Worlds Environmental Problems and their Solving - Essay Example

This world’s environment is in great danger. One of the primary causes of this has to do with the greed of resource exploitation that is taking place throughout the globe. As individuals seek to benefit from the economic gain they can achieve by leveraging non-renewable resources, the environment itself is oftentimes destroyed. Even this process is sometimes performed with the broadminded belief that “others” can benefit from the process, the fact of the matter is that these “others” include each and every person on the earth. As such, these individuals must eventually pay for the consequences of what has been done to our fragile environment. This means the earth’s 7 billion stakeholders are those that will not literally pay for the resources that are extracted and sold to us, we will also pay for the economic hardships that are the result of this environmental exploitation. On the other hand, the companies who provide these products are benefiting themselves; oftentimes without even thinking of the damages they left have behind. It is obvious, however, that individuals are always looking to increase their income no matter the external costs. As such, this greed is one of the only reason that keeps companies and individuals from destroying the environment we share. Yet, blame alone is not sufficient to solve this problem. Instead, standing and defeating these companies by ignoring their products is the best thing to help the environment. So, the consumers themselves can stop environmental destruction by voting with their pocket book. However, two questions should be asked to consumers all over the world as a means of effecting this goal. The first question is: “Is being fascinated by a particular industry worth the environmental toll that is incurred”? Likewise, the second question is: “Would you live with the unrealistic food products that are not organic”? According to the documentary we saw in class, it became clear and apparent that many food producers were over fishing. This problem was so endemic that some of these companies greed to catch as many fishes as possible is resulting in the near extinction of some species of fish. This destruction to the ecosystem is especially important; due in part to the fact that removing even one species can have unimaginable repercussions on the remainder of biological life on the planet. According to the Environmental Defense Fund “87% of the world's assessed fish stocks are at the breaking point; classified as overexploited or fully exploited. 1 out of 2 fish stocks in the U.S. are either overfished, at risk of being overfished, or there is little data to assess how they’re doing. 100 million sharks are likely killed each year, according to some scientific estimates” (CITATION). This shows how overfishing is destroying other’s environments; environments where all of this process is manipulating the way that the environment con continue to exist. Current rules help to quantify and reduce the overall number of fish that are being caught. However, the rules are not taken seriously and are ultimately up to the fishermen to self-impose. As such, the international carelessness of many companies should be stopped. The only people who are able to stop them are the consumers; by refusing to purchase their products, they will become useless within the market and quickly realize that their untenable business practices are what has led to the decrease in their share of the market. A general perspective of mine is that once all of the fishes are gone, individuals within society will then find it too late to do anything about it. Sadly, the lack of action can be traced back to the consumer that is more interested in getting more for less than protecting the environment. The only reason behind this problem is the consumers who are “you” and “I” are willing to spend money on destroying the environment without noticing the problems that are apparent. The second question that should be answered is “would you live with the unrealistic food products, which are not organic?” According the Food Inc. documentary we saw in class, food these days is not organic except for a few firms that offer organic substitutes to large agro business and genetically modified foods. This type of food is causing animals to get bigger in a relatively short period of time. For an example, in the documentary they have shown that some of the farms for a huge companies produce massive amounts of corn on large farms as a means of feeding the cows that they grow for beef or dairy; instead of allowing the cows to naturally graze on the grass that they are intended to eat. However, the genetic modification of corn is only a small part of the problem; a secondary issues stems for the fact that these animals will eat it and get bigger and bigger in a relatively short period of time. This means when the cows are getting growing as a result of unhealthy food, their health will be weaker and weaker by the time they are reader for slaughter; necessarily negatively impacting upon the health of the consumer who then eats the cow. Also, in the Food Inc. documentary, the student was presented with the issue of chicken farms. The problem is that these companies are feeding the chickens with a genetic modified food. As the chicken is growing, it does so in an abbreviated period of time. For instance, in the documentary, we saw how these farms kept the chickens in small farms with a 24hours of light. This was done as a function of not allowing the chickens time to sleep and keeping them up and eating 24 hours a day. As a result of this absurd practice, many of the chickens were ill or died prior to slaughter. Further, those that did not were oftentimes so weak that they were unable to walk even a few steps before falling down. Varying from the documentary we saw in class, the companies who provide these unhealthy products are responsible for many of the damages that are happening with people’s health. This is because the products that are fed to them are cheap and widely available. To sum it all up, the consumer comes the super markets and searches for a cheap products; without even knowing where these products came from or what processes are involved. However, the price difference between organic products and these products seem a quite large; encouraging the consumer to continue to buy GMO foods. In fact, it will cause their health damages more than the difference in price that the consumer thinks they will be saving. This leads to how consumers can push these companies to change their approach to the animals they offer as food by integrating with a more natural plant based diet; free from GMO and free from unnatural chemicals. At the same time when more companies provide organic/natural products, the prices will decrease. All in all, the only people who can change the products are the consumers themselves. According to the book RAISING ELIJAH by Sandra Steingraber, protecting our children requires us to be aware of the things that consumables have on our health and on the health of our offspring. Also, the author noted that people are afraid that their children might become ill or be hurt as a function of what their parents do or what choices their parents make. For example, people teach their children to do not talk to strangers, do not eat fast food, and wear bike helmets…etc. With regard to this, people are trying to take care of their children as much as possible. In fact, there are some little tinny things that might be more dangerous than they think that they have neglected to take care of. A dangerous chemical called (CCA) is composed of chromated copper arsenate. Further, these chemicals cannot be removed from the food supply as a result of the fact that if it is removed many companies will lose money. These chemicals are included in materials that existed in the playground equipment for children. The (CCA) chemical has been linked to several different types of cancers; yet, the production and distribution of food that contains it continues. In concluding, the environment that we live in is, and has always been dangerous. However, the danger that is exhibited within the current era is largely one that we, the consumer, can seek to correct. By waking up and addressing the issues that have been referenced, the consumer can have a dramatic and measurable impact on industry and the means by which food is represented within the marketplace. People complain about the products they consume; however, they have the solutions without realizing that they do. So when the consumers leave the products because it was made in a wrong way, the companies will rethink their mistakes and they will seek to fix them; rather than lose further levels of market share. All in all, people should know how to push the companies to make what the consumers need; not what the companies want. Read More