and it reminded me of ENVR249. With our experiments that we are doing to change people's attitudes and behaviors I thought this was a semi accurate description of what we are up against, and even some of our personal attitudes. To promote environmental stewardship you have to educate people enough to make them care enough to change something about how they think and act. So they can start making choices and living in a way that isn't quite so damaging to the environment. But it isn't so easy, it's actually really hard to make actions that aren't the most convenient for our human needs. It's hard to change our habits and turn the water off while washing our hands or always use re useable water bottles. A majority of the United States does have the want more, need more and can get more easily attitude and with the well-known phrase behind the environmental movement being reduce, re-use, recycle, almost every facet of living in the United States (media, economy, peers, etc.) tells us to do the opposite. Whether it's skepticism to laziness there have always been lots of factors that keep people from joining this 'save the earth' movement.
I've seen this same concept except it dealt with endangered species. It was an article discussing how species can become endangered or extinct everyday, yet the big news is about a twinkie. It will always be a challenge to get everyone to see what really matters in the world, but hopefully more people will choose to help with the environmental movement.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very true cartoon unfortunately. I just read an article about how people only care about what is most directly related to them, which really is common sense. I think that's why a lot more education needs to be going on about environmental issues. in regards to the second to last sentence, so many people hear about the recycle part, but there is also the reuse and more importantly the reduce part of it. And those I think are the two methods that people need to be more educated about.
ReplyDeleteI agree that education is an important factor that could hopefully get people to change. This cartoon is such an accurate depiction of what goes on in society and it's unfortunate. If we could get more people involved and as passionate about environmental issues then we could potentially make a huge difference.
ReplyDeleteThis is an unfortunate reality, especially in the United States. I totally agree that in order to change this reality to one of working towards helping our earth, education is paramount. Hopefully, people will realize that it is in our best interest to work towards environmental stewardship.
ReplyDeleteI am reading the book, The Failure of Environmental Education, and I think it directly relates to this blog post. Many people are completely unaware of the environmental harm happening everyday simply because they haven't been taught and don't have the resources to figure it out for themselves. By starting young, we can encourage individuals in America to be more environmentally concerned and really put things into perspective, i.e. a twinkie vs. environmental degradation.
ReplyDeleteEducation is extremely important if we want to start seeing changes in the priorities of people, especially in the United States. Many people do not understand the urgency and undeniable fact the our environment is in trouble because they haven't been shown or taught about what is happening. If steps aren't taken to begin environmental education, our world could be in serious trouble.
ReplyDeleteBut it can be done! For example, when I was young, no one turned off the water when brushing their teeth. Your classmates research shows that now virtually everyone turns off the water when brushing, even if they take 30 minute showers and don't see the disconnect. You may not change everyone all at once but you can make big changes!
ReplyDeleteSometimes it gets hard to tell yourself that human beings can break the tendency and evolutionary programmed, self interest. But we have to have hope that we can change ourselves before its too late.
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