Patricia Reider
English 11000 — L-39127
Expository Essay
March 26, 2019
Sustainability and Sustaining Mankind
As far back as the 18thcentury, people were interested in the environment and sustaining the environment. For example Hans Carl von Carlowitz realized that “you shouldn’t cut down more trees then will grow again to replace them” (Schmithusen 2). He had recognized the basic principals of sustainability. Since then there have been many movements, and now there are a far larger and more numerous movements toward securing sustainable life for all. These movements are working to ensure that the earth and its inhabitants maintain health and prosperity for the present and far into the future but it seems that greed, in particular corporate greed, has diverted these noble intentions to turn a quick profit. The cost of abusing our environment is the threat of the quality of life for human and the loss and perhaps the inability to regain a sustainable life environment. The time has come where sustainability is in question and each individual life is being affected. According to the well know rule of threes for maintaining life, a life will be in crises after three minutes without air, after three days without water, or after three weeks without food (Wiseman 8). It is crucial that all aspects necessary for survival are maintained at healthful levels and safeguarded so as to sustain life for future generations.
With the rule of threes, we prioritize our needs to sustain our survival and our quality of life. We must look at which is required in the timeliest manner. Since we can only be without air for three minutes, having a clean and plentiful supply should be our first priority. Unclean or polluted air is hazardous to human health and it is imperative that we understand what air pollution is. For the most part, pollution is the presence of substances which have been harmful or even poisonous effects. According to an article in Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences “the atmosphere consists of a mix of gases plus liquid and solid particles in proportions that vary in both time and place, but when the atmosphere is unable to rid itself of the material being added to it, the build-up of gases and aerosols cause it to become polluted and this is called air pollution” (Ashikin Bte Mabahwi1). This tells us that not all air is equally polluted, but no matter the amount, polluted air is not good air.
An LA Times article dated April 21, 1991 discusses the questions of a family on whether it is safe for their child to play outside in “the most polluted city in the world” (which at time was Mexico City.) The air pollution was so severe that the city had researched ways to curtail the pollution and hopefully fix the situation with suggestions such as… drilling tunnels through the mountains to permit clean air to enter the city… imposing a 1,000% tax on gasoline… barring the 3 million cars moving through the city each day or distributing hundreds of thousands of bicycles and making public transportation available for everyone”(Ashikin Bte Mabahwi 1). None of these things were implemented in whole, but some in part.
At the time that Al Gore was vice-president of the United States. He had made predictions of what we could face with climate change and an increase in air temperature through pollution. Most of his predictions have exceeded themselves. Our current president will not concede that global warming or air pollution is a problem and has removed sanctions against polluters. There are demonstrations and movements to curb the destruction of the planet’s air quality, but it will take a much higher level of human involvement and cooperation to reverse damage and create clean air alternatives to what is happening today.
Our second priority is water. We can only live three days without clean drinking water. There are many places in the world without potable water and many people who are suffering without it. At the same time there are so many ways that are destroying not just drinking water, but all the earth’s water. Just a few days ago, on March 18, 2019, a dead whale washed ashore in the Philippines. It had died of the complications of having swallowed 80 pounds of plastic bags. This is not the first incidence of a whale dying because it ingested plastic and trash there have been many others. Our oceans are being overwhelmed with trash and in particular plastic trash bags like those we bring our shopping home in and then put all our trash into other plastic bags. According to the publication USA Todaythere are huge deposits of (mostly) plastic garbage in our oceans; “The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of plastic and trash which is floating halfway between Hawaii and California. It has grown to more than 600,000 square miles… that’s twice the size of Texas” (Rice 2). The journal Water Researcharticle “Micro-plastics in Freshwater Systems: A View of Impending Threats” discusses the emergence of plastic micro-beads from cosmetic products finding their way into the flesh of salmon, trout and shellfish in urban areas. Our planet’s water systems have become the dumping ground for pretty much all types of waste. Polluting our waters are not only killing sea life, but also contaminating the foods we take from the sea. This vast amount of waste and its unethical disposal is harmful to all life on earth and the water on which our lives depend.
