Analyzing Enironmental Problems

Since the media distorts the facts about the environmental crisis, there are few people who understand the gravity of the situation that the planet is in. Even though Jane Goodall says “[Humans] need to be wise stewards”, there are very few people who actually do this. Society today is only concerned with what will give the most benefit, which is often the thing that is most detrimental to nature. An example of this would be how big companies are polluting of the oceans trying to drill for oil. Throughout this course, we looked at different ways to understand and analyze the ecological crisis, which helps us to be smarter in our everyday lives. Three ways that I will be talking about are views about nature, complexity of ecological issues, and types of analysis of ecological problems.

The definition of nature is often a much debated topic. Since ‘nature’ is such a subjective word, many people often have different understandings of it. If a person is described as ‘natural’ it could mean that a person is gifted in a certain subject, he/she does not like technology, or even that he/she is a hippy. But a definition of ‘nature’ is important if we are going to understand the ecological crisis. This is because the understanding of something often effects how that person act towards it. So, if a person holds a very anthropocentric view of the environment (that the environment can be used for his/her benefit), then this person will not care about reversing the ecological crisis. In order to help the ecosystems at risk in this time of uncaring, society needs to change the definition of nature. The definition of nature needs to be changed from ‘an unlimited resource’ to ‘a place where animals and plants grow and thrive’. For example, the t...

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... are being affected by it. It promotes the idea that all organisms are important and that there is no dominant species.

Looking through all of these views shows what a mess humans have made of the planet. If humans continue down this path of anthropocentrism and indifference, there is a very bleak future in store for the natural world. With this outlook, having hope seems comical. But one thing that gives me hope is all of the people who have hope. These kinds of people are not discouraged like the majority, but are proactively working to stop the ecological crisis. These types of people form non-profit organizations that create events to help promote the idea of a more ecofriendly planet where people living in conjunction with nature. These kinds of people inspire me to work for ecological reform because they provide an example that living this way is possible.