As global citizens, we are also accountable to protecting the environment to maintain ethical sustainability among our interactions with the natural world. See below for an editorial I wrote about environmental protection in the age of climate change.
More now than ever, globalization has become a buzzword with regard to global development. Productivity and efficiency are increasing, but all at the expense of the well-being of our environment. According to NASA, the average temperature of the planet's surface has risen almost 1 degree Celsius since the nineteenth century. About 286 billion tonnes of ice has been lost over the past 30 years. The Climate Action Reserve predicts that greenhouse gas emissions will double by 2025. These figures are troubling considering that our economies continue to grow as the state of our planet deteriorates. Unfortunately, we have closed our eyes to the overwhelming reality of climate change. This ignorance comes at great cost. The quality of our lives is diminishing, and we need to protect the environment and get to work to save the fragile balance of life on earth. This must be accomplished because of the negative implications for human health, economic stability, and because we are, directly or indirectly, the cause of this rapid environmental decline.
First, we must protect the environment to ensure human health. Countless doctors have pointed to climate change as a pressing threat to the world's population. This threat is mainly evident through emissions of fossil fuels which contribute to the greenhouse effect. According to the World Health Organization, between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause an additional 250,000 deaths due to heat stress and respiratory illnesses. In addition, The Climate Reality Project reports that air pollution kills around 7 million people worldwide each year. It also indicates that warmer temperatures are linked to a 2% increase in mental health issues such as stress, anxiety and PTSD. In addition, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere lowers the nutritional value of many agricultural products, including food. According to researchers at Harvard University, if carbon emissions continue to rise, an estimated 175 million people may develop zinc or protein deficiency. These facts are only the tip of the iceberg (no pun intended), and taking the necessary steps to ensure the reduction of emissions harmful to the environment will help to protect human health in times of great degradation of the environment.
Second, the environment is essential for global economic stability. Countries and regions of the world whose economies are dependent on natural resource sectors are likely to be hurt. Rising sea levels, for example, would reduce industrial capital and lower GDP in coastal regions, according to Science Direct. Meanwhile, US investment bank Morgan Stanley has reported that climate disasters have cost the United States a total of $ 415 billion in the past three years. In addition, the risk of flooding poses a threat to many global infrastructure networks that have far-reaching consequences, including threats to access to data and communications via submarine fiber networks as well as '' transportation networks and even military defense bases, according to Columbia University. These effects are also applicable to the stock market: the American company General Electric would have cost its investors $ 193 billion in the last two years after having overestimated the world demand for natural gas and not having invested in renewable resources. In the age of globalization, the economy is a top priority. But if the environment is not also prioritized, we could see a global financial collapse. It is time for businesses and economies around the world to realize this.
The most crucial reason why we are responsible for protecting the environment, however, is that we are responsible for its damage. Washington Governor Jay Inslee said "we are the first generation to feel the impact of climate change, and the last generation that can do something about it." According to The Guardian, the world's largest companies have caused more than $ 2 trillion in environmental damage. Countries like the United States continued to invest in coal rather than seek renewable resources and withdrew from the Paris climate agreement of 2016. There is a very strong correlation between the increase in CO2 and the rise in temperatures which produce the radiation exploited by the heat of the sun. These hydrocarbons are largely added to the atmosphere via human activities, with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) attributing 95% to 100% of the causes of climate change to humans. Still, there are skeptics - people who think the threat of climate change is not real. It seems absurd that someone denies a threat for which we are responsible. We must be held responsible for the degradation of this planet and take the necessary measures to reverse these impacts before further damage is caused.
The most crucial aspects of our livelihoods - whether economic stability, preserving public health or respecting moral responsibility - can all be linked to the need to protect the environment. But what few people understand is that the change in this problem should not only happen at a high level, but by educating the general public. As this question continues to grow, our attention must do the same. Today is the time to do all in our power to improve the quality of life for all future generations, which begins with an assurance of a habitable planet. We must be ready to accept the burden of balancing development and environmental sustainability. It is time that we realize the damage that we have caused and that we continue to do. So we have to work together as a global community to reach out to our planet. Because if we don't care, who will?
TAKING ACTION
Being an environmental steward need not mean that drastic action must be taken, but in making a constant effort to contribute to environmental protection even through small gestures. For example, on the backpacking trip I detail in the "Active Living" section, we returned from our hike to find that the campsite was littered with garbage and waste. We spent considerable time (with the help of new groups coming in for the night) surveying the area and collecting the waste for safe disposal/recycling. In the home environment, meanwhile, I am always the person in our household that turns off all the lights if they’re left on unnecessarily.
From an academic perspective, my IB Group 4 project this year entailed designing an affordable appliance that collects rainwater in areas where acid rain is present and can convert it to clean drinking water via an integrated filtration system. This included performing research on it’s environmental and biochemical implications with members of my group.
Furthermore, in 2015, we were tasked with designing a 21st century “School of the Future” for a remote area of Canada’s north as part of our Design class. One of the main pillars of the design brief was environmental sustainability. My group constructed a physical model and performed appropriate research of how environmental best practices could be implemented into school design—including integrating cues from the surrounding geographic areas into the architecture itself. We also implemented smart environmental technologies such as SolarTubes, polymer-based recyclable glass and a roof-mounted greenhouse that would classify our school design the equivalent of the LEED Gold environmental standard. Our group was lucky enough to travel to San Diego to present the project at a conference of urban planners in the education industry. You can check out the introduction video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLirMQwx03Y.
Table Mountain, Cape Town, South Africa