To a significant extent, “reduce, reuse, recycle” is the solution to our environmental woes as it encompasses many methods of environmental conservation. This method is quite useful but it requires the unity of different levels of societies to enforce it before it can succeed.
There are other methods towards the preservation of our environment, but the “reduce, reuse, recycle” method has the higher possibility of being a success.
Reduce can refer to the reduction in the emissions of greenhouse gases and poisonous vapours which could lead to global warming and various respiratory diseases. The most basic level at which it can be kick-started is by the individual.
The individual would have to agree that environmental degradation, especially in developed cities, is a serious problem. Through this propogation, the various individuals can form the next level, which is the unification of religious groups, environmentalists, “green” advocates, ordinary citizens and media workers, among others, to rally to state authorities so as to initiate change.
The state then has to come up with some environmental policies, like heavier taxes and duties levied on firms with heavy industries, subsidies to cut down on the utilization of oil and burning cleaner alternatives like natural gas or fines for corporations which simply refuse to abide by the new laws set.
This would eventually cut down the pollution and global warming from firms, the chief source of the emissions. This could be effective but the society as a whole must be committed to implementing these measures so as to ensure a certain level of efficiency.
The governments would probably have to prioritise and place environmental policies at the top of their list, and the firms must also accept that by polluting the environment to gain profits, they would have to sacrifice and return some of them so as to restore the environment to its original pristine state.
An example would be the Western European states in the 1970s, where the society came together as a whole and forced their government to rethink, if not reverse, their environmental policies.
After having to cut through some bureaucratic red tape, a system where pollution quotas for firms was set was born. By means of their legislative powers, laws were put in place so as to reduce emissions. This would not have been possible without society and media workers applying pressure to their government so as to alter their mentalities.
Reusing can refer to the reusing of certain polluting goods like plastics and other organic materials. They cause pollution as they release poisonous gases like carbon monoxide and hydrogen chloride if incinerated, and at the same time would not decompose for a few centuries at least if buried underground in landfills.
Through education of the public and messages displayed in the mass media, some countries have sufficiently fostered a culture of their own consumers reusing their paper or plastic shopping bags, which reduces the need for production of these bags, which can potentially cause irreparable environmental damage through the liberation of poisonous gases.
From young, schoolchildren were taught that they had to reuse their plastic bags by their parents or teachers. As the state would have made it one of their top priorities to educate the children, these children were inculcated with positive environmental conservation values throughout their formative years.
With the parents’ help, they realised the vulnerabilities of the Earth’s environment and the consequences of simply ignoring them. With the right systems and values, they learnt how to love and protect the environment, which they are dependent on, and thus cut down on their utilization of plastic bags.
This is especially true in Western Europe, where consumers have to pay for the usage of plastic bags. This measure was effective in encouraging consumers to bring along their own more environmentally-friendly paper bags.
In addition, firms which produced plastic bags came up with innovative alternatives of producing plastic bags, like plastic bags which would self-decompose if exposed to too much direct light, thereby reducing environmental damage.
Governments also utilized the mass media to discourage the use of plastic bags through the various forms of the mass media like television, advertising billboards and newspapers. Once again, by chipping in together, Western European societies unified and decided to salvage the environment, leading to the reward of better air quality and fewer respiratory diseases.
Recycle refers mainly to paper products and water. This means that waste paper could be reused as environmentally-friendly companies chose to reproduce clean paper from the waste paper by bleaching them. This means that fewer trees were required to produce paper as the same piece of paper can be reused by consumers in their daily lives.
By cutting down fewer trees, the trees would absorb more carbon dioxide and produce more oxygen, leading to cleaner and fresher air, and also reduce carbon dioxide emissions as cutting down on trees would release the carbon dioxide they trap.
Water recycling refers to more stringent and careful, not profligate, use of water. For example, the consumers could reduce their showering time, brushing teeth time and cooking and so on. These measures to conserve water can ensure that lakes and rivers are at high levels, which generates more rain in the water cycle, allowing the process of water renewal to be continued.
One such country is Singapore, whose government urged and encouraged the citizens to save water by basically turning off their taps if there was no absolute or essential need to, like tooth brushing and taking showers instead of baths.
In a water-scarce country like Singapore, these measures helped to ensure that citizens were able to continue to obtain their supply of water straight from the taps through desalination and the process of reverse osmosis, rather than having to ration or end up with chronic shortages.
Another way to solve environmental woes is if countries cooperate with each other. The Key to Protocol, ratified in 1992 by some of the leaders of the world’s most heavily industrialized countries like Japan, Russia and Western Europe is one way.
In it, they set 1990 emission levels of carbon dioxide and other pollutants as a base, in a bid to combat global warming and air pollution as they attempted to reduce those emission levels by up to 15%, which would pave the way for the easing of the world’s growing global warming.
This has met with relative success, mainly due to a drastic reduction in Russia’s emissions due to the collapse of Soviet industries after the fall of communism in the early 1990s.
Another way is by imposing carbon credits for the industrialized countries. This was a system where each country was given a particular carbon level. If some countries (usually those developing ones) had a surplus, they would be able to sell all these credits to the countries facing a shortage of credits.
Overall, the effect would see countries being able to control the amount of emissions they produced, or at least encouraged to, while at the same time, other countries would be able to earn sizeable profits from it.
Thus, the method of “reduce, reuse, recycle” is one of the best solutions because it encompasses various levels of society to work together so as to protect the Earth for all its current and future inhabitants.
