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ENVIRONMENT
Table of Contents
1. Basic
concepts about the environment
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1. Basic
Concepts
We are the products of
our environment.
We are part of our
environment.
We are dependent on our
environment.
Our environment is
dependent on us.
If you find anyone who
doesn’t agree with those four statements, he or she is operating in a dream
world. None of us came here without the influence of our environment and none
of us can operate without the benefit of our environment. If you are not an
“environmentalist,” you have missed the meaning of life.
Until the last century,
mankind (when I say “man” or “mankind,” it is not intended to mean only the
male part of our species) lived in relative harmony with the environment. Since
then, we have increasingly acted in ways that negatively impact our
environment. We have polluted our land, air, rivers, lakes, and oceans and
wastefully used up resources in a wide variety of ways. We have caused the
extermination of numerous species of plants and animals. We did it because we
derived some short-term benefit and didn’t know or care about the impacts of
our actions.
There are many
industries that make huge profits by doing the things that negatively impact
the environment. Recently, they have become major political forces against
policies being urged to protect our environment, because those policies might
interfere with their ability to maximize their profits. There are many ways
that maintaining our quality of life negatively impacts the environment.
The challenge of modern
life is to find ways to live that preserve the benefits of a high quality of
life without compromising the environment.
It is “our”
environment.
The critical challenge
is the challenge of balancing the benefits of modern life that we like as
individuals, with the benefits of nature that we need to survive and prosper as
a species. If we fail in this challenge, we will not survive as a species.
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