Sustainability, huh? That was my first reaction to the topic. What came to mind though, was that sustainability had something to do with things having longevity and perhaps seen as lasting forever. Another thought, was whether this longevity either involved being sustainable in good circumstances or not. And that’s were the assignment introduced Ecological Footprint and the Earth that we live on. It introduced whether the Earth will last long enough for human beings to exist for as long as possible. Though the problem does not involve the planet itself, it raised the question about whether human beings have been good enough to their home, Earth. Whether I, as an individual have been good enough to my planet. As humans, we live in a beautiful planet populated with more than 7 billion people and millions of other animals and biodiversity. Our Earth provides us with food, shelter and with the most of our requirements and despite these unavoidable free services provided by Earth to humans, we are not being able to pay off her kindness to us. Rather we humans are being cruel to our Earth by our selfish activities. Instead people are suffering from their own mistakes. Our negative impact on this planet and the pollution that has been created has endangered our existence and possibly will eventually destroy our living environment. It is where we possibly ask whether the future will be either green or not at all.
As I studied the ecological footprint I went out to calculate my own ecological footprint where I discovered that it was shocking as I had anticipated. My living habits produced a horrible high of 7.2 hectares of the Earth’s productive area. This meant that my productive area required to provide everything I had to consume was nothing but unsustainable and negatively impacting the environment. It also meant that if everyone were to live like I did we would need 4.2 Earths. As if one planet was not good enough for all human beings.
As shocked as I was, I thought that my efforts of attempting to be an eco-friendly civilian were doing enough justice to this world as I introduced some cut backs in my life such as purchasing less inorganic foods, not eating much meat, eating home-grown fruits and vegetables, walking much often rather than using vehicles, using less water for anything including washing my parent’s cars with a bucket of water and not using a hose to water the garden and the lawn. Lastly, I also opted to use public transport to save on money and fuel consumption as an effort to be eco-friendly and in this context a sustainable individual towards the planet. With such said I hope my lifestyle habits could improve and aim to reach the proper norm of about 1.7 hectares so that I live sustainably and not use more than my share. Though as my ecological footprint was not as pleasing as anticipated, I still believe that the acknowledgement of this ecological footprint will raise some ‘eyebrows’ about whether people’s perspective of environmental protection is indeed in check and whether we as human beings are living sustainably enough to change the world for the good. The questionnaire has helped to question some of our lifestyle habits and challenged our means of thinking and what it means to be environmentally friendly. Not saying that there might be an immediate impact by the questionnaire, though it will serve to implement a thought process or an awareness that will eventually alter people’s morality towards the planet and their use of the resources, and as such lead to humans being more thoughtful and attentive with Earth’s resources and hopefully reduce human’s vast consumption of these limited resources.
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Mentioned in the learning units was some solutions of improving the ecological footprint. One of which was genocide. This involved eradicating many people for the survival of this planet and it being sustainable. Though as the world is in a global overshoot, where resources are wasted more often, it still does not take away our moral compass of values and beliefs of trying to kill innocent people in order to survive. Maybe another option might be opted for rather than the killings. This is where we need to examine our values and virtues as human beings. As a person who easily feels guilty I feel that the unconscious and greedy acts of people living in this world has been nothing but detrimental to our environment. This is where I claim that as an individual pursuing to be as eco-friendly as possible my values and beliefs still stay intact as doing anything to harm this world is actually bad. As we try to move forward and find solutions, an ecologically sustainable society will need an effective revolution in the values and beliefs, assumptions and behaviours that will govern our relationships with each other and with nature.
In a Fair’s Fair Distributive justice, the other option likened other than the genocide option will be effective. If the world were to be sustainable then the reduction and some of stoppage on conception would be ideal as this would answer the question of who would be harmed and whether we would be judged as wrong. As we try to build a sustainable environment then humans need to be concerned with their ecological footprint and try to be around the norm of 1.7 hectares so that every human being gets the fair allocation of resources and area among all members in the environment. This would mean that the shortage or sudden stoppage in the conceiving of babies will make this solution as effective as possible. It might also be utilitarian to think that morality requires acting for the impersonal aggregate good, but the world could be better where people decide to suddenly stop conceiving so that their Earth does not overpopulated and instead choose the sustainability of the Earth.
Human values might differ from person to person as not everyone has the same uniqueness, importance and ethical obligation in each element in their lives . Thus, according to the environmental ethics the human’s look on environment should be aimed at preserving it and looking after it, both for ourselves, our future children and the future of the sustainability of this world. Though some instances might raise some questions on the environmental ethics as environmental decisions to satisfy both anthropocentrism and ecocentrism may be difficult. Humans still need to make decisions that would benefit themselves but as a result would also need to weigh up consequences of their decisions and end up giving priority to nature.
Thus, for the sustainability of our planet, I pledge to fulfil my responsibilities towards Mother Nature as a global citizen so as to protect my living planet from deterioration and to handover clean and green planet to our future generations. Maybe our single efforts may seem small but if millions of people can unite together towards nature conservation then one day our efforts will be a drastic step to protect our Earth from destruction.
References:
- (2016). Sustainability: My Ecological Footprint. [Online]. Available at: https://studymoose.com/sustainability-my-ecological-footprint-essay[Accessed: 12 Apr. 2019]
