responsibility to protect the environment

Humans have been damaging the environment ever since we realised our powers to harness nature. Global warming and air pollution are now frequent headlines on TV and in the newspapers all over the world, which keep reminding us of our obligation to protect the environment. However, few actions are actually being taken at the individual level, and I think there are two major reasons why people are being so indifferent.

The first reason is that many people consider the environmental problems as a future concern. Environmental reports often warn us of the dire consequences of climate change or energy crisis 100 or 200 years later. As a result, many people feel that money and time are better spent on solving more immediate problems such as housing shortage and traffic congestion than on preventing a disaster that is only predicted to happen in the future. Also, people feel that the environmental problems are too complex for individual people to cope with. Indeed, a combination of factors causes environmental problems, many of which are impossible to be controlled through individual actions.

The above attitudes are understandable but are obviously mistaken, so the government needs to take proactive measures to make people more environmentally responsible. They can make more public service advertisements to encourage people to consume more green products instead of disposable goods that are harmful to the environment. They can also offer more incentives to people who have been active in cleaning up the neighbourhood or severely punish those who have been unfriendly to the environment.

There is always a dilemma between environment and development, but as an individual, we can do something to reduce the negative impact of human activities on the environment. Certainly, we do not want to see the Earth turn into an uninhabitable planet.