We have to preserve our environment, because it keeps us alive. A healthy environment guarantees a healthy ecosystem, that keeps our water and air clean, preserves our soil, regulates our climate, and provides us with food (Wilson, Chivian, & Bernstein, 2010). We are not only harming us, humans, but also have a responsibility towards the different animal species, that are cohabitating our planet.
We humans have a serious resource dilemma. What is such a dilemma? It occurs each time we want to make our life easier and more comfortable and use our limited natural resources. Examples are if you want to drive a short distance instead of walking or taking the bike or public transportation. The problem is, that we humans use these resources faster, than they can regenerate (Gruman, Schneider & Coutts, 2017, p. 301). With the depletion of our resources, we are digging our own graves.
Prof. Paul Ehrlich from the Stanford University sees the main threat in the overpopulation and overconsumption of humanity (Carrington, 2018). With more people on our world, more fossil fuels are used, more energy is needed, like electricity, coal or nuclear energy, more land is needed to build housing or feed and keep livestock and to grow our agriculture. More products are produced which do not decompose and harm our planet, like plastics. All these consequences of our growth on earth pollute our oceans, air and soil.
I would also like to point out a new threat to our environment, habitat destruction. As I mentioned above, humans destroy a lot of habitats for their own needs, without thinking about the consequences to other species. The rainforest covers about 3% of our earth, with housing more species of plants and animals than any other ecosystem on our earth. Species are being extinct at a much faster rate than all the years before since the beginning of earth. The world so far went through five mass extinctions, the most ‘famous’ is the dying of the dinosaurs, which is theorized to be caused by an asteroid hitting the world (Carrington, 2018). The difference from all extinctions before and the sixth upcoming is that it is caused by humans.The rainforest also helps us fight global warming with its photosynthesis and carbon storage. Beside this, it is essential for our water storage with buffering against flood and drought cycles, and safeguarding water supplies (Butler, 2018). ” By one estimate, published in 2015 in the scientific journal Nature, rainforests could meet half the 2050 target for reducing carbon emissions” (Butler, 2018). Nevertheless, eight million hectares of the rainforest are destroyed every year, that is about five billion trees (Butler, 2018). Preserving the rainforest seems therefore of upmost importance.
The rainforest is the lung of our earth, but it has to work very hard to be able to breath. There are many toxic air pollutants in our air, which people are exposed to. These toxins are produced by different sources: One being the mobile source that includes our transportation devices like planes and cars and so on. The second source is the stationary source, like power plants, industrial facilities, refineries and factories. The third air pollution source is the area source like agricultural fields, cities and wood burning activity. And the last source are natural sources like wild fires, volcanos and dust (nps.gov). Of all these sources, three are man-made and the profound reason for our air pollution. If those toxins emerge in higher concentration, they have serious health effects on humans, like causing cancer, damaging our immune system, as well as neurological, reproductive, developmental and respiratory problems. Beside being harmful to humans, those toxins can also harm plants, animals and can deposit into our soils and waters and end up in our food chain (EPA.gov).
Our time is ticking and we are harming us and other species on this earth with our own actions. With our population growing at a massive speed, we have to think about solutions to produce food and other goods in a more environmentally friendly way, and preserve valuable habitats like the rainforest. The rainforest is essential for us and other species to survive so a sixth mass extinction will not take place. We also have to restrict industries from producing too many toxins in our air to prevent us from serious health problems. Applied social psychology can help us find solutions with designing interventions, that motivate us to change the behaviors of corporations and ourselves. We have a lot to do, let’s get started.
Butler, R. (2018). 10 Rainforest facts for 2018. Mongabay. Retrieved on February 5, 2020 from https://rainforests.mongabay.com/facts/rainforest-facts.html
Carrington, D. (2018). Earth’s sixth mass extinction event under way, scientists warn. The Guardian. Retrieved on February 5, 2020 from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/10/earths-sixth-mass-extinction-event-already-underway-scientists-warn
Gruman, J.A., Schneider, F.W., & Coutts, L.M. (2017). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
What are Hazardous Air Pollutants? (2017). United States Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved on February 5, 2020 from https://www.epa.gov/haps/what-are-hazardous-air-pollutants
Where Does Air Pollution Come From? (2018). National Park Service. Retrieved on February 5 2020 from https://www.nps.gov/subjects/air/sources.htm
Wilson, E. O., Chivian, E. & Bernstein, A. (2010). How Our Health Depends on Biodiversity. European Commission. Retrieved February 5, 2020 from http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/biodiversity/ intro/index_en.htm