Improving the Environment

Toward A igherHhHigher Quality Environment*

    A preliminary step in solving a problem is understanding its causes. The signs seem obvious. The average temperatures of the air, the oceans, and the surface of the oceans are rising at an accelerated rate. The oceans have been getting more acidic due to increased absorption of carbon dioxide, according to EPA’s “Climate Change Indicators in the United States.”¹ Man-made chemical pesticides are killing large numbers of bees, butterflies, other insects, and small aquatic life forms on which fish feed.² These are some of many examples of how the quality of the Earth’s environment is deteriorating due to human activity.

     Without a quality environment there can be no environmental justice. But what is more important: social justice or environmental justice? Social justice involves protecting and promoting the quality of all human lives. The quality of human life depends to some degree on our ability to access the common good.  A quality environment is one aspect of the common good. So environmental justice is es

      A quality environment is essential to our opportunities to pursue happiness and to be healthy. This Earth celebration of 2017 is an appropriate time to pose the question, “Why aren’t the citizens of Earth, and of the United States in particular, not more committed to preserving as much environmental quality as possible?” The short answer is that people in general would prefer environmental quality but that other factors Including ignorance, denial, religious beliefs, materialism, and the desire to make life easier get in the way. For a more complete explanation, continue reading.

1. Ignorance

Ignorance, or lack of awareness, plays a role in the human behavior that negatively affects our environment and our health. There are many ways in which people harm the environment without being aware that they are doing so. A few examples are (a) Releasing helium balloons into the outside air space. Some of these balloons, once they return to earth and become litter, kill animals that mistake them for food.³ (b) Some of us threaten the survival of endangered species without realizing it by purchasing products made from those species. (c) Lots of people purchase products made from crops or animals, such as palm trees, soybeans and cattle, grown on land that once supported a rainforest habitat.⁴

2. Denial

Humans are adding a virtual witch’s brew of humanly invented synthetic chemicals to the air, water, and land; genetically modifying plants and animals; and releasing into the air and water vast quantities of elements including mercury, arsenic, sulfur, and carbon that have been locked up in the earth for longer than we humans have been walking on the planet. There are apparently intelligent humans who understand the law of cause and effect who choose to deny the possibility that adding the chemicals and elements mentioned above to the ecosphere could negatively affect environmental quality or public health. 

3. Religious Beliefs

The so-called primitive or hedonistic cultures that regarded different aspects of nature like the sun or a volcano as sacred were not hell-bent on taming and subjugating nature. What was the difference between those cultures and the culture responsible for the Industrial Revolution and its accompanying worldwide environmental consequences?

One difference between primitive cultures that lived more in harmony with their environment and the culture that made global warming a reality was that the latter had Genesis 1:26, or their interpretation thereof, to justify their treatment or mistreatment of the earth. In that Bible verse, that is part of the first story of the Creation in the book of Genesis, God says to let man have dominion (power) “over all the earth.” There is no mention of the fall from grace in the first Creation story. It would seem that God made that statement about dominion before Eve was seduced by the serpent into eating the forbidden fruit.

     In the second Creation story, after man’s fall from grace, God tells Adam “cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee” (Genesis 3:17–18). I believe that whatever power over the earth that God seemed to give man in Genesis 1:26 was taken away from humans as punishment for Adam’s disobedience (“original sin” in Catholic parlance). This Biblical interpretation does not appeal to the people who believe that earth belongs to humans and that it is ours to do with as we please.

4. Materialism

Materialism is a value system in which material things are of the utmost importance as is the means for attaining material possessions and power—that is, money. Materialism is a value system that justifies greed, selfishness, and doing whatever is necessary to make more money/attain more power. Trashing earth to make a profit is acceptable behavior from a materialistic perspective.

