It may seem like environmental issues and people’s role within them cannot be affiliated with everything, but it truly can be. Everything from consumerism, agriculture production, educational systems, medical services and the list goes on GOES back to People and Resources. We are use to a specific mindset and we have grown to enjoy where we stand. Yet, we continuously complain about how scary it would be if the world were coming to an end. However, if we continue this mindset, this fear will become bitter reality. Consider how nitrogen synthetic fertilizer created an increased production causing people to gain a higher level of selfishness. Companies started producing cheaper products aiming at the less fortunate. It leads to less healthy products and causing people to get sick quicker. In turn, this increases health care needs, which are always being battled because of money. Or consider how the idea of morality and selfness revolves in many state universities. We are provided with a rubric and must follow every step of the way in order to reach the top. However, what happens at the top besides a feeling of being lost and not knowing what to do from there on. Clearly, this may be caused by the limit of choices, which again is seen in a wide spectrum. Our government leads us to believe a certain way, consume a specific way and overall live a certain way. But as a complex society, we are more that just that. Since the beginning of time, we have created so many different things from nothing- and I believe if we work together – we can then make something out of nothing.
A Man Who Planted Trees- a young individual who takes a journey through the land tells this short story. We begin to see that after a long distance, he loses sight of any springs and any sign of people. But, he ends up finding a Shepard, which guides him towards his life style. The Shepard holds a lifestyle where he is dedicated to his environment. After revisiting the land, he sees the dramatic difference of the land and is greatly influenced by this change. He begins to plant trees in order to change his environment. Although planting trees may seem like a pointless and complicated task, he lets us understand that it is much more than just planting a tree. Over time, people start moving to this developed region. However, it is difficult for anyone to understand who was responsible for the change.
As publications are released yearly, we begin to see more people seeking for a change. However, every change that we encounter brings another responsibility. For instance, if we think back to the beginning where agriculture practices changed, we grew a need for even more change. Slash and burn seemed one of the best ways to maintain agriculture until we found out that we were depleting our lands and forcing many to migrate. And yet, people wanted to make a change and initiated the beginning of nitrogen fertilizer. But even though this brought us more efficient production, it still leads to more depletion, whether it is in the atmosphere or found in water- depleting our ecosystems. It almost seems like every time we develop a new method, there is something wrong with it and people want to seek for change. All of these new methods bring us to our situation today where we battle this fear of climate change. From the beginning of time we have developed life from basic resources. As a complex society, we have been able to create a complex ecosystem, which has allowed us to have great biodiversity. However, what happens when we get complicated and only think of short term? We start to lose our interest because we may begin to lose hope for the future. I believe this is why writers such as Muller release publications on solutions and what their benefits truly are. I believe this is why Szasz holds such a strong believes of inverted quarantine where he gives us a bitter taste of our own medicine.
The question really is whether we need someone to throw the truth facts at us repeatedly with numbers and charts or whether we all need to develop our own belief. We cannot force people to believe in anything because morality is not inherited. Perhaps this is why Jevons Paradox really makes sense. We keep looking for more complicated ways to get ourselves out of the mess that we have brought ourselves into and yet we are still unhappy. We forget to remind ourselves that everything came from basic resources and have never been as complex as they are today. We must recognize that we have brought this mess on ourselves. If producers were not always so concerned about their initial product and really sat down to think about how their product will affect the world, we could then seek for betterment. Instead we get bombarded with useless products, high fructose corn syrup which is eventually going to increase obesity rates beyond belief. With this, the idea of 2012 end of the world myth seems like a good comparison. But we do we not stop to believe what we are told? We continue to hold our personal beliefs and fail to recognize that the ones that are actually seeking for betterment may be telling the truth and the ones who are not concerned are most likely fibbing. So perhaps when Mate reminds whom that our “Sunday” lifestyle is gone and that life has lost a sense of happiness. He is right. We have all lost our sense of nurture and even worse our sense of nature.
As these writers spend years researching their area of inertest and point much time and effort into making a change, I hope to do the same. I hope my words will allow people to recognize that it takes belief among your peers to make a change happen. Climate change will never stop itself, nor will our dinner ever cook itself and lastly no one will ever learn for us.
When you start to grow a better understanding of how people truly relate to resources and its effects, you begin to correlate everything that surrounds you back to what is really going on. It is difficult to really understand without facts and numbers- but if you have that information in hand, you can then start to understand change in a personal perspective. Take for example, Professor Kleppel, which presented PowerPoint’s about his idea of going local and being the Shepard. You have to experience the motivation and dedication one has for his/her belief. You see the passion behind people and the change that they hope to seek. So, regardless whether it is difficult to read between the lines of thousands of publications which all lead to us to different beliefs- you must find the belief yourself.
I respect the shepard for his dedication and the ones who seek for a similar change. I believe that the motivation of our peers will allow us to seek change within our PEOPLE AND RESOURCES.
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