Strategies for Promoting Positive Environmental Behavior - Essay Example

Environmental Behavior s al affiliation Introduction Traffic congestion has been a major problem in Los Angeles in the United States. It takes half an hour to three hours to drive from Santa Monica Pier to downtown Los Angeles. The huge traffic congestion has become the highest source of air pollution in the city. The high number of cars has contributed to the oxides of nitrogen emissions that increase air pollution in the city. In this regard, traffic has become one of the environmental problems that require key concerns from the government and the people in the city. This essay discusses the strategies for promoting positive environmental behavior in Los Angeles so as to reduce traffic and its implications on the environment. Strategies for Promoting Positive Environmental Behavior Traffic is one of the sources of air pollution and sound pollution. Concerning air pollution, traffic contributes to air pollution through the harmful carbon emissions from the burning of fuels. Cars, buses, trucks and other motor vehicles produce many air pollutants that pose a danger to the environment (Brauer et al., 2002). Such pollutants include nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxides and volatile carbon compounds. The air pollution has posed a threat to the health of occupants of Los Angeles. Furthermore, traffic has been causing sound pollution due to high numbers of motor vehicles hooting and crashing in the city. The high traffic in the city has been caused by the increase in the number of motor vehicles in the hands of the city occupants. In this regard, new strategies should be formed to promote positive environmental behavior (Brauer et al., 2002). The first strategy should be to create social awareness in the city about traffic as the major cause of air and sound pollution. Social awareness is one of the best strategies to promote positive environmental behavior that helps in engaging the individuals to understand how traffic is an environmental problem in the city. In addition, social awareness contributes to providing the necessary information concerning health risks that are caused by traffic congestion in the city (Brauer et al., 2002). When the people become aware of the environmental effects caused by traffic, it promotes the positive environmental behavior where every individual feels obligated to make the environment safe. The people will tend to change their behavior towards the environment. The people should be aware of the benefits of using public vehicles compared to using the personal vehicles. This will help decongest the city thus reducing the traffic. The end results will be reduced air and sound pollution. The second strategy is to increase parking fees within the city so as to discourage the number of cars that enter into the city. The people who park their vehicles illegally should also be charged, heavily so as to discourage them from committing the same crime again. Reduced number of motor vehicles within the city will reduce the rate of air and sound pollution (Brauer et al., 2002). Taking action on the parking fee defaulters shows the commitment of the city to preserving the environment while instilling positive environmental behaviors in the city occupants. The people in the city should be fully aware the reasons of why the tough actions will be taken, against their refusal, to pay the high parking fees. Also, the reasons to increase the parking fees should be communicated to the general public in the city so as to make every person aware. In this regard, people will be able to adapt to the change, thus changing their behaviors for the benefits of environmental preservation. Negative and Positive Consequences of Traffic Increase Pro-Environmental Behavior Pro-environmental behavior can be increased by either the negative or positive consequences of traffic. The increase in pro-environmental behavior is made possible by particular ways as indicated below. People usually react towards the consequences either positive or negative and respond in different ways. The negative consequences may not be expected to increase pro-environmental behavior, but they do contribute to its increase. Traffic has many negative consequences in the environment such as follows. Traffic cause air pollution that poses health risks to the occupants of the town. In addition, the air pollution causes building corrosion in the city that contributes to the many house collapse in the city. Besides, traffic in the city causes sound pollution. The end results of traffic are a decline in human life in the city (Brunekreef, & Holgate, 2002). The negative consequences increase pro-environmental behavior since the whole society has to work hard to protect the human nature and the city. People feel obligated to protect the environment so as to reduce the effects traffic has on human health and the surroundings in the city. The government creates policies that govern the traffic in the city so as to reduce it. Any individual going against the government`s laws is dealt with within the law. This leads to increase, in pro-environmental behaviors, to avoid fighting with the authorities. On the other hand, positive consequences increase the pro-environmental behavior in the following ways. Whenever people realize the negative consequences they tend to think of ideas of how to make the environment better. For instance, traffic has negative consequences that people have to deal with in the city of Los Angeles thus eliciting positive consequences. The positive consequences include decreasing the harmful effects of traffic to the environment. This increases pro-environmental behavior. The occupants of the city will have to embrace pro-environmental behaviors so as to reduce any chance of adverse traffic effects in the future. The