubber, etc.) for the profit and greed of a market-based economy that seeks infinite development. Consequently, the human-nature relationships are subject-object, implying

Regardless of what one thinks about American consumerism or our high levels of production, it is a fact that we live in a throw-away society. What that means is that we produce a lot, throw away a lot, and most things are planned to become obsolete within a few years. Recently, there has been an unprecedented effort to correct these negatives habits of our society, seeing as they can’t last forever. This effort, aptly called sustainability, is one of the most grandiose undertakings in American society today. Universities, corporations, households, and everything in-between, are all striving towards sustainability, but what actually is it? According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, “To pursue sustainability is to create and maintain the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony to support present and future generations” (EPA). With such a broad definition, there are plenty of critics and skeptics that say that such a proposition is too idealistic and therefore impossible. In fact, I agree with that faction and acknowledge that with such a loose definition, it will never be truly possible to be sustainable. However, my rebuttal, as it seems natural to say, is that nearly everything we do or strive for in America is, in a way, too idealistic. From that, I assert that we need to make a deliberate effort, as both consumers and producers, to work towards sustainability to move away from our throw-away tendencies.

In conversations globally the environment is a hot topic. Issues with the ozone layer, depleting natural resources, and health risks associated with emissions and changes in climate coupled with its resulting natural disasters; have pushed conservation issues into the spotlight. The environmental issues presented today are not the result of one country, one type, or one-industry actions but a communal failure of a mixture of several. With that said many countries and industries are going through policy changes to combat environmental issues that will hopefully benefit the environment, the consumer, and industries.

The environment is delicate, just as are the relationships between nations. Cooperation is difficult to achieve and can often cause more harm than good. In the corporate world the individual lives in, it is difficult to find balance between the government's need for money and the basic need for salvaging the environment. If governments across the globe were to embrace the above ideology, there would be major issues. Society is greedy and consumer culture engulfs one’s thoughts. The individual would have to give up much of their freedom in consumption. Corporations and the consumer greatly influence the environment. Differing ideologies often drive one into argument rather than resolution. An activist would argue that consumer culture and North American society’s need for more is driving environmental impact up drastically. The consumer would argue that if the government thought of it as a major issue that they would have already intervened in the actions of corporations,

Instead of responding to God’s precious gifts that were given to us with faith, thanks and responsibility, most of these environmental problems are the result of human practices. This is the result of the different worldviews that people have. Worldviews determine our values and beliefs; help us to understand the world around us, and in general function works as a guide to life (Wright, 2003, p. 9). However, cultural and environmental conditioning tends to enslave us to ways of thinking and behaving, usually without us realizing it. While some view nature as being merely for men' use, others view nature as a consumable resource that we have been given, others as inexhaustible, others as something to use and replace, others as something to look at, but not to touch, others as a cosmic

Just like in “the Danger of a Single Story” by Chimamanda Ngozi, people have a single story that helping the environment is about doing big changes in our lives, and the lives of others by donating money, participating in cleaning campaigns, or buying that super expensive electric car in order to avoid burning fossil fuels. Although is very true that most of what we heard of environmental protection usually comes through public media such as news, newspapers, internet, etc. that only showcase the big things, we tend to believe that if we do not provide a huge amount of our effort, then we are not helping. The truth is that we can all help the environment by performing the simplest tasks a little different by changing the type of energy you use, and the products you buy. In the interview “Buying Green Products Will Improve the Environment” author Jenny Shank. This interview sows how perfectly someone can protect the environment without stop being lazy. In this interview, green entrepreneur Josh Dorfman is asked: what was the laziest thing he did in order to protect the environment to which he answers: “I switched over to 100% wind power for my apartment by checking a few boxes and making a few mouse clicks on the website of my power utility” (Shank) although he also explains that he now has to pay $6 extra in energy, he know feels better knowing that all he had to in order to protect the environment was to click a few times. The same thing can be applied to buying green

We as a society have been presented with the question of whether or not individual action is a valid solution in the midst of the debate on “environmentalism.” Can we as individuals still contribute to reducing climate change with individual action such as riding a bike? In the article “Individualization: Plant a Tree, Buy a Bike, Save the world, the author Michael F. Maniates analyzes this question in regards to individuals participating in green consumerism. In response to the growing trend of green consumerism companies have started producing “green” products in order to keep up with consumer demand. On the surface this seems like a step forward to a sustainable future, however “green” products like to advertise their “eco-friendliness”

This book is the story of an opportunistic approach to remedy and adapt to the drastic changes humanity has caused to the Earth while also embracing the role humans play in the Anthropogenic era. Humans will always continue to build environments, but the concern now is how are we going to build better environments. These issues will challenge humanity and question our values. How we build the environment around us in the future will be based on whether or not embracing the Anthropogenic era will indeed lead to a sustainable planet or just be a quick fix to the deeper issues of human behavior that have led us astray from maintaining a sustainable planet.

As we can see , environmental challenges in recent years have increased the trend of “going green” in businesses like never before. There are two main factors that are currently pushing toward environmental-friendly business practices, harsher international and local regulations, and the high fluctuations of fossil-fuel prices.

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 economy today runs on an antiquated ritual of exploiting, plundering, devastation, and manipulation of land for material wealth, profiting the wealthy and condemning the poor. This mindset is no more sophisticated than feudalism, a system so bad it had to be outlawed along with witchcraft. The idea that exploitation of land is justified has brought plastics to the ocean and leveled rainforests. Large corporations have grown larger by manufacturing and production, depleting the planet’s resources in the process. Now, companies must make a combined effort to put the environment first, before profit. Because of their harmful practices, consumers have the right to know where products come from, how they’re made, and the impact on the environment. Furthermore, it is the responsibility of the large corporations to change their harmful practices, to make strides towards ending climate change and use clean, sustainable methods.

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.

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.