     Some corporate environmental polluters deliberately violate environmental regulations to increase profits, particularly when the potential gain is greater than the fine that would be levied if they are caught. More unnecessary poisoning of the environment results in a greater incidence of human disease. Corporate environmental bullies rationalize that more environmental regulations will cost more, thus preventing them from expanding their businesses and hiring more people. More workers may produce more unnecessary pollution. More pollution will result in more human sickness and higher health care costs.

     For people who believe in materialism, profit is more important than both environmental quality and human health. Unfortunately, the value system of Materialism seems to be exercising as much influence in Washington at the present time as it did during the robber baron period.

5. A Desire to Make Life Easier

There seems to be a human drive, at least in Western culture, to make daily life easier. Some people seem to have a need to make surviving easier, to make earning money easier, and even to make pleasure seeking easier. Modern life is easier thanks to the internal combustion engine, the electric grid, paved roads, and cell phones.

     But what, in terms of human suffering and death, is the cost of preserving the maximized ease of living for those who can afford it? Conflict minerals must continue to be mined with slave labor to make cell phones and other electronic devices.⁵ Forests, crops, and public monuments must continue to suffer damage from the effects of acid precipitation.⁶ Thousands more with black lung disease, asthma, and other respiratory diseases must continue to suffer and die prematurely.⁷ Future generations must be deprived of the species diversity that would otherwise exist. More people’s private property must be damaged by earthquakes induced by fracking.⁸ These negative consequences and more are the cost of making human life easier.

     How can YOU help the earth? Short answer: (1) Educate yourself and others (2) Challenge the deniers (3) Confront religious earth abusers (4) Hold the Materialists accountable⁹ (5) Make eco-friendly, socially-conscious expenditures⁹ (6) Choose a renewable energy supplier.¹⁰

1 US EPA, “Climate Change Indicators in the United States,” November 10, 2015, http://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/science/indicators/oceans/index.html.

2 Louis A. Helfrich, et al., “Pesticides and Aquatic Animals: A Guide to Reducing Impacts on Aquatic Systems,” Virginia Cooperative Extension, May 1, 2009, accessed May 15, 2016, https://pubs.ext.vt.edu/420/420-013/420-013.html.

3 Balloons Blow … Don’t Let Them Go, “Impacts on Wildlife & the Environment,” accessed May 15, 2016, http://balloonsblow.org/impacts-on-wildlife-and-environment/.

4 Ashley Schaeffer, “Species Gravely Endangered by Global Trade of Commodities like Palm Oil,” 2012, accessed May 15, 2016, http://www.care2.com/causes/species-gravely-endangered-by-global-trade-of-commodities-like-palm-oil.html.

5 Tom Clynes, “Is there Such a Thing as Conflict-free-minerals?” Take Part, September 4, 2015, accessed January 5, 2016, http://www.takepart.com/feature/2015/09/04/conflict-free-minerals?cmpid=tpdaily-eml-2015-09-04.

6  Amanda Briney, “Acid Rain—The Causes, History, and Effects of Acid Rain,” About.com, accessed January 5, 2016, http://geography.about.com/od/globalproblemsandissues/a/acidrain.htm.

7  “How Air Pollution Contributes to Lung Disease,” Physicians for Social Responsibility, accessed January 5, 2016, http://www.psr.org/assets/pdfs/air-pollution-effects-respiratory.pdf.

8 Molly Redden, “A Scary New Study Erases Doubts That Fracking Causes Earthquakes,” New Republic, September 6, 2013, accessed January 5, 2016, https://newrepublic.com/article/114620/fracking-and-earthquakes-new-study-provides-scary-evidence.

⁹ R. Geiger, “Standing for Justice,” March 18, 2017, www.humanllivesmattertome1.blogspot.com.

¹⁰ “Deregulation by States,” Quantum Gas & Power Services, accessed January 4, 2016, http://www.quantumgas.com/energy_deregulation_map_of_united_states.html.

*Based on an excerpt from Chapter 15 of Inalienable Rights versus Abuse by R. Q. Public.