Other collaborations like international cooperations are also possible, but their effect across societies is more limited as societies may feel they are not involved enough.
There are other methods towards the preservation of our environment, but the “reduce, reuse, recycle” method has the higher possibility of being a success.
Reduce can refer to the reduction in the emissions of greenhouse gases and poisonous vapours which could lead to global warming and various respiratory diseases. The most basic level at which it can be kick-started is by the individual.
The individual would have to agree that environmental degradation, especially in developed cities, is a serious problem. Through this propogation, the various individuals can form the next level, which is the unification of religious groups, environmentalists, “green” advocates, ordinary citizens and media workers, among others, to rally to state authorities so as to initiate change.
The state then has to come up with some environmental policies, like heavier taxes and duties levied on firms with heavy industries, subsidies to cut down on the utilization of oil and burning cleaner alternatives like natural gas or fines for corporations which simply refuse to abide by the new laws set.
This would eventually cut down the pollution and global warming from firms, the chief source of the emissions. This could be effective but the society as a whole must be committed to implementing these measures so as to ensure a certain level of efficiency.
The governments would probably have to prioritise and place environmental policies at the top of their list, and the firms must also accept that by polluting the environment to gain profits, they would have to sacrifice and return some of them so as to restore the environment to its original pristine state.
An example would be the Western European states in the 1970s, where the society came together as a whole and forced their government to rethink, if not reverse, their environmental policies.
After having to cut through some bureaucratic red tape, a system where pollution quotas for firms was set was born. By means of their legislative powers, laws were put in place so as to reduce emissions. This would not have been possible without society and media workers applying pressure to their government so as to alter their mentalities.
Reusing can refer to the reusing of certain polluting goods like plastics and other organic materials. They cause pollution as they release poisonous gases like carbon monoxide and hydrogen chloride if incinerated, and at the same time would not decompose for a few centuries at least if buried underground in landfills.
Through education of the public and messages displayed in the mass media, some countries have sufficiently fostered a culture of their own consumers reusing their paper or plastic shopping bags, which reduces the need for production of these bags, which can potentially cause irreparable environmental damage through the liberation of poisonous gases.
From young, schoolchildren were taught that they had to reuse their plastic bags by their parents or teachers. As the state would have made it one of their top priorities to educate the children, these children were inculcated with positive environmental conservation values throughout their formative years.
With the parents’ help, they realised the vulnerabilities of the Earth’s environment and the consequences of simply ignoring them. With the right systems and values, they learnt how to love and protect the environment, which they are dependent on, and thus cut down on their utilization of plastic bags.
This is especially true in Western Europe, where consumers have to pay for the usage of plastic bags. This measure was effective in encouraging consumers to bring along their own more environmentally-friendly paper bags.
In addition, firms which produced plastic bags came up with innovative alternatives of producing plastic bags, like plastic bags which would self-decompose if exposed to too much direct light, thereby reducing environmental damage.
Governments also utilized the mass media to discourage the use of plastic bags through the various forms of the mass media like television, advertising billboards and newspapers. Once again, by chipping in together, Western European societies unified and decided to salvage the environment, leading to the reward of better air quality and fewer respiratory diseases.
Recycle refers mainly to paper products and water. This means that waste paper could be reused as environmentally-friendly companies chose to reproduce clean paper from the waste paper by bleaching them. This means that fewer trees were required to produce paper as the same piece of paper can be reused by consumers in their daily lives.
By cutting down fewer trees, the trees would absorb more carbon dioxide and produce more oxygen, leading to cleaner and fresher air, and also reduce carbon dioxide emissions as cutting down on trees would release the carbon dioxide they trap.
Water recycling refers to more stringent and careful, not profligate, use of water. For example, the consumers could reduce their showering time, brushing teeth time and cooking and so on. These measures to conserve water can ensure that lakes and rivers are at high levels, which generates more rain in the water cycle, allowing the process of water renewal to be continued.
One such country is Singapore, whose government urged and encouraged the citizens to save water by basically turning off their taps if there was no absolute or essential need to, like tooth brushing and taking showers instead of baths.
In a water-scarce country like Singapore, these measures helped to ensure that citizens were able to continue to obtain their supply of water straight from the taps through desalination and the process of reverse osmosis, rather than having to ration or end up with chronic shortages.
Another way to solve environmental woes is if countries cooperate with each other. The Key to Protocol, ratified in 1992 by some of the leaders of the world’s most heavily industrialized countries like Japan, Russia and Western Europe is one way.
In it, they set 1990 emission levels of carbon dioxide and other pollutants as a base, in a bid to combat global warming and air pollution as they attempted to reduce those emission levels by up to 15%, which would pave the way for the easing of the world’s growing global warming.
This has met with relative success, mainly due to a drastic reduction in Russia’s emissions due to the collapse of Soviet industries after the fall of communism in the early 1990s.
Another way is by imposing carbon credits for the industrialized countries. This was a system where each country was given a particular carbon level. If some countries (usually those developing ones) had a surplus, they would be able to sell all these credits to the countries facing a shortage of credits.
Overall, the effect would see countries being able to control the amount of emissions they produced, or at least encouraged to, while at the same time, other countries would be able to earn sizeable profits from it.
Thus, the method of “reduce, reuse, recycle” is one of the best solutions because it encompasses various levels of society to work together so as to protect the Earth for all its current and future inhabitants.
Other collaborations like international cooperations are also possible, but their effect across societies is more limited as societies may feel they are not involved enough.
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Your website has a useful information for beginners like me.
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