positive consequences act as the driver to maintain pro-environmental behaviors that are beneficial to society and the city of Los Angeles (“Shaping Pro-Environment”, 2005). How Technological Advances Have Impacted the Environment The 21st century has seen the most advancement in technology with many technological innovations and developments. New production systems and processes have been developed with the aim of conserving the environment. Improved machines have been developed which have impacted the environment both positively and negatively. In this regard, technology has affected the environment in all aspects either positive or negative. It has helped the people in the society to impact the environment in particular ways. One of the most notable technology advancement that has impacted the environment positively has been the development of electric cars into the motor vehicle industry. The electric car is powered by electricity that is emission free. It does not burn any fuels thus indicating no carbon or nitrogen oxides to be emitted in the environment. The electric cars have an advantage to the fuel cars due to their low costs of operations compared to the high costs of operating fuel cars due to high oil prices. This has contributed to the people and the government preferring them more compared to the oil-fueled cars. Their increase has reduced the air pollution thus conserving the environment. The human and animal lives have been protected from the adverse effects of fossil fuels that were previously emitted by motor vehicles. For the case of traffic in Los Angeles, the electric car provides the best solution to the traffic problem and its consequences for the environment. The electric cars will help reduce the emissions into the air that has polluted it in Los Angeles (Jerrett et al., 2005). Despite technological advancement impacting the environment positively, it has impacted the environment negatively. Technology has developed processes that have been used in depleting the natural resources in the environment. Technology advancement has spearheaded the development of machines that have been used in destroying forests and extracting minerals. The machines have destroyed the environment posing threats to human and animal health. For the case of the Los Angeles city, the authority should be careful when choosing the appropriate technology to use in dealing with trafficking as an environmental problem. Assessing the Influence of Environmental Policies Environmental policies are set of laws and regulations that are set by authorities in the bid to sustain and protect the environment. The policies may have positive or negative impacts on either the community or the people. They are usually directed to a certain group of people with different agendas. The environmental policies influence the individuals and the society both positively or negatively. For instance, the environmental policies force people to comply with the law and modify their behaviors to suit the authority`s expectations. People tend to accept the policies and change their environmental behaviors so as to avoid any conflict with the authorities. This impacts people positively since they become more concerned about the environment thus displaying their respect to human dignity. On the other hand, the environmental policies affect the individuals negatively because they feel their rights are violated by being forced to follow the new environmental policies. For instance, the occupants of Los Angeles may find it difficult to buy the electric cars so as to reduce the effects of traffic in the environment. Also, it will be difficult for them to adapt to high parking fee imposed on them as a way to decongest the city. Furthermore, environmental policies affect the society at large both positively and negatively. The policies contribute to the creation of a clean environment free from pollutants thus making it better for human inhabitation (Canton, 2009). Conclusion Apparently, the environment needs more attention since it provides the home and habitat to the human and animal fraternity. Proper strategies are required to be put, in place to promote positive environmental behavior that will be aimed at conserving the environment. Positive behavior entails instilling the individual responsibilities in people`s mind to make them committed to protecting the environment. Moreover, pro-environmental behaviors are encouraged so as to conserve the environment. The positive and negative consequences of environment pollutant increase the pro-environmental behaviors. Moreover, the technological advancements such as electric cars innovations have brought so much impact in the society. They have contributed to the environmental conservation. The authorities have formed environmental policies that are used to govern the society in its relation to the environment in order to curb the effects of environmental depletion. The environmental conservation requires the contribution of the whole society. References Brauer, M., Hoek, G., Van Vliet, P., Meliefste, K., Fischer, P. H., Wijga, A., ... & Brunekreef, B. (2002). Air pollution from traffic and the development of respiratory infections and asthmatic and allergic symptoms in children. American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine, 166(8), 1092-1098. Brunekreef, B., & Holgate, S. T. (2002). Air pollution and health. The Lancet, 360(9341), 1233-42. Canton, J. (2009). Environmentalists behaviour and environmental policies. Jerrett, M., Burnett, R. T., Ma, R., Pope III, C. A., Krewski, D., Newbold, K. B., ... & Thun, M. J. (2005). Spatial analysis of air pollution and mortality in Los Angeles. Epidemiology, 16(6), 727-736. Shaping Pro-Environment Behaviors: Certain Messages Work, Dont Work. (2005). Retrieved 23 June 2015, from http://www.apa.org/research/action/shaping.aspx Read More