Environmental studies - Essay Example

A region’s environment and climatic conditions will usually determine its adaptations do handling of the environmental problems that arise. Ideally, at their core, the environmental problems faced and the available solutions are culturally and organizationally rooted in the society (Howard-Grenville, 2007). In this topical discussion, Michael Maniates points out that it is the environmental imaginations of people that are too narrow or egocentric in offering solutions that can deal responsibly with environmental problems.

Furthermore, James Speth notes that the lack of a new consciousness in the society has also led to the deep embeddedness of the environmental problems in the worldview. However, Lynn White Jr. clearly spells this out when he recognizes that there is a cultural aspect in the creation and provision of viable environmental solutions, and that non-reliance on technological, scientific and economic solutions should not be at the expense of the culture. In all these aspects, I would like to take a stance and agree with these ideologies and state that solutions to environmental problems cannot be sought through the same worldviews that caused them.

The world’s biggest problem environmentally is to overlook the social dimensions regarding environmental problems and concentrate on the economic and technological aspects. In essence, the provision of the solutions should be based on totally different cultural perspectives. First, there is an urgent need for control of the population growth in most countries. Nearly everyone relies on the environmental resources for survival and in cases of overpopulation the available resources become strained thus, adverse effects on the environment.

Coupled with unsustainable development, the results on the environment are usually adverse and if not corrected, may lead to environmental degradation (Johnston, 2012). Second, it is true that the economical and technological activities too have a direct impact on the degradation of environmental conditions. However, the core causes are personal beliefs, cultural norms and societal institutions. In line with the personal beliefs, an environmentalist or environmental program manager will have to ensure that the way people act and think towards the environment is changed for them to be able to appreciate its benefits.

For instance, if a person constantly thinks about cutting of trees and dumping of garbage without considerate thoughts, bringing that person into accepting the benefits of maintaining environment will begin by culturally transforming his thoughts and acts. Finally, the solutions to the environmental problems need to be based on the addressing of the lack of attention that has been propagated towards the achievement of improved environmental sustainability. This can be possible when a consideration for the full scope that cultural shift presents in the real world today is critically analyzed and idealized.

Consequently, the various forms of individual and organizational barriers towards environmental preservation need to be enhanced as only through these can the causative effects become easily mitigated upon. Better still, there needs to be an informed understanding of the available strategies that can be applied towards the overcoming of organizational barriers that hinder environmental preservation and restoration activities. Some of these strategies can be applied based on the societal understanding of