The third in the rule of threes in the sustaining human life is food. We can only go (healthily) without food for three weeks. The Food and Drug Administration only take action after something has been proven to be harmful and lobbyists for food additives and genetic alterations keep coming to make their changes to nature legal. Genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, are foods that have had their genetic make-up altered to produce a desired effect by whomever is going to profit from the alteration. For example, it is well known that McDonalds (who own their own corporate farms for their food supplies) have created GMO potatoes that are all similar in size, density and in water content, and will cook at the same rate at the same temperatures so that, once they are cooked, each fry will be exactly the same. None will be darker or lighter then the other. None will have a different texture then any other, and every single fry will taste and feel the same to the teeth and tongue.
There are other foods that are clones of a single genetic structure. Bananas are notorious for being the clones of one single banana. If you were to purchase several bananas years ago, they would ripen over the course of a few days and those that ripened first would be eaten first and then the later ripeners would be ready later in the week. Today, buying bananas has the consumer purchasing as many bananas as they please and usually all in the same stage of ripening, therefore, they will ripen at the same rate and be ready for consumption at the same time. It would be best not to buy more then could be eaten in a timely manner as there is a significant chance of over-ripening and waste. According to The Economist: “There are over 1,000 varieties of wild bananas in the world. But 95% of banana exports come from a single cultivated variety, the Cavendish. They are basically clones, that is, genetically identical plants. This means they do not have seeds and are nicer to eat.” (J.P. Economics.com). Of course the next sentence in that article, “It also means that if one plant is at risk, they all are”(J.P. Economics.com) shows that this article’s concern is mainly for the economic loss should a monoculture such as bananas is effected by some unknown organism wipes out one banana, all bananas could be lost. There is no mention of whether there is any effect on the consumer neither good nor bad.
There are huge, international, debates on the pros and cons of genetic modification of food. Fruits and vegetables, meats and dairy, chickens, eggs and the farming of fish are all foods that have modified representation. Problematic effects discovered after twenty years of consumption is too often the norm and usually too late for the consumer to enjoy good health if corporate modification goes wrong. The alternative are the more expensive non-GMO and preferably organically produced foods. This is where the individual can make the choice in what they consume. At the same time, what about those who can’t afford to make the healthier choices? If GMOs are bad, the poor are left to pay the price.
After taking stock of our survival triad it is a simple conclusion that we must act quickly if we have any hope of returning to healthy air, to clean water and to natural nutritious food. These are the three pillars of life. It is not an accident that sustaining our planet needs to follow the three pillars of sustainability humans require. Everything in the earth’s environment is tainted and toxic. If we can even hope to maintain, let alone reverse this damaged state of basic needs something needs to be done now to ensure that the earth can continue to sustain human life.
Works Cited
Ashikin Bte Mababwi, Nurul, et al. “Human Health and Wellbeing: Human Health Effect of Air Pollution.” Sciencedirect.com,Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 26 Oct. 2014, Volume 153, 16, Pages 221 – 229 www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042814/054986#!
Bhargava, Phushpa M. “GMOs: Need for Appropriate Risk Assessment System” Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 3, no 15, 2002., pages 1402 – 1405. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/4411984
Chinneck, Stephenie. “A Revealing Look at London Sewer’s Obesity Problem.” Health and History, vol 20, no 2, 2018, pages 122—127 JSTOR,www.jstor.org/sable/10.501/healthhist.20.2.0122
Meikle, Jeffrey L., “Material Doubts: The Consequences of Plastic,” Environmental History, vol.2, no. 3 1997, pages 28—300. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3985351
P., J. “We Have No Bananas Today.” Economist.com,The Economist, 27 Feb. 2014, www.economist.com/feast-and-famine/2014/02/27/we-have-no-bananas-today.
Rice, Doyle. “World’s Largest Collection of Ocean Garbage Is Twice the Size of Texas.” Usatoday.com,USA Today, 22 Mar. 2018. www.usatoday.com/story/tech/science/2018/03/22/great-pacific-garbage-patch-grows/446405002/.
