Personal Environmental History - Essay Example

Personal Environmental History. To be frank, my childhood in Qatar was marked by an indifference to the environment.Qatar is one of the world’s wealthiest states, due to its enormous resources of oil and natural gas. The economy is powered by the production of gas and petrochemicals, and life revolves round oil. My family, like most others, is involved in the oil business, and the earth just was something which provided us with our means of living. Energy use in Qatar is just a part of life and not something I ever thought about.

Geographically, my country is largely covered by sand dunes, which have a beauty of their own: this beauty too, I took for granted. ‘The great outdoors’ was definitely not a part of my world. It was only when I went to High School that I began to be aware that our way of life and our economy was all part of larger world picture, which has its effect on the earth. My friendship with an Indian student was the main cause of my ‘wake-up’ call. His stories of life back home, including accounts of his trips to forest reserves and his photographs of lush paddy fields in the villages, made me realize that the same earth, with many different faces, is shared by all mankind.

He told me how lucky I was to have unlimited power and water, when many parts of his country were plagued by chronic power shortage and lack of water. This made me do some reading and I realized that Qatar has the highest per-capita carbon-dioxide emissions in the world, and our economic prosperity has a cost in terms of environment. My move to the USA has further strengthened my environmental consciousness. The beauty of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado has made me fall in love with the earth!

I am now more conscious of the beauty of our sand dunes back home. I must confess that Americans are closer to nature than my countrymen. Being an avid soccer fan, my hobbies have not taken me close to the earth. Here, I find that fishing and trekking are very much a part of weekend life. The care taken of the National Parks makes me envy the close relationship many people have with the earth. I continue to be proud of Qatar’s place in the world economy. However, I am now conscious that it is possible to maintain this place without harming the earth.

Oil is an essential resource to sustain human activity. But this can be produced in ecologically friendly ways. I am aware that energy has a price, and to exceed these limits will do irreparable harm to the earth. I intend to be involved in any efforts of my country to conserve the environment, and am confident that Qatar will soon lead on this front also. I can now say that my own relationship with the earth, which has earlier been a relationship with a stranger, is now on its way to becoming a relationship with a friend.

I am learning to look at the earth as a living, breathing creature, whose resources are limited and need to be conserved. I am now deeply aware that the earth has its own unique beauty in different parts of the world. I intend to travel and get to know the earth in all its different faces: deserts, jungles, mountains and rivers. The earth is man’s only home and must be valued and safeguarded if mankind is to survive.