An indifferent truth

What, to your mind, is the most pressing challenge facing the global environment? Why?

I think that the most pressing challenge facing the global environment is indifference. Our disconnect from nature leads us to feel that the environment is something outside of us, that it doesn’t matter if rivers are clean, air quality is acceptable or the temperature stays the same, because we will continue to survive. Humans created bubbles to live in with houses, cars, and air conditioning. Our bubbles lead us to think that we live in houses, cars, and buildings, rather than on a planet with limited resources, as interconnected parts of everything around us. All of the environmental problems we face can be linked back to the fact that we just don’t seem to care that we are capable (and seemingly willing) to destroy our home.

If people learned to recognize that the environment is not just about trees and polar bears, but our own survival and habitat, we would certainly stop doing whatever came easiest to get ahead. We would consider the environmental costs to our actions before the profit or convenience that could be gained. After all, no one would let someone burn their furniture because they promised to pay them for it, because that furniture is seen as essential to normal life. Our atmosphere is just as important to normal life, but getting someone to recognize that fact can be more difficult.

There are lots of threats on the global environment, but the one thing that has to happen before any of them can be solved, and hence the most pressing challenge, is indifference. Even if we stop climate change, clean up the rivers, and control air pollution, if we as a species remain indifferent to our environment, a new challenge will rise to threaten our home because people will continue to act without considering the costs.

It is easy to argue that emitting less carbon dioxide to save a polar bear puts the interests of the polar bear above those who may lose their jobs and the inconvenience of changing our lifestyle. However, it is harder to argue that making sure we can always live here is less important than a convenient, relatively cheap lifestyle. I really believe that the environmental problems we face would be solved if we could show people just how important they really are. We need to end the indifference while we are still lucky enough to live here.