Rodriguez, Cecilia. “The World’s Most Polluted City.” Los Angeles Times, 21 Apr. 1991, articles.latimes.com/1991-04-21/opinion/op-793_1_many-mexico-city
Schmithusen, Franz Josef. “Three Hundred Years of Applied Sustainability in Forestry.” Working Papers/Forest policy and Forest Economics Department of Forest Science. International series 2013.1 Washington DC, 2013 – Print.
“The World Air Quality Project.” Real-time Air Quality Index ©2008—2019. http://waqi.info
Viederman, Stephen. “Five Capitals and Three Pillars of Sustainability.” The Newsletter of PEGS. Vol. no. 1, 1994, page 12. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20710641
Wiseman, John. “SAS Survival Guide: How to Survive in the Wild, on Land or Sea.”Collins, 2010. New York – Print.
Reflection Piece
The genre of this assignment is that of an exploratory essay. My choice of subject is that of the sustenance that keeps us alive and the questionable state of our environment’s ability to continue to sustain us.
The exigence, or that which prompted my desire to write on this subject, came to me at one point this winter after my family purchased a space heater, an air filtration device and a humidifier. In the fall we acquired a robotic vacuum cleaner. All of these things were to try and clean up our personal environment. It wasn’t until I started to write about sustainability of life on the whole planet did it occur to me that what I was doing on a personal sized scale was what I was writing about on the scale of the whole world and everyone else in it.
The precise moment I decided what my essay topic would be about was when I was carrying out six bags of trash. I couldn’t carry it all at once, but I did feel that this seemed an excessive amount of waste for two people. When I got to the trash room down the hall (of our building) it was already full for the day. There are only seven apartments on my floor and this was early evening. Most of the trash goes down a chute, the rest of the room is for the recyclable materials. I felt that not only is this insane… but that I am just as guilty of this excessive waste as everyone else.
The information available for my research was far more then I had realized. The problem of what may be a complete environmental failure to sustain life on this planet is gigantic. I always knew this but was not in a state of awareness. In my research I came across so many more facets to this issue then I could ever imagine. JSTORand Google Scholarsupplied the usual reliable scholarly articles but there is information on sustainability in areas and in mediums that surprised me. JSTOR in particular has an icon of two green leaves and the word “sustainability” on it. One click will take you to so much information that would probably take one years to read.
I enjoyed the six-part documentary hosted by Zoey Deschemel on YouTube.com. It was a simple introduction and a great place to start thinking about the different facets of environments. The video footage of what things (such as crops) should look like and
what they look like as a result of abuse and neglect was eye-opening. Another surprising supply of international information was cnn.com. There are amazing accounts of environmental issues in text, in pictures and in video.
I have become my own audience. My neighbors should be my audience. Anyone who is contributing to this impending disaster should listen up!
Now I feel the need to take a good look at everything that comes into and out of my life. I do have a water bottle. I do try and reuse and recycle, but how much am I missing? I have read a fair amount about the fragile state of the sustainability of life in the here and now. And most of it is about what is happening here… in North America. I have found that the worst places for air, the top twenty are pretty much all in India. Do I stop patronizing companies that have things manufactured in that country? Will our government put sanctions on areas that are creating the deterioration of our sustainability?
On reflection, I realize that I was not thinking about what I was doing and that there were consequences in the general apathy that I am, hopefully was, part of. Where will I make changes?
I hope that anyone who might read this will take away the thought that there are things that we all are doing that contribute to this problem whether we are aware of it or not and there are things we can do right now to try and turn the tide.
My stance on this subject is that of personal responsibility and that we should all share this feeling and become responsible for our choices and responsible to future generations. By keeping the environment better then we found it and to teach those who come after us by example. There will be plenty of evidence as to why. Let’s hope we can all look back one day and see that as a dark spot in history that we have repaired and grown to respect.
I believe it can happen.
